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| LOC |
On this voyage, Harry completely amazed the former President by reading his mind: Roosevelt had sealed a secret message into an envelope. It read, "Where was I last Christmas?"
"The spirits," under Harry's direction, drew a map on a slate that gave all the details of Roosevelt's recently-completed secret journey up the Amazon, to explore the famous "River of Doubt." This, from the Library of Congress, is the only film in existence of that expedition.
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| Houdini with Teddy Roosevelt's grandchildren (LOC) |
HOW ROOSEVELT SAVED HOUDINI; AND,
HOW HOUDINI HELPED ROOSEVELT BECOME PRESIDENT
(From Houdini Unbound, a work of historical fiction)
I am proud to call him “Colonel” Roosevelt -- I knew him before he became President. We first crossed paths when he saw my magic show on the Midway at the Chicago World’s Fair. He told me he liked my act even better than Little Egypt! But we really bonded when Bess and I were touring with Dr. Hill’s Wild West Medicine Show...
-- from Houdini’s notebooks
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| Wild West Medicine Show, from LOC |
“In God We Trusted, in Kansas We Busted,” read the sign on the back of Harry and Bess’s mud-sill, their wobbly covered wagon that rumbled into the mining village of Galena, Michigan on a crisp Wednesday afternoon in the autumn of 1896. The United States was bracing for a pivotal Presidential election, but Harry and Bess barely knew the names of the candidates. They and their ciazarny-speaking carny friends were too busy eking out a living on the freak-show circuit.
They pitched camp in a pine grove on the banks of the Keewenaw River. Around the campfire that night, Harry and Bess sat next to Joe and Myra Keaton, Irish singers who performed in blackface. Their toddler son, Joe, Jr., was still in diapers. As Bess cuddled the little boy, he took her finger and put it into his mouth.
"Harry, tonight you've got to give me a baby, just like this one," Bess said, her long blonde hair glowing in the firelight.
Harry laughed, showing his perfectly even white teeth, and gave Bess a wink.
“Joe," he said, "that little boy of yours sure is a buster! Hey, Buster! C’mere!” The boy returned Harry’s smile but remained snuggled in Bess’s soft arms.
Thomas Hill, proprietor of the show, took another swig from a bottle labeled “Dr. Hill’s Comfrey Tonic” and addressed his ragtag troupe. With his flowing beard, his long silky hair and his ciazarny-inflected purple oratory, to Harry he looked and sounded exactly like the prophet Moses.
“My dear friends – nay, closer than friends, for the bonds forged between us while experiencing the plaudits of the multitudes as well as the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune have become stronger than ties of blood relations – as we all know, the proceeds of our attempts to bring culture and wholesome entertainment to the agricultural areas of our great nation have been fraught, during the past weeks, with singular lack of response on the part of the populace. In fact….”
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| Dr. Hill's rival, Dr. Grayson (Google Images) |
“Hey, Doc,” Harry interjected. “Quit stallin’. What are you cooking up?”
“All right, my dear boy. The fact is, we’re flat broke -- briazoke. We got to haul our buttiazocks out of this burg. Harry, you’ve got to help us. We’re going to feature you in a special performance on Sunday.”
“Doc, you’re not gonna make me do the Wild Man of Borneo again, are you?”
“No, no, no. It’s going to be of an uplifting nature. Semi-religious, even. I’ve already printed up the handbills. Take a look.”
Unthan, the Armless Wonder, passed Harry a poster with his feet. Bess, with “Buster” Keaton squirming in her lap, leaned over his shoulder as Harry read:
ANNOUNCEMENT EXTRAORDINARY!
Opera House:
Sunday, October 9
HOUDINI THE GREAT
Will give Sunday night a SPIRITUAL SÉANCE in the open light. Only time a Séance in Public Ever Given by HOUDINI except in large cities and then at advanced prices. HOUDINI’S work in the past week in the Opera House releasing himself from handcuffs, leg fetters, chains and locks was seen -- and by that strange power, when the conditions are favorable, tables float through the air, musical instruments playing sweetest music are seen flying through space all the spirit hands and faces are seen in full light. The representative businessmen of this city have kindly volunteered to act as an investigating committee which will insure honesty of purpose. The Dr. Hill Organization would not permit any imposition perpetrated on its patrons, at any rate….
Admission 10, 20 and 30 cents.
A NIGHT OF MYSTERY
Harry looked up at the Doctor.
“You won’t disappoint us now, Harry, will you?” he asked softly.
Harry drew his thick eyebrows into a frown of concentration.
“Leave it to me, Doc,” he said. “We’ll slaughter ‘em.”
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Houdini in disguise (Boston Public Library)
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The next morning Harry donned horn-rimmed glasses, a threadbare frock coat and a battered black hat. Pushing a barrow full of musical Bibles, he clattered onto Galena’s wooden sidewalks. Peering through his window-glass lenses, he was keenly aware of having two brains operating simultaneously. One belonged to Harry, the sly magician. That one was hiding in the shadow of the other, a character named Henry, the Bible-Hawker -- a moper, gaper, and gawker.
Trundling his barrow, he turned onto one of Galena’s four side streets and stopped at the first house, an unpainted clapboard sitting on wooden piles to protect it during the frequent overflows of the Keewenaw. He carefully pushed the patched wooden gate hanging by a leather hinge, walked through a tiny, weedy, snail-filled yard, and knocked on the front door.
“Hello, ma’am,” he said politely, doffing his hat to the woman who answered. “I’m Henry Haldane. Would you care to take a look at the Good Book?” He opened one: it played “Nearer My God to Thee.”
Charmed by the music, his chiseled good looks, his disarming smile and his presumptive probity as a Bible salesman, the woman, wife of Lester “Hashknife” Simpson, let him in.
“We’ve already got a big family Bible,” Mrs. Simpson said proudly.
“Oh, really?” Harry squinted disingenuously, his brilliant blue eyes narrowing behind the horn-rims. “Could I take a look at it?”
She brought out a large, leather-covered Bible. Harry paged through it expertly, and came to what he was looking for – the centerfold. He unfolded a large page and found the entire Simpson family tree, which he began to memorize.
“Well, this is a fine Bible, Ma’am. Fascinating, too. Your family sure goes way back ….” He let his voice trail in a way that made her fill in the gap.
“It sure does,” Mrs. Simpson said proudly. “One of my distant relatives came over right after the Mayflower….”
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A Bryan campaign poster from 1896 (LOC)
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Harry left half an hour later, full of information, including the news that William Jennings Bryan, Democratic and Populist candidate for President, was due to make a campaign speech in town off the back of a train on Sunday afternoon.
Harry failed to sell a single Bible, but within two days he knew all the gossip about all the major families in the area -- who was living, who was dead, who had married whose daughter and gotten pregnant by whose son. By the weekend, Harry had acquired a detailed knowledge of the social history of the Michigan mining country.
Sunday, October 9 was a great day in Galena. A substantial crowd had come from miles around for the festivities: “The Great Commoner,” William Jennings Bryan, was speaking in the afternoon and “The Great Houdini” was holding a séance right afterward. The women wore linsey-woolsey or calico dresses and their best bonnets. Some of the men wore straw hats as wide as umbrellas; a few had hauled out homburgs and stovepipes; everyday overalls had given way to “Sunday Best” jackets and lanyards. Barefoot children in burlap shirts were skylarking around the square; young couples were courting on the sly; the more enterprising women in town were selling gingerbread and lemonade off the back of a buckboard.
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Medicine show crowd c. 1896 (LOC)
At noon, a special train full of newspaper reporters from Detroit and Chicago pulled into Galena. Also aboard was the police commissioner of New York City, Theodore Roosevelt, already known nationwide as “Teddy.”
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TTheodore Roosevelt in 1896, as New York police commissioner (Wikipedia)
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Fit and bronzed after a summer spent hunting antelope on the range in North Dakota, his mission now was to size up William McKinley's opponent, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley had assigned Roosevelt to stalk Bryan’s unprecedented "whistle-stop" railroad tour of the Midwest, which was covering more than twenty thousand miles in the first "mass marketing" campaign in American history. Roosevelt was supposed to file reports on how the crowds responded, but so far he had failed to catch up with the fast-moving Bryan, whose gathering momentum was making McKinley nervous.
After debarking from the train and getting an afternoon shave, Roosevelt left the barber shop and followed the clang of a tambourine. Cheeks glowing, he walked on wooden sidewalks into Galena's tiny town square. The clanging led directly to a covered wagon, hitched in the square. In front of it stood "Doctor" Hill, shaking a tambourine and holding forth with Biblical fervor:
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Medicine show (re-creation) (David Griffey)
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“Step right up, friends and neighbors, before the show begins, and hear about the tonic that will save your life…. Dr. Hill’s Cholera Balm relieves catarrh, asthma, tubercular consumption, bronchitis, gout, deafness, diphtheria, carbuncles, rheumatism, eczema, tumors, boils and all manner of nervous and physical collapse….”
Bess, Unthan, Bill the Dog Boy, and Dr. Hill’s associate Dr. Platt had all spread out to sell Cholera Balm, Wizard Oil and Cougar Bone Tonic. Unthan was a special crowd pleaser, opening bottles and dispensing sample spoonfuls using only his feet.
Dr. Platt chimed in from across the plaza, “All sold out of Cholera Balm, Doctor!”
Dr. Hill picked up speed. “Try Dr. Hill’s Cough Cure, Dr. Hill’s Worm Killer, Dr. Hill’s Wizard Oil, Dr. Hill’s Cougar Bone Tonic. Try Dr. Hill’s Indian Pills for constipation. They’ll move the bowels every day. Try Dr. Hill’s Comfort Balm for any disease that comes from bad or impure blood. Try it for troubles of the heart. Try it for scrofula, sores, eczema, eruptions, skin diseases, rheumatism, dyspepsia, malaria and all diseases of the liver, stomach and kidneys….”
“All sold out of Wizard Oil, Doctor,” Dr. Platt cried.
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popartmachine.com
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At four PM, the sound of train whistles, bells and a brass band began fading in. The entire crowd moved across the square, to the Galena train station, as a five-car train slowly steamed in and screeched to a stop with great flying sparks and hisses.
The band was on a flatcar just behind the locomotive. Standing on the caboose platform was the most famous orator of the age, Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan.
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William Jennings Bryan in 1896 (Emerson Kent)
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His massive square head, square jaw, ramrod posture and commanding presence drew gasps of admiration. Most of the men in Galena worked in the mines of the Superior Gold & Silver Company, so his message – "free coinage of silver" -- was predicted to ring the right bells on Election Day in three weeks.
Whatever “free coinage of silver” might or might not mean to the economy, it meant more work for miners. Even Dr. Hill stopped talking as “The Great Commoner” began to orate, reprising the historic speech that had won him both the Democratic and the Populist nomination:
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Bryan's historic whistlestop tour 1896
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"My friends, let me come directly to the paramount issue….
Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world,
supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the
toilers everywhere, we will answer the demand for a gold standard
by saying: you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!”
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"Crucified on a Cross of Gold!" (citizendium.org)
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Bryan received a thunderous ovation as the band struck up his campaign song. Doffing his hat and bowing to the whistling crowd, the candidate and his train chugged off. The newspapermen ran for the telegraph office, sent their dispatches, and decamped, too.
Theodore Roosevelt, however, stood thoughtfully in the town square, impressed by the speech and the applause. He followed the chattering crowd back across the square, into the Opera House, for the second feature of the evening. With even more flowery language and a warmer style than Bryan’s, Dr. Hill “turned the tip” as the audience settled in their seats.
“Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, for the first time anywhere outside the large cities, Dr. Hill’s Medicine Show and the California Concert Company are showcasing an outstanding triple bill. First, for your aural delectation, direct from the stage in San Francisco, I am proud to present your favorite Irish singers, Joseph and Myra Keaton, accompanied by the lively, multi-instrumental dexterity of the Invincible Resar Trio.”
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Actors' Colony
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The Keatons, in blackface with tam o’shanters, delivered a medley of sentimental Irish favorites, while the Trio, made up of Unthan the Armless Wonder, Bill the Dog Boy and Dr. Platt, got laughs as they switched instruments every eight bars. The applause was generous, especially for armless Unthan, who, using his dexterous feet, would switch from violin to cornet without missing a beat.
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Unthan playing violin with his feet (Wikipedia)
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“For our next act," Dr. Hill announced, "we are proud and honored to present, direct from her long engagement in the French capital, the musical child prodigy, La Petite Alleene.”
To an Invincible Resar Trio fanfare, Bess Houdini came out dressed as a little girl. At five feet nothing, she indeed sang and danced like a child prodigy. She and Harry had been touring with medicine shows and traveling circuses for several years already; she was an experienced soubrette and the audience responded warmly.
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Bess Houdini c. 1896 (Appleton Historical Society)
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A thrill of excitement coursed through the hall as Dr. Hill intoned dramatically: “Your attention to center stage, please, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time for our feature attraction. All week long, you saw his amazing escapes from all manner of manacles, handcuffs and rope restraints. This evening, for the first time anywhere outside the major cities, the Great Houdini will give a spiritual séance. We strongly recommend you hold your children’s hands tightly.
"Ladies and Gentlemen … Dr. Hill’s Wild West Medicine Show and the California Concert Company are thrilled and awed – and a little bit frightened -- to present … the Great Houdini!”
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Houdini materializing a ghost (prairieghosts.com)
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Harry appeared on stage and instantly galvanized the audience. It was not so much his looks or his smile, though they were appealing. It was not his stage patter, still awkward. It was his intensity, radiating through his compact body, which moved with panther-like precision on slightly bowed legs. From a distance he gave the impression of being a pugilist, lean-waisted, muscular and broad-shouldered. The moment he took the stage he had the audience in his hands.
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For his first routine, a committee of tough-looking miners tied Harry to a chair and enclosed him in a cabinet made from a curtained wooden frame. The head of the committee assured the audience that he was “absolutely, firmly bound.” The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a bell rang behind the curtain. A tambourine jangled, flew high in the air and crashed to the floor. The hall hushed as the sounds of a mandolin filled the space. The mandolin itself suddenly soared above the cabinet and disappeared. The chairman opened the curtain. Harry alone was inside, breathing heavily, slumped in his chair, tied fast. The chairman inspected the knots carefully.
"All tight," he told the audience. He closed the curtains and once again the bell rang. The whole structure began to vibrate and sway. Suddenly, Harry, free of the ropes, burst through the curtain and walked to the footlights.
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Houdini's spirit cabinet (wildabouthoudini.com)
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His ovation was huge and sustained, bigger than Bryan’s, Roosevelt noted with satisfaction from his seat in the back of the hall.
When the applause died down, Harry began to speak earnestly about the spirit world. The audience hung on every word. He said he felt strange presences on stage. He trembled. His eyes closed, then opened.
“Messages,” he gasped. “Messages are coming through.” The audience, as one, sucked in its breath. He proceeded to name names, give dates and tell family secrets. He created stunning effects by replaying, with great embellishment, his past four days of intensive research. Nobody tonight recalled the inquisitive, bespectacled, timid Bible peddler who had shown such a strong interest in genealogy. Tremors traced through the spines of those whose family members had “sent messages from beyond.” Harry could hear comments and gasps from the audience: “It must be her!" “He’s happy in Heaven!” "How could he possibly know about Aunt Sarah?”
“Now, wait. What’s this I see? I’m seeing a vision. Who’s this coming before me? Why, it’s a man. A man in a miner’s outfit, all black with dirt.” Harry paused and stared at something the audience could not see. “Why… he’s lame. And his throat is cut from ear to ear! Who is this man?” Harry was almost screaming now. “Why, I know him! He’s … he’s … Ephraim … EPHRAIM ALEXANDER!”
A muffled shriek erupted from the audience. Women fanned themselves, in spite of the coolness of the evening. Harry’s eyes seemed to roll back in his head. “What are you saying? You have a message for … for Lafe Buckner and Bud Betler? The message is … ‘You boys better put your razors away or you are sure going to be where I am now!’” Another strangled cry from the audience.
“Are Lafe Buckner and Bud Betler present tonight?” Harry cried. The crowd turned in its seats to see for themselves.
There was stunned silence. Someone upset a chair as two hard-bitten miners in the gallery panicked, tore out of their ten-cent seats and rushed down the Opera House stairs into the evening air. A quavering voice from the balcony replied, “They’s here, but they ain’t stayin’!” The audience began to buzz.
Harry realized he could never top this, and he took his bows to a standing, stomping ovation -- whistling and hollering and stamping of feet that lasted nearly ten minutes.
After the show, Harry and Bess walked down the main street, laughing and replaying the high points of the performance. Suddenly, two large nasty-looking men blocked their path.
“Callin’ us killers, Houdini, are you?” sneered Lafe Buckner. “You don’ know nuthin’ about it.” With that he pulled a straight razor out of his pocket and flicked it open. “Them spirits gonna help you now?”
Bess screamed. Without hesitation, Harry pushed her behind him, unfurled the jacket he was carrying, stepped in a tight arc to Buckner's side and with a whiplash motion coiled the jacket around the miner’s wrist, neutralizing the razor. With a smooth turn of his body, Harry pulled jacket and wrist downward and simultaneously gave the wobbling Buckner a vicious kick in the ribs. A sharp crack came from Buckner’s ribcage. He hit the ground like a sack of sod.
Meanwhile, Betler was pulling a pistol. Harry turned, put up his hand to protect Bess, and threw the jacket into Betler’s face. A shot rang out, instantly followed by a second shot and a loud yell, “Hi Yi-Yi!”
Betler crumpled to the ground screaming and grabbing his knee.
Harry saw a red-faced, bull-necked man with thick, short brown hair, wearing dainty pince-nez above shining cheeks, pointing a .44-40 Colt revolver with a smoking barrel. Theodore Roosevelt smiled, showing two rows of dazzling white teeth so even and large they reminded Harry of a set of ivory dominoes. He slowly put the gun back into its holster, flashing the buffalo engraved on its pearl grip.
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Teddy Roosevelt's double-action Colt .44-40 revolver
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"Good shot, Mister," Harry said. "Much obliged."
“About half a second too late, I'm afraid, young fellow,” Roosevelt said in a rasping baritone that seemed to chew the words with the tips of his huge teeth. “I followed those two gut-cutters when they ran out of the theater. Thought they’d probably do something interesting.” As he spoke, he pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt and locked one around Betler’s wrist, confiscating his pistol. He wound the chain through the wrought-iron filigree on a lamppost and locked the other cuff around Buckner’s wrist. Harry gave the securement a professional nod and extended his hand.
“Houdini,” he said. “You carry your own handcuffs?”
“Roosevelt. Dee-LIGHTED. Are you okay, Miss?”
"I'm a little shaken up, sir. Thanks for what you did. And Harry, that was wonderful!" She put her arms around him and let out a small sob.
The shots had attracted a crowd, including the rest of Dr. Hill’s troupe. The sheriff pushed his way through, with his six-gun drawn. “What in tarnation is going on here?” he shouted.
“Sheriff, name’s Roosevelt, from New York. Happen to be Police Commissioner there. These citizens of yours tried to assault Houdini and his wife here. We were just holding them for you.” He handed the dazed sheriff the gun, the razor and the handcuff key and turned to Harry.
Harry held up his hand. The bullet had lodged between his middle and ring finger. “Funny,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt. I heard Signor Blitz once caught a bullet with his bare hand….”
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X-ray showing bullet fragment in Houdini's hand (houdinihimself.com)
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“Doctor's office is just around the corner,” the sheriff said. "Say, is that Teddy Roosevelt?"
Roosevelt winked at the sheriff, then, joined by Unthan, Bill the Dog-Boy and the Keatons, walked Harry and Bess toward the doctor's office. “Loved your show, Houdini. I love ghosts that knock things down and eat fire. Not your Henry James kind of ghosts,” said Roosevelt. “Say, speaking of knocking down, what was that flying kick in the ribs you used to disarm that cut-throat? Very smooth, quick and deadly.”
“It’s called ju-jitsu. Learned it from a Japanese acrobat. You turn the other guy’s weight and strength against him. I just pulled his ribs into my foot, that's all."
“Japanese, eh? I was a pretty good boxer in college but that’s a move I’ve never seen. I’m going to get some training in that ju-jitsu. You probably don’t remember this, but I saw you back in Chicago at the World’s Fair. You were working an act on the Midway right next to Little Egypt, am I right?”
Harry beamed. “You saw that show? I was still partners with my brother Dash – the Houdini Brothers. That was before Bess and I met.”
Roosevelt turned to Bess. “You see, Ma’am – I’ve known him longer than you have.” Bess smiled. Addressing the entire crowd, he added: “And, say -- tell me another thing, all you Dr. Hill people -- what did you all think of Bryan’s speech?”
Roosevelt took careful note of their opinions and asked the same question to the real doctor as he treated Harry’s wound. He was unable to remove the entire bullet; Harry wore the fragment like a badge of honor for the rest of his life.
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sjsapush.com
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Bidding farewell to Harry and Bess, Roosevelt caught the midnight train, returned to New York and reported that the huge turnouts for Bryan were not dedicated voters but simply gawkers, gapers and curiosity-seekers, “that type of farmer whose gate hangs on one hinge, whose old hat supplies the place of a missing window-pane, and who is more likely to be found at the cross-roads grocery store than behind the plough.” The election results proved him right. President McKinley rewarded Roosevelt’s legwork by appointing him Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
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McKinley assassinated at Buffalo, NY (math.buffalo.edu)
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Five years later, Roosevelt was already Vice-President when an assassin shot McKinley through the heart.
ReplyDeleteRelated. New tintype discovery of houdini with roosevelt with quite a bit of mystery and sci fi to boot.
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