Houdini loved Paris, and who doesn’t?
Harry and Bess spent a lot of time in Paris in the early 1900s, yet it gets very little attention in all the biographies. This even though Paris was the site of his most brilliant publicity stunt and the most important of his lifelong historical researches.
Harry and Bess took a flat at 32 rue de Bellefond, in the 9e arrondissement — a love nest they called “a little home of our own.”
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| 32 rue de Bellefond today. The building has been renovated. |
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| #35, across the street. This is how Houdini's building probably looked in 1901-2. |
From his headquarters there, Harry explored Paris on foot. He fell in love with the “bouqinistes,” the booksellers along the Seine in the shadow of Notre-Dame. This was the beginning of his famous library, and his first introduction to the "Diamond Necklace Affair," which we'll explore in detail in future posts.
At the popular Cafe de Paris he got his most brilliant publicity idea.
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| Wall mosaic from a painting by Fabrice de Villeneuve |
He seated seven bald-headed men along the sidewalk, each wearing a beret. As people walked by, the men doffed their caps one after another, revealing, inked on their heads, the letters H-O-U-D-I-N-I.
COMING UP: HOUDINI & THE DIAMOND NECKLACE
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Please credit the art works of all the artists from whom you have borrowed these images on your blog. It is not ethical to make use of their work and not credit them. It costs you nothing to put a small caption below each with the details of the artist, but to them it makes all the difference.
ReplyDeleteOur apologies. The paintings on this post are now all credited. Thanks for pointing out our shortcoming.
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