TLS signed “Houdini,” one page, 8.25 x 4.75, August 28, 1926. Letter to Edwin A. Dearn, in full: "A friend of mine Mr. John P. Spatz of the Boyertown Casket Company is going to Shanghai on business and have given him a letter of introduction to you. I know you will be interested to hear that he is the man to whom I am indebted for the use of the caskets while training for the under water coffin experiment. They have treated me very nicely in all of this and know you will be glad to meet him." In very good to fine condition, with trimmed edges and light soiling.
On August 5, 1926, Houdini performed the underwater coffin trick in the swimming pool at the Hotel Shelton in New York. Wired with a buzzer and telephone he could use in case of emergency, the 700-pound metal coffin was lowered into the pool by several of his assistants. Much to the astonishment of the journalists in attendance, Houdini emerged from the coffin some 91 minutes later, eclipsing the record set by Egyptian magician Rahman Bey, who a month earlier had remained submerged in a metal box for one hour at the swimming pool at New York’s Dalton Hotel. Tragically, Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, two months after having written this letter.
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