[Houdini at the Wintergarten, Berlin]

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Harry Houdini's name sits at the center of this 1903 color lithograph advertising his appearance at the Wintergarten in Berlin, a music hall and variety theater that drew large audiences in the early twentieth century. The poster comes from his second engagement at the venue, the first having taken place in October 1900, and it reflects how touring magicians of that era relied on bold, colorful bills to promote their shows across Europe. Printed in the decade when chromolithography was at its most ambitious, it is a useful record of how stage illusionists packaged themselves for European crowds before Houdini became a household name in America.

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