HOUDINI AND MARTIN LEHMAN.
The Orpheum Manager Gave the "Hand-
cuff King" His Start in Vaudeville.
Harry Houdini, the feature attraction at the Orpheum theater this week, got his start in vaudeville in Kansas City. In the early days of his career Houdini was a contortionist, trapeze performer and general utility man with the Jack Hoefler Circus, and later a member of a company of barnstormers.
One of his turns was to permit himself to be tied to a chair with ropes, from which he would extricate himself. One day while playing in Chetopa, Kas., with a small traveling show, Houdini asked for volunteers to come up and tie him. A sheriff, who happened to be present with a pair of handcuffs, cried out, "If you let me come on the stage I will tie you with these so you cannot escape." Houdini had never seen a pair of handcuffs before. The idea of using them as a feature suggested itself to him and he hence took up the study of locks. He acquired several pairs of handcuffs and in a short time acquired the faculty of extricating himself from them.
He went to Chicago where he met Mr. Walters, then president of the Orpheum circuit, and importuned him to give him an engagement on the circuit.
Mr. Walters, impressed with the young man's eloquence, sent him to Kansas City with a letter of instructions to Martin Lehman, manager of the Orpheum. Instructions in the letter were to "try this Houdini, and if his act was good to book him on the circuit." On receipt of the letter Mr. Lehman coached Houdini thoroughly and put him on the bill. Houdini met with such pronounced success he was given a contract over the entire Orpheum circuit. Since that time he has traveled all over the world.
