Originally posted by Richard Kaufman: Since there are no other reports of Houdini crying after an escape, and the report you cite is in a newspaper in cahoots with Houdini in a bogus escape, I would question whether he cried at all!
Biographers including Milbourne Christopher have also reported on the incident of crying. Unless one has good evidence that the Mirror article is their only source, one cannot know that the the information wasn't obtained from various or other sources. (private writings, reports from audience members, other reports in newspaper/magazines etc.)
From "HOUDINI the untold story" by "Milbourne Christopher"
An hour had passed without complaints of boredom from the audience. The orchestra swept into a march. An hour and ten minutes. Houdini suddenly leaped from the cabinet. His hands were free. He held the cuffs aloft.
The crowd shouted, cheered, stamped their feet, waved their arms. Some of the committeemen lifted Houdini to their shoulders and paraded him around the stage. Then Houdini's reserve broke. Tears gushed from his eyes. Eventually he took a deep breath, wiped his face, and accepted the hearty handshake and the compliments of the man from the Mirror. The journalist said that the newspaper would present him with a trophy - a solid silver replica of the Birmingham cuffs - as soon as it could be made. Harry assured the audience he had never been treated as fairly, or as gentlemanly, in a challenge test.
It sounds far more like some literary excess on the part of the newspaper.
If so, why would Houdini (egotist that he was) logically allow potentially embarrassing information(that he sobbed like his heart was going to break) to be printed up about him in a very large, very popular newspaper? Perhaps he wasn't embarrassed by it this one time or perhaps it actually occurred and it would be awkward to dispute something that occurred in front of a theater full of witnesses.
His biographers tell us Houdini was very fond of his reputation as a tough guy. So I find it hard to believe he wouldn't have disputed said fact or asked for retraction if he took offense at the reporting or reporting of his sobbing actually didn't happen. Do you or anyone else have any information showing that he ever disputed the report of his sobbing on stage?
Claiming "literary excess" with not a shred of supportive evidence doesn't mean
this particular facet of the story has no validity.
The fact is that Houdini allowed the public perception that he "sobbed like his heart was breaking" to exist and persist is telling. It doesn't much matter whether he was acting or not when he cried, but that
he was willing to allow the whole world to believe it to be true. Since there was no real challenge to the escape, what possible reason would Houdini have to cry. None
He could have cried
for purely dramatic reasons as actors do.
And that wouldn't change the fact that he cried at all or wanted the public to believe he did. Hell, even Blaine could have been acting when he cried for all we know. His trite little speech at the end had all the hallmarks of being pre-scripted. His (or Houdini's) motives for crying don't much change the fact that they cried.
Richard Kaufman wrote:
And unless you can give me some real hard facts from sources other than the Mirror, I'll stick with my statement:
HOUDINI DIDN'T CRY
The Mirror story is a hard source whether or not the challenge itself was fake or not. The likelihood that Houdini was "in cahoots" with the challenge itself,logically has no connection to the fact that he cried, for either dramatic or other purposes. And who knows? Perhaps he was in cahoots, but something came up to cause him stress? Perhaps he thought crying was the right thing to do to get a bit more ink? We know he was pretty shameless in such things, so the thought he'd cry to play up the drama for the audience (as Blaine also probably did) isn't that huge a stretch for me.
So unless I see some contradictory evidence specifically disputing that one particular facet of that one particular show, I'll continue to take the word of the Mirror article and various Houdini biographers that tell us that yes, Houdini did indeed cry. :)
