Houdini Receives His Pay For His Performance of His Famed One-Man Show, Entitled Simply “Houdini”

Not just a signed sentiment, but a piece of his career

Houdini had a warm spot in his heart for Chicago, as that is where his career took off. A 19 year old Wisconsin native, his first major booking was at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, and thereafter he secured a regular booking performing at Chicago’s first acknowledged vaudeville theater, Kohl and Middleton’s Museum. It was in Chicago that Houdini received the call to travel as part of the Orpheum Circuit, a series of major nationwide vaudeville houses. In time he worked his way up to being the highest paid and most popular vaudeville performer in the country. He went on to appear in London and Berlin, and tour the world.

In 1926, Houdini opened a one-man show on Broadway, simply entitled “Houdini”. Performing to record crowds and rave reviews, he then took the show on the road. His last performance in Chicago was at the Princess Theater in early April 1926.

In the early years Houdini earned $20 per week, half of which he sent home to his mother, and this went to $60 on the Orpheum Circuit. He was soon making $125 per week. In 1900 he was booked to perform in Europe and became the highest paid entertainer there with amazing feats such as escaping from a pair of handcuffs in Scotland Yard in London and wriggling out of 50 feet of rope. Back home in New York City, he regularly performed as a vaudeville artist earning between $1000 and $1200 per week. Sometimes he would be booked for eight weeks at a time and receive $8,000. These were fabulous sums in those days, comparable to the salaries of film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. An average worker would earn in one year what Houdini saw in one week.

Houdini’s manager was Al Smith, and it was Smith’s job to handle bookings, interface with theater owners, and receive the monies due Houdini for his performances. Typed document signed, Chicago, April 6, 1926, being a receipt for Houdini’s pay for his Princess Theater performance. “Received of Al Smith, Manager, Houdini, the sum of $1100 (eleven hundred dollars).” It is signed “H. Houdini”, rather than just “Houdini” as usually seen.

This is a great rarity, being the first signed item of Houdini we have seen relating to his pay for his thrilling and perilous feats. Moreover, a search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up even one.

But soon this remarkable career would end. On August 5, 1926, Houdini performed his last great feat, escaping from an underwater tank after 91 minutes. His final show was on October 24. He died on October 31, 1926, of peritonitis.