Hardeen, Theodore "Dash" (Ferenc Dezső Weisz) | The King of Handcuffs

Hardeen, Theodore "Dash" (Ferenc Dezső Weisz)

Hardeen Challenged … Hardeen Accepts the Challenge and Will Make the Attempt 2nd House Wednesday, April 4th, 1906 at the Empress. Hartlepool: F. W. Mason, Printed and Manufacturing Stationer, 1906

Letterpress broadside poster (30 1/8 x 19 7/8 in.; 765 x 505 mm). Printed in blue with metal and wood types, woodcut portrait of Hardeen in shackles; rebacked, closing a number of small marginal tears and chips, some soiling at margins some offsetting from being folded before the ink was fully dry. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas.

The central portion of the broadside reproduces the text of the challenge sent to Hardeen, 2 April 1906, by the Durham County Police: "Seeing on the hoardings that you defy the police of the world to hold you, we wish to let you know that we think we have a method of fastening you from which you cannot escape. Now we have in our possession a regulation strait jacket the same as used by asylum authorities, and if you will allow us to strap you into it in the same manner as the dangerous criminal lunatics are fastened, we will call at the Empress any night you may suggest."

The younger brother of Houdini, Hardeen frequently promoted his appearances as responses to public challenges. He was the first escape artist to free himself from a straitjacket in full view of the audience.