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Houdini's Last Night

22 visible archived posts · 22 preserved total · topic ID 4115

Mark lyons 16 Jun 2011

Hi,
So we all know that Houdini died on Halloween 1926 from a peritonitus infection and was taken to Grace Hospital in Detroit.
I lived in Detroit and never seen a picture of the hospital before today.
Here are two Detroit News wire photos, but I am puzzled as the two shots seem to be 2 different locations, yet the back of the photos clearly state that they are the Grace Hospital in Detroit.

1932 Photo

1915-1942.
Is that a solarium or new construction in the top corner?

I will do some more checking, but wanted to share these with all of you.

mark
O--O

Jack.Tanis 16 Jun 2011

Dear Mark,

On last night's television game show Jeopardy, there was a full (five answer) Houdini category. One contestant ran the whole category. Indeed, the final question was a daily double, and the contestant felt so confident he bet all he had, making it a true daily double, and won. I've never seen anything about Houdini on Jeopardy before. Bye the way, and rather to my surprise, I got the questions to all five answers correct.

Cheers,

Jack
http://www.editing.org.uk/tanis/collectibles.htm

John Cox 16 Jun 2011

Oh, I wish I would have seen that!

Kevin Connolly 16 Jun 2011

To me it looks different from the images I have seen. You can find various images on Ebay most of the time. Here is one of them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Grace-Hospi ... 5d29f1b6ce

Kevin

John Cox 16 Jun 2011

Houdini on Jeopardy. Thanks again, Jack.

http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2011/06 ... -alex.html

Mark Lyons 16 Jun 2011

This is an enigma!
I knew that there was an OLD Grace, where HH died and they tore it down and built a NEW Grace, which I think is still around.
Now we have 3 pictures of the Old Grace and they all look different.

Jack, Can you remember the questions?
If so, post them here without the answers...or more correctly, the questions and post them in a different thread or wait a few days.

mark
O--O

mark lyons 16 Jun 2011

Here is some more to add to the confusion:

http://www.houdini.org/death.html

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/h/Ha ... oudini.htm

mark
O--O

Michael Lee 16 Jun 2011

occupation : actor & lecturer.

Wonder..was this info given on spur of moment or had it been agreed to/created w/ Bess as had so many other elements of EW/HH life ??

Michael Lee

houdinisghost 17 Jun 2011

A lot of vaudevillians referred to themselves as "actors." W. C. Fields and Will Rogers are two that, as I've just seen, called themselves "actors."
If I'm not mistaken, Houdini lists his occupation as "actor" on a lot of documents including passport applications--even his first one (1900).
Then there is the autobiographical article in the Goldston Annual (1909-10?) which states: "The year 1893 found me an actor. . ."
Houdini had an ambition to be considered a legitimate man of the legitimate theatre. At the time of his death, he had the largest collection of theatre memorabilia in the world.
He also longed to be a movie star and actually succeeded admirably, although not up to his own expectations.
I'm pretty sure that the word "actor" was a very common, maybe the most common, answer to the "occupation" question among all performers: theatre, vaudeville--even circus.
http://www.houdinisghost.com

Dorson 17 Jun 2011

#10

Mark,
Your second picture at the beginning of the post matches the postcard on ebay, just they are taken from 2 different angles. Look at the Gazebo in the pictures for reference.

Mark Lyons 17 Jun 2011

#11

Dorson,
I am not seeing what you are.
I based my theory on the fact that in the top picture, the 1st floor has white stone or brick on the outside and the edges of the building are also trimmed in white. The 3rd floor windows have an ornate design around them. This building has 5 floors and a 6th floor towards the center.
The bottom building is all a solitary color and less decorative. It only has 4 floors.

mark
O--O

Jack.Tanis 17 Jun 2011

#12

Dear Mark,

I sent a message to hospital, asking for its historian or archivist, to reply to the issues you raise in this thread. I encouraged it be done directly as a message in this thread itself. If I am e-mailed instead, I'll post what I receive verbatim. If nothing happens, we have been ignored. The hospital still exists.

http://www.sinaigrace.org/

John has posted the Jeopardy answers, questions and other details about the Houdini category on his Web site, and, I might say, done a fine job of it.

Cheers,

Jack
http://www.editing.org.uk/tanis/collectibles.htm

Mark lyons 17 Jun 2011

#13

Hi Hack,
Good job, I had though about writing to them, but never actually got to doing it.
I knew that the Grace Hospital merged with Sinai Hospital a while ago.
I was born in the Sinai Hospital.

Looking forward to see the HH answers.

mark
O--O

houdinisghost 17 Jun 2011

#14

http://olddetroit.tumblr.com/post/34107 ... e-hospital
This is the best page I have found. The color photo is the hospital where Houdini died.
The page states the building was demolished in 1979.
The original Grace Hospital--established in 1888, named after the founder's daughter--appears to be a large house.
This is a bit far afield for the Handcuffs.org forum. We should move it over to either the Genii forum's magic history discussion or to the Magic Cafe's magic history page.
This will ensure that no one will ever see it again.

Jack.Tanis 17 Jun 2011

#15

Dear Mark, not Hark,

"Hi Hack"? You have H stuck in your mind -- Harry, Houdini, hospital, Halloween. Please clear your cerebral cache and reboot your brain.

Cheers,

Jack
http://www.editing.org.uk/tanis/collectibles.htm

Edgeplay_Cgo 17 Jun 2011

#16

http://olddetroit.tumblr.com/post/34107 ... e-hospital
This is the best page I have found. The color photo is the hospital where Houdini died.

That's yet another building, markedly different from the rest.

Somehow, with Harry Houdini's name attached, it doesn't surprise me.

Hark Kyons 17 Jun 2011

#17

Sennis, Yes the Houdini Mystery continues and 75 years later, people like us are still trying to figure it all out.

Hack, It seems that my finger drifts to the left half an inch when typing peoples names.
It does that at other odd times. AIEET

Hark
I00I

Dorson 18 Jun 2011

#18

Mark, look at Kevin Connolly's reference to the ebay postcard. In the picture on the postcard you see a horse drawn truck under a small square structure. Now to your second picture, look at the sidewalk and the trees further down the street and you see that same square structure.

Mark Lyons 18 Jun 2011

#19

Dorson,
I am on track with you now.
Yes, I can see how my photo 2 and the postcard can be one and the same hospital.
For now, I will call this the Hypothetical Historical Harry Houdini Halloween Hospital.
I did not notice the Gazebo before you mentioned it.
The 1st photo must be an entirely different hospital and the press labeled it incorrectly.
You must have been eating lots of carrots to be able to see that!
Good job!

mark
O--O

Ian McColl 18 Jun 2011

#20

Hi Mark, "eating carrots gives you good eyesight" was the the rumour for why so many German aircraft were shot down in the second world war. It was to deflect from the fact that radar was being used.
Ian

Dick Brookz 19 Jun 2011

#21

Somewhere on one of our websites, http//Houdini.org, we have the pictures at Grace of the room where Houdini died. We just came back from a show, but will try to find the link tomorrow.
Regards
Dick Brookz & Dorothy Dietrich
Houdini Museum

Mark lyons 19 Jun 2011

#22

Here is a picture of the room. This picture is from the above website.

<center>

Mark
O--O

</center>

Unresolved image reference ↗