Houdini's diaries?

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Roger M.
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Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » December 24th, 2011, 4:08 pm

Just reading an older Genii and noted a reference to Harry's diaries.

A question if I may.
Who holds them in their library, and why no move to publish them?

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 24th, 2011, 4:47 pm

The name of the person who owns most of them (a few--very few--are in the hands of magic collectors) has never been made public. He is a descendant of someone who was close to Houdini and is extremely wealthy. He does not need the money, nor does he seem to care that their contents are of interest to many people.

One of the few allowed access to them was Ken Silverman while researching his biography on Houdini. As I recall, he was given something like 2 hours to look through them and take notes. So he flipped through them very quickly (there are MANY volumes), talking into a cassette recorder as rapidly as he could. In this way, amazingly, Ken managed to extract most of the best information.
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Roger M.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » December 24th, 2011, 5:23 pm

What an amazing story.

Perhaps the owner doesn't really understand what he's in possession of.......at least in the sense of how a typical magic historian would look at the same set of "books".

I would imagine he (the owner) fully understands who Houdini was, and that the diaries have great monetary value........but perhaps, not being of "the craft", he doesn't appreciate the overall importance of the contents, devoid of the actual cash value of the paper and ink?

Ken would obviously know who this person is, and perhaps even observed his general attitude towards the diaries........has Ken ever commented publicly on his foray into this chaps library?

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » January 2nd, 2016, 4:47 pm

https://www.elklakelodge.com

Wonder if they have a library in-house?

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Jack Shalom » January 2nd, 2016, 5:52 pm

Roger M. wrote:https://www.elklakelodge.com

Wonder if they have a library in-house?

I clicked on "Book, Now" but no pdf appeared...

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » January 2nd, 2016, 6:02 pm

lol !

I wonder if they keep all of the diaries up there, or only a few?

Perhaps late at night, when the guests gather in the lobby for their night-cap, the lights are dimmed and the guests are sworn to secrecy - and a safe behind the bookcase is opened...

Owners of the lodge and surrounding 12,000 acres surname is Ernst.

1) Houdini's attorney at his death was Bernard M. L. Ernst, he's the executor of Houdini's estate.
2) B.M.L. Ernst son was Richard C. Ernst.
3) Richard C. Ernst married Susan Bloomingdale, granddaughter of the stores founder.
4) R.C. and Susan Ernst had a son, John L. Ernst, and also two daughters, Eleanor and Cornelia.
5) John L. Ernst owns Elk Lake Lodge, and (with his sisters) the Houdini diaries.

a) Original owner had to have access directly to the diaries upon Houdini's death.
b) Current owner is male, and extremely wealthy.
c) Diaries have never been out in "public", so would have had to remain in a single family from Houdini's death until 2016.

It would seem that this is not a case of somebody not caring about the diaries, indeed quite the opposite as even the wealthiest of folks are prone to selling things (for large amounts of money) that they no longer have any interest in.
In this case, it would seem there has to be much more involved ... perhaps a father committing his son to a covenant, who in turn commits his son to the same covenant:

"These books never leave the family".

Of course I'm positing, but positing after research. A "yes" or "no" would be handy, obviously there are more than a few people who know for sure.
I simply cannot find any other avenue of ownership these diaries could have taken, and there are more than a few deep references (not online) stating that the Ernst family holds the diaries.

The obscure references to current ownership combined with the direct family lineage and the known facts related to the current diary owners lead me here.

Now ... back to Erdnase.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby paperbackarch » January 25th, 2016, 12:08 pm

This is fascinating!!! Does anyone know if there are any fictionalised versions of his diary??? I imagine there must be a lot of speculation around a lot of aspects of his life.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Jonathan Townsend » January 25th, 2016, 12:18 pm

paperbackarch wrote:This is fascinating!!! Does anyone know if there are any fictionalised versions of his diary??? I imagine there must be a lot of speculation around a lot of aspects of his life.


As story -> myth... yeah I guess so. Look at Lovecraft crossovers.

As history ... the magic community has not done too well with that so far - Robert-Houdin, Germaine, Hofzinser ... stories of annoying elderly exes and rumor mongering.

In context - it seems Issac Newton's diaries are also not yet published.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » December 2nd, 2016, 10:22 pm

Almost a year later and nothing even close to resembling a confirmation that Ernst is indeed the keeper of the Houdini diaries?

No responses in the negative either I guess, which may be telling ... but it is a bit surprising is that there were essentially no comments at all at my associating Ernst's name with the Houdini diaries.

I can only suspect that either folks think I'm totally out to lunch with my candidate, or those folks in the know were a bit surprised to see Ernst's name, and responded with the silence that my comment has indeed resulted in.

Personally, I suspect it's the later.

Does anybody have any other stronger, or weaker candidates they want to share?

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Leonard Hevia » December 2nd, 2016, 10:31 pm

Nothing to add Roger but your theory that the descendants of Bernard Ernst have the diaries makes sense. Just read it now so it slipped below my radar for a year. Ernst certainly could have had access to HH's diaries after his death since they were close friends. He had access to the Houdini/Doyle correspondence.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 2nd, 2016, 11:20 pm

Ernst does indeed own the diaries. Who knows why he guards them so selfishly. He's not going to tell any of us.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » December 3rd, 2016, 12:58 am

Thanks for that Richard.

My personal theory, as noted in my post, is that the hiding away of the diaries has something to do with a family covenant.

Bernard Ernst was Houdini's friend as well as his lawyer. He may have felt that diaries are personal documents, and that they shouldn't be shared publicly.
It would be a matter of executing a family covenant over three generations, with each succeeding generation sworn to keep the diaries private, and (for the most part) hidden away.

The only other theory I could come up with was that the diaries might contain something that doesn't shine the brightest light on the Ernst name. I feel this is a weaker argument, and didn't put much more thought into it - but they are a high-society East coast family who likely feel inclined to protect their name, so it's not totally out of the question. This might also speak to why they limited Ken's visit to such a short period of time, and forbade any sort of mechanical copying of the books.

I've stayed away from "the guys just a jerk for not letting anybody in on the contents" kind of theory. Although entirely possible, people usually make their choices in life based on some underlying force, so I'd like to think Ernst has a legitimate (at least to him and the previous two generations of his family) reason for maintaining the (almost) complete black out on Houdini's diaries, something the family have unfailingly maintained since the day Houdini died.

I thought it an interesting story in 2011 when I read a brief reference to the diaries in Genii magazine, I find it equally as interesting a story today!

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Hatch » December 3rd, 2016, 3:20 am

Pretty sure this is the same John Ernst who wrote a mainstream biography of Houdini for young readers back in 1975:
https://www.abebooks.com/Escape-King-St ... 7100676/bd

That would indicate a pretty strong personal interest in Houdini.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby performer » December 3rd, 2016, 6:15 am

The way I see it is that if Mr Ernst owns the diaries they belong to HIM-nobody else. What he chooses to do with them is his business and no aspersions direct or implied should be cast on him if he decides to restrict them for whatever reason. It his HIS business not ours.

As for Houdini I once met John Mulholland years and years ago and he knew Houdini personally. He was quite rude about him as I recall. He snorted to me, "Houdini was mishandling the funds of the SAM and I was the only one who spoke out about it"

I knew Murray the escapologist who was very negative about Houdini. I asked him if he had ever seen him perform and he said "yes. I wasn't very impressed" However, some months later he contradicted himself when I asked how he got interested in magic. He said, "I saw Houdini perform when I was 10 years old" I responded, "I thought you didn't like Houdini?". He replied, "Well, anyone impresses you when you are 10 years old!"

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Tom Gilbert » December 3rd, 2016, 7:55 am

While the diaries would command a huge sum of money, Roger's research that the current owner is extremely wealthy explains a lot.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 3rd, 2016, 10:02 am

Ken Silverman was given access to the diaries for two hours. He paged through them while holding a voice recorder and spoke sparse notes about anything he felt was important. So it's not as if the information in them has not been used.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Leonard Hevia » December 3rd, 2016, 10:42 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:Ken Silverman was given access to the diaries for two hours. He paged through them while holding a voice recorder and spoke sparse notes about anything he felt was important. So it's not as if the information in them has not been used.


My thoughts exactly. The Ernst family allowed Professor Silverman access, although brief, to the diaries. Roger has done a great job sniffing out this mystery. I also wondered about the identity of that wealthy family who owned those diaries.

Houdini had written some ugly things in his diaries but I doubt he criticized Ernst in those pages. Ernst watched HH's back like a good friend.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » December 3rd, 2016, 11:57 am

Further to what Richard Hatch noted above, Bernard Ernst himself also authored a book about Houdini in 1932. That book was titled Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » August 10th, 2017, 5:12 pm

I hadn't realized that Ken Silverman passed away until last night, when I finally picked up my Aug issue of Genii for a full read.

Interestingly, Richard notes in his magazine column that the Silverman Houdini book will never be reprinted, and that folks should consider purchasing used copies before the price goes through the roof, or they disappear into private libraries for good.
It is indeed the finest bio of Houdini, and does contains the only direct references to some of the contents of Houdini's diaries noted earlier in this thread.
I love my copy.
Silverman was, after all, the only guy we actually know of outside of the Ernst family who has laid eyes (and hands) on Houdini's diaries.

RIP Ken Silverman.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 10th, 2017, 6:39 pm

I believe that Bill Kalush has looked through them as well.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » August 10th, 2017, 7:20 pm

I had assumed (first mistake) that the references to Kalush looking through Houdini diaries were making reference to the few diaries that are owned by others, and tend to show up here and there in Houdini museum displays and such.

If Kalush did get a look at the Ernst diaries, it would be interesting to know if he had conditions put upon him similar to those put upon Silverman?

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 10th, 2017, 11:08 pm

You would have to ask him.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby JohnCox » June 7th, 2019, 1:32 pm

So we now know Bill did indeed read them.

https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2018/0 ... intop.html
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Roger M. » June 8th, 2019, 10:39 am

Thanks for that link John, that was a very interesting read.
Slowly (very slowly!) ... news does indeed manage to make its way out on the current status of the diaries.
I find the entire subject incredibly interesting, and too, I always enjoy reading Wild About Harry.

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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby JohnCox » June 12th, 2019, 7:50 pm

Thank you, Roger.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 12th, 2019, 8:47 pm

I think it's been pretty obvious for years that Kalush read them, or at least some of them.
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Re: Houdini's diaries?

Postby Diego » June 13th, 2019, 12:20 am

Bill has read them, and I believe all them, if I remember correctly. I can't recall which collector meeting it was, but Bill gave a wonderful
talk about the opportunity to read them, and have the time to take notes of what he read. The insights to Houdini's diary writing.....amending/correcting entries with time...his opinions of others and himself...not writing for periods of time and later filling things in...a fascinating/exciting presentation! For me and others, it was worth the time and expense to go to that convention, just to hear Bill's amazing presentation.


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