Miss Undina | A Houdini imitator—and near homophone

Miss Undina

Miss Undina in ihrem neuen sensationellen Entfesselungs-Act aus der Fussfolter (unter Wasser!). Berlin: Stern-Druckerei B. Hoenig, [1912] (no. R. 6.3112)

Color lithograph poster (37 x 28 1/4 in.; 940 x 717 mm). Signed in the stone lower left W. Rabe; lightly browned, restored with some recoloring and repaired tears and creases. Laid down on linen.

A very rare poster, which Houdini sued to suppress. "Houdini's tour of Germany inspired a number of brazen imitations. Two German impresarios [Ernst Babst and Ernst Schwandtke] hired a daring young woman to present an effective copy of the Water Torture Cell. Her real name isn't recorded. but her stage name, Undina, was a brilliant choice. Undine was the name of a mythical water nymph, and Undina sounded, to the casual listener, like Houdini" (Magic).

Houdini sued for patent infringement, and Landgericht Berlin (that is, the Berlin regional court) issued an injunction forbidding the defendants "To use or publicly exhibit the Lithograph of Miss Undina, which represents an escape from a foot pillory under water" (see Houdini's quad-lingual publication of the injunction in the German trade publication Das Programm, no. 557; for a reproduction of Houdini's notice, see https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2012/11/the-undina-affair.html). 

While Houdini resented Undina's plagiarism, he appreciated the commercial potential of her act, and he hired a German escape artist named Wanda Timm to perform the Water Torture Cell as "Miss Trixy," using a duplicate apparatus that he provided.

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 214; Magic, p. 456; cf. Kenneth Silverman, Houdini!!! (1996), pp. 167–68