Copyright2008--It was the greatest trunk mystery the world had ever
seen. That’s what the advertising handbill
called it.
“The Houdini’s Original Introducers of Metamorphosis. Exchanging Places in 3 Seconds,” the poster
said.
At the top Harry Houdini’s vignette could be seen with the
words “Harry the King of Handcuffs” underneath.
In the bottom right was a vignette of his assistant and wife Bess and
the words “Beatrice Queen of Mystery.”
Metamorphosis was its name.
Onstage Houdini climbed into a sack that was placed inside a
large wooden traveler’s trunk. Audience
members tied Houdini’s hands behind his back as he crouched inside close to the
row of air holes along the bottom.
The sack was shut and tied securely with ropes. Finally, the lid to the trunk was also closed
along with the stage curtain.
“Now then, I shall clap my hands three times and at the
third and last time I ask you to watch closely for the effect,” Bess said.
She quickly closed the curtain and vanished from sight. Instantly the curtain was reopened not by
Bess but by Houdini himself.
Bess was now gone.
Houdini turned toward the trunk.
He reopened the lid and inside knelt Bess with her hands tied behind her
back.
The switch was made.
But how?
Just seeing a Houdini advertising poster in 1895 was often
enough to coax people to buy a ticket to the show. These posters were the mainstay of promotion
at the turn-of-the-century.
On Oct. 25, Swann Galleries,
New York, featured the poster described in
The Christian Fechner Collection of American & European Magic, Part
III. The 28 by 20 ¾ inch poster sold for
$60,000.
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