$5,000
Houdini, Harry (Edwin Dearn, compiler). An Important Scrapbook of Houdiniana, Including Signed Items. Approximately 55 leaves, some disbound, plus enclosed materials, in a quarto maroon buckram binder with Dearn’s handwritten spine and title labels laid down. Including a loose 1926 Typed Letter Signed, “Houdini,” to Dearn, on personal letterhead, regarding newspaper cuttings on mediums Houdini had sent, and a reference to the magician Nicoli’s “prostitution” of Houdini’s name in South Africa; a pictorial Houdini bi-fold handbill (1920s) for the lecture-demonstration “Can the Dead Speak to the Living?” annotated by Houdini beside his portrait, “my hair is not as long”; a 1923 clipping from the Houston Chronicle, “Harry Houdini Flays ‘Spirit’ Communication,” signed, “Regards/Houdini”; a 1925 Shubert Murat Houdini handbill; a 1925 TLS from Thurston Porta to Dearn regarding a Houdini handcuff escape he witnessed in 1906; a 1925 44th Street Theatre (New York) color program, 16 pages, featuring Houdini; a copy of The Houdini Messages (1929) by Fast, housed in a sleeve mounted on the front pastedown; with the remainder of the leaves filled with American, European, and Australian newspaper and magazine clippings, many illustrated, 1900s – 20s (bulk 1920s), on Houdini neatly laid in by Dearn, often labeled with the publication and author.
Auctioneer:
Potter & Potter
Date:
2016-04-09
