“I am not much of a vaudeville follower, but it happens that I saw him [Houdini] at the old Keith’s Theatre here nearly a quarter of a century ago [c. 1905] it must have been at the very outset of his career, for he was not then especially well known.” — H.P. Lovecraft, letter to Henneberger, 2nd February 1924.

Poster (apparently genuine?) advertising Houdini’s 1905 tour, in this case the Newport stop in New England. The word “Metamorphosis” would surely have caught the 15 or 16 year-old Lovecraft’s eye.