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76-643: Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known as Harry Houdini ( / h uː ˈ d iː n i / hoo- DEE -nee ), was a Hungarian-American escape artist , illusionist , and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as Harry "Handcuff" Houdini on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside

152-658: A flea circus , a half-man half-woman, and magicians such as Earl "Presto" Johnson . This museum was documented in photography by Diane Arbus . Later, in Times Square, mouse pitchman Tommy Laird opened a dime museum that featured Tisha Booty — "the Human Pin Cushion" — and several magicians, including Lou Lancaster , Criss Capehart , Dorothy Dietrich , Dick Brooks , and others. In 1882, C. E. Kohl and Middleton opened their first Dime Museum in Chicago . It

228-570: 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 worthwhile. 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 had been recruiting – at his own expense – local magic clubs to join

304-484: A collection of articles on the history of magic, which were expanded into The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin published in 1908. In this book he attacked his former idol Robert-Houdin as a liar and a fraud for having claimed the invention of automata and effects such as aerial suspension , which had been in existence for many years. Many of the allegations in the book were dismissed by magicians and researchers who defended Robert-Houdin. Magician Jean Hugard would later write

380-539: A competent but not particularly skilled sleight-of-hand artist, lacking the grace and finesse required to achieve excellence in that craft. He soon began experimenting with escape acts . In the early 1890s, Houdini was performing with his brother " Dash " (Theodore) as "The Brothers Houdini". The brothers performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 before returning to New York City and working at Huber's Dime Museum for "near-starvation wages". In 1894, Houdini met

456-420: 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. Houdini performed the milk can escape as

532-575: A fellow performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner . Bess was initially courted by Dash, but she and Houdini married, 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 St. Paul, Minnesota . Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on

608-635: A full rebuttal to Houdini's book. Houdini introduced the Chinese Water Torture Cell at the Circus Busch in Berlin , Germany , on September 21, 1912. He was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, holding his breath for more than three minutes. He would go on performing this escape for the rest of his life. During his career, Houdini explained some of his tricks in books written for

684-399: 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 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

760-562: A height of 1m. Dime museum Dime museums were institutions that were popular at the end of the 19th century in the United States . Designed as centers for entertainment and moral education for the working class ( lowbrow ), the museums were distinctly different from upper middle class cultural events ( highbrow ). In urban centers like New York City , where many immigrants settled, dime museums were popular and cheap entertainment . The social trend reached its peak during

836-517: A letter to the French magazine L'Illusionniste stating: "You will certainly enjoy the article on Robert Houdin I am about to publish in my magazine. Yes, my dear friend, I think I can finally demolish your idol, who has so long been placed on a pedestal that he did not deserve." In 1906, Houdini created his own publication, the Conjurers' Monthly Magazine . It was a competitor to The Sphinx , but

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912-453: A locksmith from Birmingham , five years to make. Houdini accepted the challenge for March 17 during a matinée performance at London's Hippodrome theatre. 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. At one point he asked if

988-452: A nearby riverboat. The common promotion gimmick of a brass band at the front entrance of these Dime Museums featured some of the earliest documented traditional jazz; Robinson's riverboat museum also hired Papa Jack Laine . P. T. Barnum purchased Scudder's Dime Museum in 1841 and transformed it into one of the more popular single cultural sites that has existed, Barnum's American Museum . Together, P.T. Barnum and Moses Kimball introduced

1064-493: A regular basis. Both John James Audubon and sculptor Hiram Powers produced displays for the Western Museum, organized by Dr Daniel Drake in 1818 and continued by Joseph Dorfeuille. "Satan and his Court" wax figures with moving parts and glowing eyes are typical of these displays. On Canal Street , "Eugene Robinson's Museum and Theater" featured entertainment on the hour and also presented some of its attractions on

1140-472: 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 its wooden chest variant into the 1940s. The American Museum of Magic has the milk can and overboard box used by Houdini. After other magicians proposed variations on the Milk Can Escape, Houdini claimed that

1216-494: A rope in sight of street audiences. Because of imitators, Houdini put his "handcuff act" behind him on January 25, 1908, 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, mail bags , and even

1292-401: A sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904, thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror , keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as

1368-768: A short film called Houdini Defeats Hackenschmidt . Georg Hackenschmidt was a famous wrestler of the day, but the nature of their contest is unknown as the film is lost. In 1909, Houdini made a film in Paris for Cinema Lux titled Merveilleux Exploits du Célèbre Houdini à Paris (Marvellous Exploits of the Famous Houdini in Paris). It featured a loose narrative designed to showcase several of Houdini's famous escapes, including his straitjacket and underwater handcuff escapes. That same year Houdini got an offer to star as Captain Nemo in

1444-656: A silent version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas , but the project never made it into production. It is often erroneously reported that Houdini served as special-effects consultant on the Wharton/International cliffhanger serial The Mysteries of Myra , shot in Ithaca, New York , because Harry Grossman, director of The Master Mystery also filmed a serial in Ithaca at about the same time. The consultants on

1520-603: A stuntman doubling Houdini dangling by a rope from one of the planes. Publicity was geared heavily toward promoting this dramatic "caught-on-film" moment, claiming it was Houdini himself dangling from the plane. While filming these movies in Los Angeles , Houdini rented a home in Laurel Canyon . Following his two-picture stint in Hollywood, Houdini returned to New York and started his own film production company called

1596-419: 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 –

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1672-451: Is common for even the best contemporary escapologists to be dubbed modern day "Houdinis". During his lifetime, Houdini argued his main escape acts were copyrighted, and sued competitors such as John Clempert , who in 1906 apologized and settled out of court. Because St. Nicholas Owen successfully escaped the Tower of London and arranged the escape of two Jesuit inmates from the prison,

1748-408: The 1880 census , the family lived on Appleton Street in an area that is now known as Houdini Plaza. On June 6, 1882, Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen. Losing his job at Zion in 1882, Rabbi Weiss and family moved to Milwaukee and fell into dire poverty. In 1887, Rabbi Weiss moved with Erik to New York City , where they lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street . He was joined by the rest of

1824-542: The American Dime Museum in 1999, which operated for eight years before closing permanently and auctioning off its exhibits in late February 2007. Kimball's Museum and Austin & Stones Museum in Scollay Square were both well-known attractions, the former having a friendly connection to, and sometimes competition with, P. T. Barnum . Barnum and Moses Kimball even shared "Fee Gee Mermaids" on

1900-656: 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's British agent Harry Day helped him to get an interview with C. Dundas Slater, then manager of the Alhambra Theatre . He was introduced to William Melville and gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard . He succeeded in baffling

1976-540: The Progressive Era (c. 1890–1920). Although lowbrow entertainment, they were the starting places for the careers of many notable vaudeville -era entertainers, including Harry Houdini , Lew Fields , Joe Weber , the Griffin Sisters , and Maggie Cline . In Baltimore , Maryland , Peale's Museum is credited as one of the first serious museums in the country. This type of attraction was re-created in

2052-469: The "Houdini Picture Corporation". He produced and starred in two films, The Man from Beyond (1921) and Haldane of the Secret Service (1923). He also founded his own film laboratory business called The Film Development Corporation (FDC), gambling on a new process for developing motion picture film. Houdini's brother, Theodore Hardeen , left his own career as a magician and escape artist to run

2128-407: The 16th-century Christian martyr is considered by Catholic escapologists as their patron saint. Along with St. John Don Bosco , the two are considered the primary patrons of Catholic Gospel Magicians . In 2012, Lucas Wilson, an illusionist from Canada managed the fastest ever recorded escape from a straitjacket while suspended; he escaped in 8.4 seconds while hanging upside down from his ankles at

2204-544: 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 to New York following his death on Halloween . In 1906, Houdini started showing films of his outside escapes as part of his vaudeville act. In Boston , he presented

2280-542: 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, he 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

2356-644: 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,

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2432-510: 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 tens of thousands of onlookers who brought city traffic to

2508-477: The act was protected by copyright and in 1906, brought a case against John Clempert , one of the most persistent imitators. The matter was settled out of court and Clempert agreed to publish an apology. Around 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

2584-412: The aim of meeting the widow of Emile Houdin, the son of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin , for an interview and permission to visit his grave. He did not receive permission but still visited the grave. Houdini believed that he had been treated unfairly and later wrote a negative account of the incident in his magazine, claiming he was "treated most discourteously by Madame W. Emile Robert-Houdin". In 1906, he sent

2660-544: The art to convey the impression they were restrained while they created spirit phenomena. Other illusionists, including John Nevil Maskelyne , worked out how the Davenports did their act and re-created the tricks to debunk the brothers' claims of psychic power. However, the re-creations did not involve overt escape, merely a replication of tricks with the statement that they were accomplished by secret magicians' skills rather than spirits. It took another thirty years before

2736-469: 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, he gave a lengthy formal address to the local magic club, made speeches, and usually threw

2812-767: 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 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. After much research, Houdini wrote

2888-482: The book The Secret Life of Houdini that the key required to open the specially designed Mirror handcuffs was six inches 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 may have been arranged by Houdini and that his long struggle to escape

2964-401: 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. He first performed

3040-662: 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 done to obtain copyright protection for the effect, and establish 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

3116-452: The company. Magician Harry Kellar was a major investor. In 1919 Houdini moved to Los Angeles to film. He resided in 2435 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, a residence owned by Ralph M. Walker . The Houdini Estate, a tribute to Houdini, is located on 2400 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, previously home to Walker himself. The Houdini Estate is subject to controversy, in that it is disputed whether Houdini ever actually made it his home. While there are claims it

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3192-408: 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 penknife and, holding it 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. Many thought that in her mouth

3268-471: The curtains were eliminated so they could watch him struggle to get out. On more than one occasion, they both performed straitjacket escapes while dangling upside-down from the roof of a building in the same city. 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

3344-456: The end of a name meant "like" in French. However, "i" at the end of the name means "belong to" in Hungarian. In later life, Houdini claimed that the first part of his new name, Harry, was an homage to American magician Harry Kellar , whom he also admired, though it was likely adapted from "Ehri", a nickname for "Ehrich", which is how he was known to his family. When he was a teenager, Houdini

3420-456: The end. He did this so that the audience would not see him flail and wriggle around to get free, which he thought would ruin the performance. However, the audience perceived that he added the curtains to conceal an assistant to come out and free him, as straitjacket escapes were known to be impossible at the time. Houdini's brother (who was also an escape artist, billing himself as Theodore Hardeen ) discovered that audiences were more impressed when

3496-432: The escape in New York's East River on July 7, 1912. Police forbade him from using one of the piers, so he 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. He escaped in 57 seconds. The crate was pulled to the surface and found still to be intact, with

3572-619: The exact details of his escapes to maintain an air of mystery and suspense. Although many of his escapes relied on technical skills such as lock-picking and contortion, he also performed tricks such as Metamorphosis and the Chinese Water Torture Cell , which are essentially classic stage illusions reliant on cleverly designed props. Houdini's feats helped to define the basic repertoire of escapology, including escapes from handcuffs , padlocks , straitjackets , mail bags , beer barrels , and prison cells . A succession of performers have added new ideas and created variations on old stunts, but it

3648-606: The family once Rabbi Weiss found permanent housing. As a child, Erik Weiss took several jobs, making his public début as a nine-year-old trapeze artist , calling himself "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air". He was also a champion cross country runner in his youth. When Weisz became a professional magician he began calling himself "Harry Houdini", after the French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin , after reading Robert-Houdin's autobiography in 1890. Weiss incorrectly believed that an i at

3724-528: 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 would escape 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

3800-682: The first man to fly a powered aircraft in Australia, on March 18, 1910 at Diggers Rest, a field roughly 20 miles (32 km) from Melbourne. Erik Weisz was born in Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary to a Jewish family. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz (1829–1892) and Cecília Steiner (1841–1913). Houdini was one of seven children: Herman M. (1863–1885), who was Houdini's half-brother by Rabbi Weisz's first marriage; Nathan J. (1870–1927); Gottfried William (1872–1925); Theodore (1876–1945); Leopold D. (1879–1962); and Carrie Gladys (1882–1959), who

3876-462: 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

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3952-576: 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

4028-419: The invitation of the collector. After many years of trying, they finally got him to agree to sell the film to Turner Classic Movies , who restored the complete 71-minute film. The film, not seen by the general public for 96 years, was shown by TCM on March 29, 2015, as a highlight of their yearly 4-day festival in Hollywood. While filming an aerial stunt for The Grim Game , two biplanes collided in mid-air with

4104-636: 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 (equivalent to $ 847,778 in 2023), a brownstone at 278 W. 113th Street in Harlem , New York City. While on tour in Europe in 1902, Houdini visited Blois with

4180-466: 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. 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 . His straitjacket escape was originally performed behind curtains, with him popping out free at

4256-495: 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-US-gallon (21,000 L) 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 him his life. Houdini

4332-464: The most difficult escapes of his career. After Houdini's death, his friend Martin Beck was quoted in Will Goldston 's book, Sensational Tales of Mystery Men , 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

4408-471: The movie business in 1923, complaining that "the profits are too meager". Escape artist The art of escaping from restraints and confined spaces has been a skill employed by performers for a very long time. It was not originally displayed as an overt act in itself but was instead used secretly to create illusions such as a disappearance or transmutation. In the 1860s, the Davenport Brothers , who were skilled at releasing themselves from rope ties, used

4484-741: The police so effectively that he was booked at the Alhambra for six months. His show was an immediate hit and his salary rose to $ 300 a week (equivalent to $ 10,987 in 2023). Between 1900 and 1920 he appeared in theatres all over Great Britain performing escape acts, illusions, card tricks and outdoor stunts, becoming one of the world's highest paid entertainers. He also toured the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia and became widely known as "The Handcuff King". In each city, Houdini challenged local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. In many of these challenge escapes, he

4560-421: The pure skill of escape began to be displayed as an act in itself. The figure most responsible for making escapology a recognized entertainment was Harry Houdini , who built his career on demonstrating the ability to escape from a huge variety of restraints and difficult situations. Houdini made no secret of the fact that he was an expert on restraints and the skills needed to overcome them but he often concealed

4636-511: The same Mirror Handcuffs, as well as a replica of the Bramah style key for them, are on display to the public at The Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania . This set of cuffs is believed to be one of only six in the world, some of which are not on display. In 1908, Houdini introduced his own original act, the Milk Can Escape. In this act, Houdini was handcuffed and sealed inside an oversized milk can filled with water and made his escape behind

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4712-463: The scourge of fake spiritualists, pursuing a personal crusade to expose their fraudulent methods. As president of the Society of American Magicians , he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts. Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator and became

4788-666: The serial were pioneering Hereward Carrington and Aleister Crowley . In 1918, Houdini signed a contract with film producer B. A. Rolfe to star in a 15-part serial , The Master Mystery (released in November 1918). As was common at the time, the film serial was released simultaneously with a novel. Financial difficulties resulted in B. A. Rolfe Productions going out of business, but The Master Mystery led to Houdini being signed by Famous Players–Lasky Corporation / Paramount Pictures , for whom he made two pictures, The Grim Game (1919) and Terror Island (1920). The Grim Game

4864-713: The so-called " Edutainement ", which was a moralistic education realized through sensational freak shows , theater and circus performances, and many other means of entertainment. The first incarnation "American Museum" on Ann Street burned down in 1865. It was relocated further up Broadway, but this venue too, fell victim to fire. For many years in the basement of the Playland Arcade in Times Square in New York City, Hubert's Museum featured acts such as sword swallower Lady Estelene, Congo The Jungle Creep,

4940-471: Was Houdini's first full-length movie and is reputed to be his best. Because of the flammable nature of nitrate film and their low rate of survival, film historians considered the film lost. One copy did exist hidden in the collection of a private collector only known to a tiny group of magicians that saw it. Dick Brookz and Dorothy Dietrich of The Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had seen it twice on

5016-537: Was Houdini's house, others counter that "he never set foot" on the property. It is rooted in Bess's parties or seances, etc. held across the street, she would do so at the Walker mansion. In fact, the guesthouse featured an elevator connecting to a tunnel that crossed under Laurel Canyon to the big house grounds (though capped, the tunnel still exists). Neither Houdini's acting career nor FDC found success, and he gave up on

5092-465: 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

5168-431: 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

5244-546: Was coached by the magician Joseph Rinn at the Pastime Athletic Club. Houdini began his magic career in 1891, but had little success. He appeared in a tent act with strongman Emil Jarrow . 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". Some – but not all – professional magicians would come to regard Houdini as

5320-473: 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. Films of his escapes are also shown at The Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. 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

5396-404: Was first stripped nude and searched . In Moscow , he escaped from a Siberian prison transport van, claiming that, had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia, where the only key was kept. In Cologne , Houdini 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

5472-651: Was left almost blind after a childhood accident. Weisz arrived in the United States on July 3, 1878, on the SS Frisia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers. The family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and Erik became Ehrich. The family lived in Appleton, Wisconsin , where his father served as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. According to

5548-448: Was performed at the New York Hippodrome , when he vanished a full-grown elephant from the stage. He had purchased this trick from the magician Charles Morritt . 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 ( a.k.a. S.A.M.) from 1917 until his death in 1926. Founded on May 10, 1902, in

5624-601: Was pure showmanship. James Randi believes that the only way the handcuffs could have been opened was by using their key, and speculates that it would have been viewed "distasteful" to both the Mirror and to Houdini if Houdini had failed the escape. This escape 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 construction of

5700-490: Was short-lived and only two volumes were released until August 1908. Magic historian Jim Steinmeyer has noted that "Houdini couldn't resist using the journal for his own crusades, attacking his rivals, praising his own appearances, and subtly rewriting history to favor his view of magic." 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

5776-424: 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 six-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. At the time, Houdini said it had been one of

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