A Ghost of the Gilded Age Found
The lavish estate we see featured in Houdini's The Man From Beyond, has finally been identified. The Gilded Age mansion of Prof. Crawford Strange (played by Albert Tavernier) was actually known as Pembroke. The Pembroke estate was located at Glen Cove, Long Island in New York. In the 1922 film , we are first introduced to Pembroke with the arrival of a newly thawed-out Houdini driven through the famous front gates of the estate. This residence is also the backdrop for Houdini's 'human fly' climb where he confronts Jane Connelly's Felice after escaping from the asylum. Built in 1916 by C.P.H. Gilbert for the prominent mine owner and financial speculator, Captain Joseph Raphael DeLamar, Pembroke contained 82 rooms and 60,000 square feet of living space. This Gold Coast mansion was one of the largest in the United States and featured numerous long party rooms to entertain hundreds of guests. Filled with all the luxuries found in the over-the-top ma