Harry Houdini

He began his magic career in 1891.

He had little success.

He performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as "The Wild Man" at a circus.

Houdini focused initially on traditional card tricks.

At one point, he billed himself as the "King of Cards".

He soon began experimenting with escape acts.

In 1893, while performing with his brother "Dash" (Theodore) at Coney Island as "The Brothers Houdini," Harry met a fellow performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner.

Bess was initially courted by Dash, but she and Houdini married in 1894, with Bess replacing Dash in the act, which became known as "The Houdinis."

For the rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess worked as his stage assistant.

Houdini's big break came in 1899 when he met manager Martin Beck in rural Woodstock, Illinois.

Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit.

Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country.

In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.

After some days of unsuccessful interviews in London, Houdini managed to interest Dundas Slater, then manager of the Alhambra Theatre.

He gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard, and succeeded in baffling the police so effectively that he was booked at the Alhambra for six months.

Houdini became widely known as "The Handcuff King."

He toured England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia.

In each city, Houdini challenged local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails.

In many of these challenge escapes, Houdini was first stripped nude and searched.

In Moscow, Houdini escaped from a Siberian prison transport van.

Houdini claimed that, had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia, where the only key was kept.

In Cologne, he sued a police officer, Werner Graff, who alleged that he made his escapes via bribery.

Houdini won the case when he opened the judge's safe (he later said the judge had forgotten to lock it).

With his new-found wealth, Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria.

He then arranged a grand reception where he presented his mother in the dress to all their relatives. Houdini said it was the happiest day of his life.

In 1904, Houdini returned to the U.S. and purchased a house for $25,000, a brownstone at 278 W. 113th Street in Harlem, New York City.

From 1907 and throughout the 1910s, Houdini performed with great success in the United States.

He freed himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in sight of street audiences.

Because of imitators, on January 25, 1908, Houdini put his "handcuff act" behind him and began escaping from a locked, water-filled milk can.

The possibility of failure and death thrilled his audiences.

Houdini also expanded his repertoire with his escape challenge act, in which he invited the public to devise contraptions to hold him.

These included nailed packing crates (sometimes lowered into water), riveted boilers, wet sheets, mailbags, and even the belly of a whale that had washed ashore in Boston.

Brewers in Scranton, Pennsylvania and other cities challenged Houdini to escape from a barrel after they filled it with beer.

Many of these challenges were pre-arranged with local merchants in one of the first uses of mass tie-in marketing.

Rather than promote the idea that he was assisted by spirits, as did the Davenport Brothers and others, Houdini's advertisements showed him making his escapes via dematerializing, although Houdini himself never claimed to have supernatural powers.

In 1912, Houdini introduced perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water.

The act required that Houdini hold his breath for more than three minutes. Houdini performed the escape for the rest of his career.

During his career, Houdini explained some of his tricks in books written for the magic brotherhood.

In Handcuff Secrets (1909), he revealed how many locks and handcuffs could be opened with properly applied force, others with shoestrings.

Other times, he carried concealed lockpicks or keys, being able to regurgitate small keys at will.

When tied down in ropes or straitjackets, he gained wiggle room by enlarging his shoulders and chest, moving his arms slightly away from his body, and then dislocating his shoulders.

His straitjacket escape was originally performed behind curtains, with him popping out free at the end.

Houdini's brother, (who was also an escape artist, billing himself as Theodore Hardeen), discovered that audiences were more impressed when the curtains were eliminated so they could watch him struggle to get out.

For publicity, on more than one occasion, they both performed straitjacket escapes while dangling upside-down from the roof of a building.

For most of his career, Houdini was a headline act in vaudeville.

For many years, he was the highest-paid performer in American vaudeville.

One of Houdini's most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed at New York's Hippodrome Theater, when he vanished a full-grown elephant (with its trainer) from the stage, beneath which was a swimming pool.

In 1923, Houdini became president of Martinka & Co., America's oldest magic company. The business is still in operation today.

He also served as President of the Society of American Magicians (aka S.A.M.) from 1917 until his death in 1926.

Founded on May 10, 1902 in the back room of Martinka's magic shop in New York, the Society expanded under the leadership of Harry Houdini during his term as National President from 1917 to 1926.

Houdini was magic's greatest visionary.

He sought to create a large, unified national network of professional and amateur magicians.

Wherever he traveled, Houdini gave a lengthy formal address to the local magic club, made speeches, and usually threw a banquet for the members at his own expense.

He said "The Magicians Clubs as a rule are small: they are weak...but if we were amalgamated into one big body the society would be stronger, and it would mean making the small clubs powerful and worth while. Members would find a welcome wherever they happened to be and, conversely, the safeguard of a city-to-city hotline to track exposers and other undesirables."

For most of 1916, while on his vaudeville tour, Houdini, at his own expense, had been recruiting local magic clubs to join the S.A.M. in an effort to revitalize what he felt was a weak organization.

Houdini persuaded groups in Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City to join.

As had happened in London, Houdini persuaded magicians to join.

The Buffalo club joined as the first branch, (later assembly) of the Society.

Chicago Assembly No. 3 was, as the name implies, the third regional club to be established by the S.A.M., whose assemblies now number in the hundreds.

In 1917, he signed Assembly Number Three's charter into existence, and that charter and this club continue to provide Chicago magicians with a connection to each other and to their past.

Houdini dined with, addressed, and got pledges from similar clubs in Detroit, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Cincinnati and elsewhere.

This was the biggest movement ever in the history of magic.

In places where no clubs existed, he rounded up individual magicians, introduced them to each other, and urged them into the fold.

By the end of 1916, magicians' clubs in San Francisco and other cities that Houdini had not visited were offering to become assemblies.

He had created the richest and longest-surviving organization of magicians in the world.

It now embraces almost 6,000 dues-paying members and almost 300 assemblies worldwide.

In July, 1926, Houdini was elected for the ninth successive time President of the Society of American Magicians. Every other president has only served for one year.

He also was President of the Magicians' Club of London.

In the final years of his life (1925/26), Houdini launched his own full-evening show, which he billed as "Three Shows in One: Magic, Escapes, and Fraud Mediums Exposed".

In 1904, the London Daily Mirror newspaper challenged Houdini to escape from special handcuffs that it claimed had taken Nathaniel Hart, a locksmith from Birmingham, five years to make.

Houdini accepted the challenge for March 17 during a matinée performance at London's Hippodrome theater.

It was reported that 4000 people and more than 100 journalists turned out for the much-hyped event.

The escape attempt dragged on for over an hour, during which Houdini emerged from his "ghost house" (a small screen used to conceal the method of his escape) several times.

On one occasion he asked if the cuffs could be removed so he could take off his coat.

The Mirror representative, Frank Parker, refused, saying Houdini could gain an advantage if he saw how the cuffs were unlocked.

Houdini promptly took out a pen-knife and, holding the knife in his teeth, used it to cut his coat from his body.

Some 56 minutes later, Houdini's wife appeared on stage and gave him a kiss.

It is believed that in her mouth was the key to unlock the special handcuffs.

However, it has since been suggested that Bess did not in fact enter the stage at all, and that this theory is unlikely due to the size of the 6-inch key Houdini then went back behind the curtain.

After an hour and ten minutes, Houdini emerged free.

As he was paraded on the shoulders of the cheering crowd, he broke down and wept.

Houdini later said it was the most difficult escape of his career.

After Houdini's death, his friend Martin Beck was quoted in Will Goldston's book, Sensational Tales of Mystery Men, as admitting that Houdini was bested that day and had appealed to his wife, Bess, for help.

Goldston goes on to claim that Bess begged the key from the Mirror representative, then slipped it to Houdini in a glass of water.

It was stated in the book The Secret Life of Houdini that the key required to open the specially designed Mirror handcuffs was 6" long, and could not have been smuggled to Houdini in a glass of water.

Goldston offered no proof of his account, and many modern biographers have found evidence (notably in the custom design of the handcuffs) that the Mirror challenge was arranged by Houdini and that his long struggle to escape was pure showmanship.

In support of this contention it has been reported that the sterling silver replica of the Mirror cuffs presented to Houdini in honor of his escape was made the year before the escape took place.

This revelation was discussed in depth on the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum in an interview with Houdini expert, magician and escape artist Dorothy Dietrich of Scranton's Houdini Museum.

A full-sized design of the same Mirror Handcuffs, as well as a replica of the Bramah style key for it, is on display to the public at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

This is the only public display of this style cuff anywhere.

In 1901, Houdini introduced his own original act, the milk can escape.

In this act, Houdini was handcuffed and sealed inside an over-sized milk can filled with water and made his escape behind a curtain.

As part of the effect, Houdini invited members of the audience to hold their breath along with him while he was inside the can.

Advertised with dramatic posters that proclaimed "Failure Means A Drowning Death," the escape proved to be a sensation.

Houdini soon modified the escape to include the milk can being locked inside a wooden chest, being chained or padlocked, and even inside another milk can.

Houdini performed the milk can escape as a regular part of his act for only four years, but it has remained one of the acts most associated with him.

Houdini's brother, Theodore Hardeen, continued to perform the milk can escape and it wooden chest variant into the 1940s.

The American Museum of Magic has the milk can and overboard box used by Houdini.

In 1912, the vast number of imitators prompted Houdini to replace his milk can act with the Chinese water torture cell.

In this escape, Houdini's feet were locked in stocks, and he was lowered upside down into a tank filled with water.

The mahogany and metal cell featured a glass front, through which audiences could clearly see Houdini.

The stocks were locked to the top of the cell, and a curtain concealed his escape.

In the earliest version of the torture cell, a metal cage was lowered into the cell, and Houdini was enclosed inside that.

While making the escape more difficult - the cage prevented Houdini from turning - the cage bars also offered protection should the front glass break.

The original cell was built in England, where Houdini first performed the escape for an audience of one person as part of a one-act play he called "Houdini Upside Down."

This was so he could copyright the effect and have grounds to sue imitators, which he did.

While the escape was advertised as "The Chinese Water Torture Cell" or "The Water Torture Cell," Houdini always referred to it as "the Upside Down" or "USD".

The first public performance of the USD was at the Circus Busch in Berlin, on September 21, 1912.

Houdini continued to perform the escape until his death in 1926.

One of Houdini's most popular publicity stunts was to have himself strapped into a regulation straitjacket and suspended by his ankles from a tall building or crane.

Houdini would then make his escape in full view of the assembled crowd.

In many cases, Houdini drew thousands of onlookers who brought city traffic to a halt.

Houdini would sometimes ensure press coverage by performing the escape from the office building of a local newspaper.

In New York City, Houdini performed the suspended straitjacket escape from a crane being used to build the New York subway.

After flinging his body in the air, he escaped from the straitjacket.

Starting from when he was hoisted up in the air by the crane, to when the straitjacket was completely off, it took him two minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

There is film footage in the Library of Congress of Houdini performing the escape.

After being battered against a building in high winds during one escape, Houdini performed the escape with a visible safety wire on his ankle so that he could be pulled away from the building if necessary.

The idea for the upside-down escape was given to Houdini by a young boy named Randolph Osborne Douglas (March 31, 1895 – December 5, 1956), when the two met at a performance at Sheffield's Empire Theatre.

Another of Houdini's most famous publicity stunts was to escape from a nailed and roped packing crate after it had been lowered into water.

Houdini first performed the escape in New York's East River on July 7, 1912.

Police forbade him from using one of the piers, so Houdini hired a tugboat and invited press on board.

Houdini was locked in handcuffs and leg-irons, then nailed into the crate which was roped and weighed down with two hundred pounds of lead.

The crate was then lowered into the water. Houdini escaped in 57 seconds.

The crate was pulled to the surface and found still to be intact, with the manacles inside.

Houdini performed this escape many times, and even performed a version on stage, first at Hamerstein's Roof Garden where a 5,500-gallon (20,820 litres) tank was specially built, and later at the New York Hippodrome.

Houdini performed at least three variations on a buried alive stunt during his career.

The first was near Santa Ana, California in 1915, and it almost cost Houdini his life.

Houdini was buried, without a casket, in a pit of earth six feet deep.

He became exhausted and panicked while trying to dig his way to the surface and called for help.

When his hand finally broke the surface, he fell unconscious and had to be pulled from the grave by his assistants.

Houdini wrote in his diary that the escape was "very dangerous" and that "the weight of the earth is killing."

Houdini's second variation on buried alive was an endurance test designed to expose mystical Egyptian performer Rahman Bey, who had claimed to use supernatural powers to remain in a sealed casket for an hour.

Houdini bettered Bey on August 5, 1926, by remaining in a sealed casket, or coffin, submerged in the swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for one and a half hours.

Houdini claimed he did not use any trickery or supernatural powers to accomplish this feat, just controlled breathing.

He repeated the feat at the YMCA in Worcester, Massachusetts on September 28, 1926, this time remaining sealed for one hour and eleven minutes.

Houdini's final buried alive was an elaborate stage escape that featured in his full evening show.

Houdini escaped after being strapped in a straitjacket, sealed in a casket, and then buried in a large tank filled with sand.

While posters advertising the escape exist (playing off the Bey challenge by boasting "Egyptian Fakirs Outdone!"), it is unclear whether Houdini ever performed buried alive on stage.

The stunt was to be the feature escape of his 1927 season, but Houdini died on October 31, 1926.

The bronze casket Houdini created for buried alive was used to transport Houdini's body from Detroit back to New York following his death on Halloween.

Links
Wikipedia
Houdini Tribute
The Greater Harry Houdini
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