Services at Elks Club by Jewish Theatrical Guild, N.V.A., Masons and Magicians

Funeral services for Harry Houdini, noted magician who died on Sunday in Detroit, will be held tomorrow morning at 10:30 at the Elks’ clubhouse in West Forty-third Street, when his associates on the stage and in the realm of magic will join to pay him tribute. Internment will be in the family plot at Machpelah Cemetery, Cypress Hills, Queens, in accordance with the magician’s request that he be buried at the right side of his mother and that her letters to him be placed in his coffin.

Rabbi Bernard Drachman and Rabbi B.A. Tintner will officiate at the Elks’ Club services. Brief eulogies will be delivered by Loney Haskell, representing the Jewish Theatrical Guild, and Henry Chesterfield, Secretary of the National Vaudeville Artists. Ritualistic rites will be conducted by the New York Lodge No. 1, B.P.O.E.: the St. Cecile Lodge of Masons and the Society of American Magicians.

The honorary pallbearers will be E.F. Albee, J.J. Murdock, Martin Beck, William Morris, L. Lawrence Weber, Lee Shubert, Mark A. Luescher, Charles Dillingham, Richard E. Enright, Adolph S. Ochs, William Johnson, Adolph Zukor, Orson Munn, Arthur Prince, Bernard M.L. Ernst, Professor Brandon Matthews, Joseph F. Rinn, Sophie Irene Loeb, Bernard Gimbel, Francis Werner and Oscar Teale.

The pallbearers will be members of the magician’s troupe who appeared with him in performances for many years.

The body of Houdini arrived in New York from Detroit yesterday morning and was taken from Grand Central Station to the West End Funeral Chapel, 200 West Ninety-first Street, where it will remain until tomorrow. Accompanying the body were the widow, Mrs. Beatrice Houdini; his sister, Gladys Houdini; his brothers, Theo Hardeen and Nat Weiss; James Collins, technical assistant to Houdini for twenty years; Sophie Rosenblatt, for many years the nurse of the magician, and H. Elliott Stuckel, his business manager. A large gathering of friends and relatives met the funeral party at the station.

It was said yesterday that plans for Houdini’s body to lie in state had been abandoned when such procedure was found not to be in sympathy with the wishes of his family.

This article is reproduced here only for educational purposes. Please do not copy the text or accompanying images for commercial use.