Houdini died on Halloween 1926 at the age of 52, just days after struggling through a final performance in Detroit. Houdini assisted with the American war effort during WWI. In 2010, Houdini and Defries were both honored with a series of stamps commemorating the centennial of powered flight in Australia. The Aerial League of Australia certified Houdini’s display as the country’s first powered and controlled flight, but some historians have since argued that the record actually belongs to Colin Defries, an Englishman who had made a brief flight a few months earlier. The magician crashed during his maiden flight in Germany, but he continued practicing and eventually set his sights on becoming the first man to pilot an airplane in Australia.ĭuring a tour Down Under in March 1910, Houdini hopped behind the controls of his Voisin and made three successful flights near Melbourne, each only a couple of minutes long. Houdini (center) with fans just before his flight in Australia, March 1910.Īfter developing a passion for aviation while in Europe in 1909, Houdini bought a French-made Voisin biplane and became one of the world’s first private pilots. His brother was also a successful magician. One stunt saw him jump into a Rochester, New York, river with his hands manacled behind his back in another, he broke out of the jail cell that had once held Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated President James A. The newly christened “King of Handcuffs” played to sold-out crowds across Europe, and he later cemented his fame by staging several high-profile escapes in the United States. He began challenging audiences to tie him up or lock him in handcuffs, and he promoted his shows by staging escapes from local jails, usually after being strip-searched and put in shackles by police. On Beck’s advice, Houdini made escapes a central part of his act.

He finally caught a break in 1899, when vaudeville impresario Martin Beck booked him on a tour of the United States and Europe. Houdini struggled during his early years in show business and considered calling it quits and opening a magic school.

This is the first Houdini movie poster the site has auctioned since.Getty Images / Universal History Archive / UIG In 2013 eMoviePosters auctioned a one-sheet from The Grim Game for a remarkable $67,166. The value of Master Mystery posters can vary depending on whether the artwork features escape imagery or The Automaton.

In 2016 an Episode 3 poster sold for $28,080. Now, the person who purchased it from us in 2001 has re-consigned it 17 years later, and it is still the only example of this poster we have ever auctioned, because it is the very same poster we auctioned twice before. In 1990, we were consigned this poster, and the person who bought it at that auction re-consigned it to us 11 years later in 2001, where it sold for $16,300. Posters from it were unknown until around 35 years ago, when the son of the man who produced the movie surfaced, and he had one one-sheet from each of the fifteen chapters! Those were quickly sold, and over the years, a very few of them have returned to auction (we have auctioned four different chapters). So it is certainly a very historic movie. This movie was Harry Houdini's very first movie, and it was his only serial, and it had 'The Automaton', the very first robot in a movie. The auction description contained some interesting information about the poster's provenance. A poster for The Master Mystery episode 11 sold at an auction earlier this month for $15,831.