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Escaping From HandcuffsIn 1919 MovieMounted On Heavyweight Linen
Most Highly Prized As It Is Theatre-Used
This is the original 41 X 27 Houdini stone lithograph poster for the movie serial The Master Mystery--Episode One. The poster was originally displayed in 1919 at the Strand Theatre, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. My father, a young performer himself at the time, begged the poster from the manager. The Strand Theatre is pictured below as it existed then. The next photo shows my father performing at the Strand Theatre five years later.
The 15 Chapters of the movie serial were made in New York in 1918 and released in 1919 by B ‘A’ Rolfe, Harry Grossman, General Manager. It brought the daredevil escapes and hair-raising adventures of the legendary Harry Handcuff Houdini to the screen, and was the first time a robot was used in a motion picture.
Otis Lithograph Company printed the poster. It is a treasure from my father’s collection of magic memorabilia (Herman L. Weber, a/k/a Weber the Wizard, and Namreh, Namreh is Herman reversed, 1900 - 1953).
This item is the ONLY poster of Episode One available to you. There is one other thought to exist, but is part of the entire set of 15 Master Mystery Posters of the movie serial and as such would never be auctioned separately. Since this one-sheet was stored away from fading light, the colors are like new. (The red banner with the words Houdini appears to have breaks at the edges, but these simulated notches were a ...
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