Happy Houdini Halloween & Who Wants to be a Houdini Handcuff Millionaire

Happy Halloween everyone.

I am still in Detroit and am getting into the spirit of the season.
The weather is gorgeous here and the trees are showing their beautiful colors.
I drove passed an old old cemetery and had to turn around to drive back to it. It was really cool and saw some old grave stones dating back to before the Civil War. It has been a long time since I walked through a pile of leaves like that. The place set the mood for what my night was going to be like.

I was invited to John Oliver's house and had never met him before. I heard about him from many cuff collectors and knew he had a nice collection. Unfortunately, he is not much of a computer man, so he does not read or contribute to this web site. I told him that he is missing out on so much, but more importantly, we are missing out on all of his knowledge of cuffs, magic and Houdini.

My tour began with an introduction to the robot from Lost in Space. His is not the original, but an almost exact copy that John personally handcrafted from the original blueprints. He researched many of the parts and located some the companies that made parts for it. He was able to obtain some of the specialized lightbulbs from the original sources and had other parts custom made for him. I could go on about the robot for hours, but this is a handcuff forum, so I will move on.

I will say that I thought the robot was going to be the highlight of the evening, but I was wrong...twice!

We went to the cuff room and there was jail/prison lock display that contained many pieces I had never seen before. Unbelievable is all I can say. Balls & chains and Oregon boots was next. Then we got to the cuffs. Boards and boards of them. Some common items and some rare pieces.
Lots of rare plug leg irons, McKenzie Mitts, Wisner, Berliner, and the original Houdini Letter Cuff. This is the cuff that John Bushey wrote about in the Handcuff Annual.

I must have spent 2 or 3 hours looking at all the cuffs and had to ask John for a chair to sit on. We looked at more and more items, including his traveling display boxes. They were all constructed of quality materials and packed with goodies. John is a magician and escape artist by profession. He travels around the Michigan area and does quite well. After my fill of cuffs (never thought that this could happen) I looked around to see what I did not even notice what was behind me all the time. A room filled with Houdini stuff.
Original posters, art work, newspaper articles, furniture, cupboards filled with things. A condensed version of Houdini's house!
I then learned that the chair I had been sitting on the whole time was Houdini's. Unbelievable!

John wrote to the Houdini Family years ago and became good friends....he is now pretty much one of the family. He got to learn the things that probably will never be in books, unless he decided to write one himself. Over the years he acquired all kinds of things Houdini. Dresser drawers, lamps, chairs, file cabinets, tea cup & saucer, top hat, books, photos and 100's of other personal artifacts. Unbelievable!! John even sleeps on Houdini's bed every night.

I could go on for hours about what I saw and what I learned. I might have to include this story in the 08 Annual.

John was very happy to share his time with me and allowed me to take these pictures and share them with you.

As I am writing this, I will see if I can make another trip and include this for a future article. There is so much info to share.




I am including another version of Millionaire with this post.

Please answer to my email address and not here at the forum.


Your question appears below.
As your game show host, I will present your prize while which will be more photos from this fantastic collection

I've dealt with Jon a few times myself, and he was a great person and very generous. That looks like an awsome collection.