Escape Artist, Magician, Inventor, Honest Cheat: How Following His Passion Unlocked Terry Roses' Career

One of the perks of being a journalist, blogger or freelance writer is getting the opportunity to interview and get to know interesting people They're all around us, actually, but since most of our day-to-day interactions tend to be superficial we never really discover the depths that we could discover if we'd make time to listen.

I met Terry Roses through my association with the late John Bushey, multi-faceted host of the KUMD radio program Highway 61 Revisited. In addition to being a teacher and Dylanophile, John was a master magician and a collector of Houdini memorabilia. His fascination with the escape artist also contributed to his becoming not only a collector of handcuffs and shackles, but of becoming an escape artist himself.

What I didn't know, until I'd known him several years, was that John's mentor in the escape and magic arts was Terry Roses.

They say do what you love, and the rest will take care of itself. That's Terry Roses' career got its start.

Like many a youth (myself included), when Roses was in high school he became fascinated with Harry Houdini. Unlike many, he pursued his passion to the same degree as his idol/hero. He learned everything he could about escaping from handcuffs, ropes and other devices, and followed up with audacious demonstrations of his developing skills.

On one occasion, while in high school, he had himself locked up along with a dynamite bomb that would go off and kill him if he failed to escape in time. (You can be sure no school would allow students to perform that trick today.)

Roses and his friend Bruce Liptak challenged the L.A. police to attempt to bind them "with enough irons that they could not escape." The police accepted the challenge, and the young men succeeded in escaping as promised.

By means of his magic and escape escapades, Terry Roses raised most of the money for his high school prom, which chose as its theme that year Lollipops and Roses, a tribute to Terry. According to Roses, he paid his way through college by breaking out of jails all over the West coast.

The audacious Harry Houdini, in straighjacket and shackles.

Like Houdini, he was much more than an escape artist. Magic, illusions and inventing new tricks opened doors for Terry Roses around the world.

Terry Roses, a Cloquet native, moved to Orange County, California when he was 15, where he lived until returning here to Duluth in 1975. Something he became fond of was entertaining high school students during all-nighters that various schools held. When his young protege John Bushey go bit by the magic arts bug, Bushey would follow this same path, entertaining young people with his own bag of tricks. Together they travelled the world performing magic and rubbing shoulders with the today's greatest living magicians.

Wherever Terry goes he's a good story.

Besides escape tricks, another facet of Houdini's career was disproving mediums and revealing frauds. In this, Terry Roses has also emulated the great master magician. Terry's contemporary application of this was to become The Honest Cheat. Roses became an expert in identifying the ways gamblers cheat, and the variety of ways they mark cards, "load" dice, etc.

It was against this background that Roses began working with many of the largest casinos to eliminate fraud and catch cheats. By means of endless experimentation and research in his "laboratory of magic" Roses developed a low cost device for identifying marked cards called the Inspecta Card Scanner. 
 
A recent visit to Roses studio gave opportunity to hear many new stories about this unassuming man whose pursuit of a passion led to a career that opened many unexpected doors.

It's been a privilege getting to know this clever, talented man.

Related Links
The Handcuff Kings
How to Detect Marked Cards

Potter & Potter to Feature Rare John Bushey Houdini Memorabilia in October 20 Auction

The first 15 pages of this catalog feature items from
the John Bushey collection. Smaller items are
likewise sprinkled throughout.*

Auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's are frequently in the news when an important painting by Picasso sells or original handwritten lyrics from a famous Bob Dylan song. Less well known to the public-at-large, though not to their clients and fans, is an auction house in Chicago called Potter & Potter which has announced that their October 20 auction will include the late John Bushey's collection of Houdini pitch books and other magic memorabilia. Bushey, long time host of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited Dylan-themed radio program, was also a highly respected magician and collector.**

Potter & Potter specializes in the sale of collectibles and antiques of all types, including paper Americana, vintage advertising, rare books, coin-op, playing cards, gambling memorabilia, vintage posters, prints and magicana -- antiques and collectibles focused on magic and magicians. If unable to attend, buyers can bid online or by phone.

The Bushey Collection is possibly the most complete collection of its kind in the world. Harry Houdini was not only a masterful magician, he was likewise a masterful promoter. For each show wherever he went he would produce a new pitch book or program that told his story. Each was unique for each city he travelled to. When I got the "grand tour" of John's handcuff collection in 2014, he said that he had acquired all but two of these.

Close-up photo of a portion of John Bushey collection

Houdiniana
OCTOBER 20, 2018 • 10:00 AM

Our October sale features the Houdini collection of John Bushey. Known as a true scholar and student of all things Houdini and escape related, John assembled one of the best collections of Houdini pitch books and related items in America. Bushey's collection will be complemented by a strong selection of magic memorabilia, books, and posters. In addition, the auction will feature a selection of choice antique apparatus, and the largest collection of Mikame Craft-made props to ever come to market. A collection of original props, books, and decorative objects from the collection of Kalanag, the famous German illusionist, will also be in the auction. Catalogs ship approximately three weeks prior to the auction. Previews take place in our Chicago gallery October 18 -19, from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

* * * *

Potter & Potter has a full staff of people trained in all aspects of the business but, according to their webesite the two principles are Gabe and Sami Fajuri, with their experience listed as follows:

Gabe Fajuri
Finding and auctioning rare and unusual objects is Gabe's passion. Widely regarded as an authority on magic history and collectibles, he co-founded the auction house in 2007, after conducting a not-to-be-believed appraisal of Jay Marshall's legendary collection (to read the story of this Herculean task, click here). Since then, he's discovered and brought to market an astonishing variety of material, from original Houdini mementos, to rare posters, early books, and more.

Sami Fajuri
Our managing auctioneer, Sami brings decades of experience in the fields of antiques, paper Americana and collectibles to Potter & Potter. Sami has a strong background in the auction and collecting fields, having operated a wholesale auction firm specializing in philately and cartophily for over 15 years. Other areas of specialty include antiquarian books and tobacciana.

The late John Bushey, 2014. Houdini booklets on John's right, rare books to his left.

Potter & Potter auctions off more than just magicana. Their auctions feature rare manuscripts, posters, circus and Wild West, movie and music memorabilia, gaming, antiques and other valuables, though when you scroll through past and future auction listings this is clearly one of the places magicians and fans of the magic arts like to go shopping, or collecting. 

Related Links

Wild About Harry

Houdini Straitjacket Sells for Over $46,000

Potter & Potter Home Page

* Those wishing to know specifically which lots or items were part of the Bushey collection may contact Terry Roses, John's mentor, via his website at DetectMarkedCards.com

** Dylan was once asked "If you could go back in time to experience any one moment in time, what would it be?" and he replied, "To see Houdini shackled and placed in a chest when he was dropped into the East River. Here is John Bushey performing a bit of Houdini magic at the 2014 Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan.

The Handcuff Kings

This past weekend I had the rare opportunity to visit the "museum" of magician John Bushey, known locally as the host of the KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited these past 21 years. I say museum because of the extensive nature of his collection as well as the almost reverential manner in which it is displayed.

Bushey was a geologist in college, fossils being one of his early interests. It's easy to see the connection between fossils and magic, and any interest in magic eventually leads to a fascination with the master magician/escape artist Harry Houdini. In his time the extent of Houdini's fame cannot be overstated, and his understanding of locks, handcuffs and other restraining devices was unsurpassed.

Amazing photo of Houdini wrapped in locks, chains and cuffs.

The documented stories of legendary Houdini escapes are legion. Dylan himself once said that if he could go back in time to see one event in history, he would like to have seen Houdini's escape from box and chains when he was dropped into New York's East River. Houdini baffled experts on both sides of the Atlantic, from the U.S. to Scotland Yard and all points east. At one time he escaped from a jail cell that housed Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield.

The Bushey collection of Houdini memorabilia is probably the largest in the world by any private collector. He has several shelves of printed material, much of it so rare that only two or three are known to be in existence today, specifically the very rare Houdini pitchbooks. You see, Houdini would print up pitchbooks for each event or performance, re-telling his story in various ways, highlighting and embellishing various features of his life. In addition to these rare books, Bushey also has all, or nearly all, existing biographies, including some in Russian and other languages. "Including the dustjackets," Bushey notes with pride.

Along with the books and posters, he has a whole room devoted to the handcuffs themselves. Palmer Leg Irons, Romer Leg Irons, Phelps Handcuffs, Romer Handcuffs, Maltby Hancuff with round keyhole, McColl Séance Handcuff, Forgatt Plug Handcuffs, Boer War type handcuffs, Caveney Bottleneck cuffs, Houdini Russian Manacle, 1869 Wisner Hoyt Handcuffs, Maltby Nipper, Bushey Hamburg 8, Palmer Neck Collar, Adams Handcuff Patented 1862, Rankin Handcuff, French Lettercuffs -- hundreds of cuffs of all kinds, each with a history. Some of these were so horrible they were outlawed, and when one contemplates their use one has a vivid picture of the extent of man's inhumanity to man.

The prize piece in his collection is one of Houdini's 'Handcuff King Breaker' handcuffs. It is an original Lily Iron that was altered so that the locking mechanism works differently and uses a different key than normal Lily Irons. Houdini would use the "breakers" to stump imitators and other escape artists.

In addition to handcuffs and leg irons, there is an unbelievable assortment of thumbcuffs as well. Bushey not only collects such things, he has also mastered the art of making them and has an in depth understanding of the nature of lock smithing, safe cracking and all the rest.

During his lifetime, Houdini was the handcuff king. John Bushey may very well be the handcuff king of our generation. He just doesn't make such a show of it.

Thank you, John.