"The Great Kolar" - Kevin Connolly Collection

It seems that escape artists from Houdini’s era are starting to heat up, or at least the prices of their photos are. There is an escape artist postcard on Ebay now and the price is now at $237.00 with less than an hour to go. The price should go higher with some last second sniping. I also don’t see one of the major players on the bid list…yet. Good luck to all.

The 8×10 above is of Joseph Kolar, aka “The Great Kolar”. Seeing the dozen handcuffs is very reminiscent of earlier Houdini images. If you don’t remember him today for his escape work, you may remember “Clippo” and “Seven Keys To Baldplate”. He was the man behind them. The photo is inscribed to W.W. Durbin, the president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He was also the editor to the “Linking Ring”. And better yet? He was a magic collector!

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How's This For A Change?

This item just appeared on Ebay. It seems-like the people at the newspaper changed the photo Houdini gave them. The newspaper first added a jail cell door with giant lock. The other thing they changed was to draw trunks over his loin cloth. And to think, there are some people who say Houdini changed the facts.         Here is the link to the auction: http://tinyurl.com/3ee9mn6

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Houdini Postcard Circa 1908 - Kevin Connolly Collection

This is an open thread to all. If you have anything to add, ask or just BS, here’s your shot. Houdini is listening, type away!.

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Photo From Houdini's Collection - Kevin Connolly Collection

Back Of Photo From Houdini's Collection - Kevin Connolly Collection

I’m sure Houdini never thought that when he donated  part of his collection that it would be dispersed in a flea market type setting, but that’s where this photo wound up. Let’s start from the beginning. Houdini’s book collection was donated to the Library of Congress. The library sent people to retrieve the books. That is where the problem began. The people who came for the books only chose about 2,000 pieces. Why they left the rest of the books and ephemera collection behind, I don’t know. The bulk of the items they took back to Washington would lie in trunks for another 70 years after Houdini’s death. As a matter of fact, they didn’t even know they had the trunks until Ken Silverman discovered them while doing research for his book “Houdni: The Career Of Ehrich Weiss”.

The New York Public Library was another recipient of one of  Houdini’s collections; this is where the photo above comes in. As you can see the second photo is signed by Houdini. Houdini’s name is underlined in red with “Harry”  added in red. On the upper right hand corner the word “dup” is written. The photo has also been rubber stamped twice with ” THEATER COLL. PHOTO FILE A” in blank ink and “DUPl. NYPL” in red ink. Finally, the best marking, on the back of the photo, is on the lower right hand corner where someone wrote “1.00″, as in $1.00; this is what the library sold the signed Houdini photo for.

From what I can see, it is very possible that as many as five different people either stamped this photo or wrote some kind of information on the back of about the photo. The photo was then put in a box with other Houdini photos, also for $1.00, at the yearly Lincoln Center sale. Lincoln Center would sell duplicates and other items that someone thought(?) would not fit into their collection. All of the items that they sold were given to them by donors. I would think the donor gave or bequeathed these items to the center to save for future generations to see and enjoy. I guess the New York Public Library and Lincoln Center thought differently.

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