Lot Details
Lot 73
HOUDINI, HARRY Two page typed letter signed, dated July 16, 1925 on Houdinis 278 West 113 Street notepaper, addressed to El...
, dated July 16, 1925 on Houdini's 278 West 113 Street notepaper, addressed to Elbert A. Wikes, Alber & Wickes, 80 Boylston Street, Boston Mass. Both sheets 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (14 x 21 cm). Old docketing holes in blank margin of each sheet, framed, an attractive piece with a strong signature.
Houdini responds to a letter from the impresario Elbert Wickes, discussing his lectures at the Police Academy (probably the New York Police Academy where, at the invitation of Police Commissioner Enright, he gave at least two presentations that year). He discusses the contents of the lecture, which included the methods of fraudulent mediumship, fraudulent gambling etc. The fourth paragraph is of especial interest; in it he discusses the fact that Margery (the medium Mina Crandon) is using the reputation of Harvard University for publicity, and that he has written a letter to President Lowell stating that he would be willing to pay $10,000 to charity "if I couldn't show up everything." Houdini spent considerable effort trying to expose Margery as a charlatan, but her reputation remained strong with the credulous, and the whole episode is famous in Houdini lore. We are unable to trace any other letter by Houdini touching on the Margery cause celebre auction in the last thirty years or more.
C
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