The Grim Game: Houdini's Daring Escapes on the Big Screen

The year 2026 marks the centennial of legendary escapologist and magician Harry Houdini’s death. In recognition of his amazing life and the Library for the Performing Arts’ current exhibition Mystery & Wonder: a Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York, we will screen his 1919 silent film The Grim Game with live piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura. Houdini plays an intrepid young journalist framed for M**der after falling in love with a winsome ingénue played by Ann Forrest. Chases, dramatic escapes, and a real mid-air plane crash are only part of the fun. Following the screening, Dorothy Dietrich, magician and co-founder of the Houdini Museum, and magician and historian Richard Cohn will discuss the making of the film, its re-discovery and restoration, and Houdini’s legacy today.

Photo Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. "Harry Houdini in the film The Grim Game" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1919.

SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.

STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.

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Host or Publisher New York Public Library for the Performing Arts