Before Houdini Became Houdini: Greg Duhamel Investigates the Woonsocket Years
By Larrian Gillespie, MD
Before Harry Houdini became a name that could fill a theater, he and Bess faced the challenge of keeping their act—and themselves—afloat. According to cemetery conservator and researcher Greg Duhamel, an important chapter of that struggle unfolded in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
I spoke with Greg about his forthcoming book, the local records behind it, and his work protecting historic burial grounds. We quickly discovered we had something in common: years spent trying to save cemeteries whose stories were in danger of disappearing.
A Family Connection to Preservation
Greg’s great-great-grandparents were caretakers at a historic cemetery in Woonsocket. Today, he volunteers to protect neglected cemeteries, burial grounds threatened by development, and Indigenous historical and sacred lands.
“We give back,” he told me. “We don’t get anything from it.”
I understood that immediately. In Mendocino, I worked to help preserve Little River and Evergreen cemeteries and operated a mourning museum to raise money for their restoration and care.
The storytelling on old tombstones has always fascinated me. Their symbols and inscriptions tell us things about the people buried beneath them that a name and two dates cannot. Once you learn to recognize those symbols, you begin noticing them everywhere. I still cannot look at an old picture frame without checking for ivy or another indication that it was intended as a remembrance.
Greg’s work requires that same attention to what others might overlook. He described helping protect 300 acres of Indigenous land near Bellingham, Massachusetts, and Woonsocket from a proposed housing development. Recognizing the historical significance of the landscape, he explained, was essential to making the case for its preservation.
His research into Houdini also began close to home, with evidence of a history that deserved closer examination.
The Woonsocket Engagements
Greg’s book examines Houdini’s appearances in Woonsocket in 1895 and 1896, before he became an international celebrity. To reconstruct those engagements, Greg gathered newspaper clippings, show flyers and advertisements from historical society archives, then worked through letters and published accounts.
According to Greg, Houdini was already using handcuff and jail-cell escapes to attract publicity for his performances. But the story Greg describes also includes a financial disaster that threatened Harry and Bess’s ability to continue working.
In 1896, Greg told me, a tour manager stole money from ticket sales. Arrests followed, but Harry and Bess were left in such difficult circumstances that they considered selling their performance equipment to get back to New York.
That would have meant giving up the very equipment they needed to earn a living.
Greg sees the Woonsocket experience as a turning point in Houdini’s developing ambition to become the principal attraction.
“He made himself the headliner,” Greg said. “He made himself the showman of the show.”
That is Greg’s interpretation of the events he has researched. His book gives readers an opportunity to examine the evidence behind it and consider where these engagements belong in Houdini’s early career.
What the Local Records Reveal
I asked Greg whether Escaping Obscurity had covered the Woonsocket story. He said it had touched on the subject briefly, including a favorable account Houdini gave of his reception in the city.
As Greg described it, Houdini praised the experience and expressed an interest in returning. That account did not include the financial troubles Greg associates with the 1896 engagement.
A performer’s recollection and a local newspaper report can preserve very different parts of the same visit. Bringing those records together is one reason a detailed local study can add to a broader biography.
Greg’s research also examines a dispute between Houdini and a rival performer from Woonsocket over credit for early handcuff and prison escapes.
Greg says he has located evidence of a Houdini jail-cell escape in 1895, nearly seven years before the rival’s claim as he dates it. He regards that chronology as one of the significant findings in his book.
For Houdini researchers, the contemporary documentation will be particularly interesting. Claims of originality were part of the competition between performers, and establishing the dates and details of individual escapes is essential to evaluating those claims.
Harry and Bess Before Fame
Although Greg’s book extends from Houdini’s early magic career through his death in 1926, Woonsocket is its particular focus.
These early engagements bring us back to a time when Harry and Bess had no assurance that their years of work would lead to success. They had to attract audiences, cover expenses, and find the next opportunity to perform.
During our conversation, I described this as the period when people are down to their last dime and must find a way forward through creativity and determination. Greg agreed.
Harry and Bess were considering selling the very equipment they needed to earn a living. Before Houdini could build his reputation as an escape artist, they had to find a way to keep working.
Greg told me he plans to release the book on October 31, 2026, the hundredth anniversary of Houdini’s death.
I asked where readers could get it. The book will be available at www.gregoryduhamel.com and on Amazon beginning October 31. He isn’t taking preorders. I’ll be in Budapest when the book comes out, so I told Greg to save me a copy—I want to see those 1895 newspaper reports for myself.
