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| Houdini's inspiration, Dr. Lynn |
All the versions of the Houdini legend we've seen are quite consistent about the importance of Dr. H. S. Lynn in Harry’s life. The bios repeat the tale of how the future Houdini’s first exposure to magic took place when his father brought him to see Dr. Lynn’s famous Bloodless Vivisection; young Ehrich Weiss truly believed that the volunteer’s arm, leg and head were being cut off.
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| A poster depicting Dr. Lynn's Bloodless Vivisection: "Another Man Cut Up Tonight!" |
This signal event is purported to have taken place in Milwaukee, sometime in 1885. Ehrich would have been 11 years old.
Here’s the problem: it never happened.
This conclusion became inescapable after we combed the records for anything that would place Dr. Lynn in America in 1885. An expert researcher and magic historian in London, Mr. Dean Arnold, has established conclusively that virtually every day of Dr. Lynn’s career from May 1882 through 1886 is accounted for. We helped Dean confirm that according to historical record, Dr. Lynn never came to America during that period.
What about other years? Dr. Lynn (a British naval veteran whose real name appears to have been John H.S. Simmons and who claimed he really was a medical doctor) definitely played Bunnell’s Museum in New York City for a six-month engagement that lasted until the end of January, 1882. After that he drops out of sight until May, when he turns up again in England “after a long American tour.” Did that tour include Wisconsin? It does not appear to have, or at least it never got mentioned or advertised in the show business newspaper of record, the New York Dramatic Mirror. The same goes for the Milwaukee newspapers.
In 1886, the last year Ehrich Weiss lived in Milwaukee, Dr. Lynn played Australia and New Zealand.
But Harry’s memory of the episode is so vivid! It does have the ring of truth to it. How could it be made up?
Our belief is that Harry was fooled. Not by Dr. Lynn, but by one of Lynn’s impostors.
Lynn’s act was such a hit that it inspired more than one imitator, both in England and abroad. One impostor beat the Doctor to Australia in 1886 and performed under his name for six months. Lynn took out newspaper ads condemning the faker.
Here are two notices Dean's research unearthed from November 7, 1885 placing the real Lynn in Bath, England (performing with his longtime partner Lt. Cole) on the same day someone using his name was working the curio hall at Bunnell's Museum in New Haven, Connecticut.
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| See last full line |
So we contend that a bogus Dr. Lynn was working the USA in 1885. In the absence of the slightest shred of evidence to the contrary, we are forced to conclude that the future Houdini most likely saw an impostor that fateful day in Milwaukee.
The real Dr. Lynn may go down in history as the man who inspired Houdini, but it's the fake Dr. Lynn who fooled him - and us.
(With deep gratitude to our expert friend in London, Mr. Dean Arnold.)
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(Images: Google, NY Dramatic Mirror, 'Anonymous', allposters.com)
The Ever Great Saltini rules! I'd love to see the photo in the upper right corner.
ReplyDeleteRight now you're probably asking yourself, "What has The Great Saltini done for us lately?" Great stuff, Saltini!!"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words!
ReplyDeleteFor the latest adventures of The Great Saltini, start with: http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/01/last-of-inis.html
Then visit the blog entries for January 23, February 14, February 21 and February 28, 2012.
Fascinating! On page 400 of The Key, Culliton mentions Houdini was an eight year old when his father took him to see Dr. Lynn. Kalush says he was 12, others say 9 and 11, and Silverman doesn’t even mention the incident. Either way, it looks like the real Dr. Lynn wasn’t around. He would have been only 7 when Dr. Lynn did his 6 month tour in New York. Great work by you and your friend in London.
ReplyDeleteTelling that Silverman doesn't mention it at all. He was very brave in his book that if something couldn't be verified he would leave it out. Certainly not the approach other biographies take.
DeleteThe Key has Ehrich seeing Dr. Lynn at two different ages in two different places in the book, if I recall correctly. We toyed with the notion that Dr. Weiss took Ehrich to NY in 1882, at age 8, but why would the future Houdini think it happened in Milwaukee? Also, the expense of such a trip would probably be prohibitive.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words! We live by them!
This is dynamite stuff, David! I wonder what the truth is? Thanks to you we know know it couldn't have been Dr. Lynn. But did HH see and impostor, or did this never happen? Might be good to try and find the very first mention of the Dr. Lynn story.
ReplyDeleteI know it was mentioned in the Kellock book and he was 9 in that version, but that doesn't help us much in getting to the truth.
ReplyDeleteManny Weltman supports your research. On page 10 of The Early Years, he speculates Houdini may have seen an imitation of Lynn’s act by a traveling medicine show and quite possibly without his father. It is not likely that Rabbi Weiss could have afforded to take his children to a stage show as the family was dirt poor in Milwaukee.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the Dr. Lynn story is based on what Houdini claimed happened.
Ah, THAT'S where I read this. I knew the notion that it was an imitator had been suggested somewhere.
DeleteIn my opinion, the story is way too vivid for Harry to have made it up. I believe he saw someone he thought was Dr. Lynn. (Or maybe we're missing something about those mystery months between January and May 1882.) Plus the fact that he later bought the Dr.'s act from one of his sons. the whole thing has the ring of truth to it.
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating article.
ReplyDeleteMy great-grandmother was discovered either by John Neville Maskelyne or Dr Lynn in c.1883 in Wales. Family legend handed down the generations tells me it was Maskelyne - whereas the newspaper reports tell me it was Dr Lynn.
My great-grandmother was the original Thauma - the living half lady. She took Thauma to America in 1884. American newspaper accounts clearly identifies that it was my great-grandmother in America in 1884 performing her act after being in Crystal Palace in England with Dr Lynn. I can find no account that Dr Lynn was in America with her in 1884.
She seemed to have taken herself off from London to America all by herself without Dr Lynn. Family legend says she was the famous actress Mary Anderson's understudy and that's how she came to be in America in 1884. But instead of being Anderson's understudy, she carried on with Thauma.
In much later newspaper reports of the early 1900s, my great-grandmother claims to have invented Thauma - but I have strong suspicions it was a Maskelyne and/or Dr Lynn invention. But my great-grandmother took it to new success after her marriage in 1884 to an American/Canadian showman Joseph Charles LaBrecque. They showed Thauma at venues such as Madison Square Gardens, Eden Musee, Austin & Stones, Coney Island, Barnum & Bailey's circuses, Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows.
Another Thauma appears to be Australia the same time my great-grandmother was in America - was this the fake Thauma/Dr Lynn? I always suspected that there were a couple of Thaumas - as my great grandmother was performing Thauma in London and America from 1884 to the 1900s yet newspaper reports show that there was another Thauma at this time in Paris & Australia.
So I'd guessed there was 2 Thaumas. But I hadn't realised there was a fake Dr Lynn! The fact that Dr Lynn wasn't in America in 1884/5 now fits in with my family legend that it was Mary Anderson who took her to America. And for her own reasons, my great-grandmother decided to claim the Thauma act as her own.
My great-grandmother handed down through the generations credible legends (supported by her oldest son's memoirs - he was born in 1885 during the height of his mother's Thauma career) that she and her husband were firm friends with Houdini.
I have photos of my great-grandmother performing her Thauma act.
Would love to see those pictures. Can you scan a sample?
ReplyDeleteApologies - I didnt get a notification that you'd replied. Hopefully this link will show you her.
DeleteI would love to solve the family mystery as to precisely when and why she left for America. She was at Crystal Palace Easter 1884 and in America giving birth to her son by the following Easter.
https://www.facebook.com/KateJCole/photos/a.457978100992474/950312915092321/?type=3&theater
Thanks! Great picture! Paging Houdiniphiles: any ideas for the Essex Voices past history mavens?
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