[HOUDINI - CHALLENGE ARCHIVE] Old Australian Convict Ship Archive. 1910s - 30s. A group of souvenirs, publications, postcards, and photographs related to this unusual traveling exhibit. Houdini escaped from one of the cells aboard the ship in 1913 at the 79th Street boat basin in New York City

Included are a souvenir booklet INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY HOUDINI on the first page, "Yes - Yes I beat this good old ship / HOUDINI" most likely obtained during or around the time of his famous challenge; and a three-color window card advertising the ship's exhibition in Michigan City, Indiana; six publications related to the ship and its purported history (in cloth and pictorial wraps); seven metal souvenirs featuring images of the ship, most made from copper supposedly extracted from the ship; 15 souvenir postcards showing the ship docked in various harbors, its prison cells, or torture devices aboard the vessel; a sepia tone image of the ship and an interior news service photo of the cells; one newspaper clipping regarding Houdini's challenge escape; a brochure for its stop in Cleveland, Ohio; and five other souvenir pitch books (all with the same content). Largest item framed to 27 x 19"; most objects 8vo or smaller. 

In 1913, Houdini returned home from Europe to play Hammerstein's Victoria in Manhattan. Waiting in the port was the old Convict Ship Success, and its captain, D.H. Smith. The prison transport vessel was brought to the city as a floating museum of incarceration. Visitors could tour its confines, pose with shackles on their wrists, inspect the shipboard cells, and learn its "history" for a mere fifty cents. As a publicity stunt, Houdini was challenged to escape from one of the ship's below-deck cells.

On June 4th, the magician and his entourage appeared at the docks along with a large crowd of onlookers. Surviving news reel footage shows him successfully completing the escape, emerging from water near the convict ship with a wax figure in tow (these were used in exhibits of the cells aboard the vessel). Houdini eventually rode off the site as a triumphant hero in a waiting automobile. Despite the fanfare surrounding the event, it is little-mentioned in biographies of the magician. 

The Success was in fact a money-making exhibit and not a genuine prison transport ship, designed to sell tickets, and not to hold prisoners on their journey to the Antipodes. It remained in service as traveling exhibit of sorts for another three decades, sailing from destination to destination, meeting curious ticket-buying onlookers at each port of call. 

Signed booklet with browned pages and minor chipping to leaves, most other objects in good to very good or near fine condition.