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108-628: The National Casket Company was an American manufacturer of caskets and other funeral equipment. It was formed in 1880 by a merger of the Stein Manufacturing Company of Rochester, New York ; the Hamilton, Lemmon, and Arnold Company of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania; and Chappell, Chase, Maxwell, and Company of Oneida, New York . It adopted the National Casket Company name in 1890. The company increased through

216-486: A United States federal regulation , 16 CFR Part 453 (known as the Funeral Rule ), if a family provides a casket they purchased elsewhere (for example from a United States retail warehouse store, as illustrated here), the establishment is required to accept the casket and use it in the services. If the casket is delivered direct to the funeral home from the manufacturer or store, they are required to accept delivery of

324-412: A deceased person, it can also be called a pall , a term that also refers to the cloth used to cover the coffin while those who carry a casket are the pallbearers . Coffins are traditionally made with six sides plus the top (lid) and bottom, tapered around the shoulders, or rectangular with four sides. Another form of four-sided coffin is trapezoidal (also known as the "wedge" form) and is considered

432-430: A pauper's funeral was paid for by the parish, the coffin might have been made of the cheapest, thinnest possible pine . At the other extreme, a coffin bought privately by a wealthy individual might have used yew or mahogany with a fine lining, plated fittings and brass decorations, topped with a decorated velvet drape. In modern times coffins are almost always mass-produced. Some manufacturers do not sell directly to

540-491: A putrefied liquefaction of the body, and all putrefied tissue remains inside the container, only to be exposed in the event of an exhumation. A container that allows air to pass in and out, such as a simple wooden box, allows for clean skeletonization . However the situation will vary according to soil or air conditions, and climate. Coffins are made of many materials, including steel, various types of wood, and other materials such as fiberglass or recycled kraft paper . There

648-570: 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

756-668: A clerk before opening a clothing store. He had purchased, with Benjamin E. Chase and John F. Tuttle, an undertaker in 1876, which grew into Chappell, Chase, Maxwell, and Company. By 1881, the new company had opened branches in New York City and Syracuse. The company took on the National Casket Company name in 1890. It had absorbed the Boston Casket Company of Boston, Massachusetts; the Maryland Burial Case Company of Baltimore, Maryland; and

864-400: A coffin made of wood or other materials like particle board or low-density fibreboard. Others will rent a regular casket for the duration of the services. These caskets have a removable bed and liner which is replaced after each use. There are also rental caskets with an outer shell that looks like a traditional coffin and a cardboard box that fits inside the shell. At the end of the services

972-486: 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

1080-546: 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

1188-399: 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

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1296-575: 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

1404-463: A float featuring two teenagers dressed as a Confederate officer and his plantation-owning wife standing next to a casket. In 1912 the company advertised "Confederate gray broadcloth -covered caskets" for the burial of Confederate Army veterans. In addition to caskets, the National Casket Company made other funeral equipment, including hearses and embalming fluid . In 1912 two of the company's embalmers traveled from Boston to Halifax to assist with

1512-639: 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

1620-399: 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

1728-519: 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

1836-454: 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

1944-495: 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

2052-401: 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

2160-447: A series of acquisitions and, by 1951, was the world's largest manufacturer of caskets. It was merged with Fred Richmond 's Walco National Corporation in 1969 but declined after Richmond's imprisonment on fraud charges. The National Casket Company closed sometime during or after the 1980s. The company came into being in 1880 as a merger of the three leading casket-makers of the period: the Stein Manufacturing Company of Rochester, New York;

2268-770: 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

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2376-657: 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

2484-603: 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

2592-419: 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 –

2700-471: A tradition that already existed in Accra where the kings were using figurative palanquins in the forms of their family symbol. And as those chiefs who were using figurative palanquins had to be buried in a coffin looking like their palanquin, their families used figurative coffins which were formerly nothing else than the copies of the design palanquins. Today figurative coffins are of course no more reserved for

2808-472: A variant of the six-sided hexagonal kind of coffin. Continental Europe at one time favoured the rectangular coffin or casket, although variations exist in size and shape. The rectangular form, and also the trapezoidal form, is still regularly used in Germany, Austria, Hungary and other parts of Eastern and Central Europe, with the lid sometimes made to slope gently from the head down towards the foot. Coffins in

2916-502: A warehouse at Scottdale, Pennsylvania , from the United States Casket Company (the site went on to close in 1971). Philip B. Heintz of Boston took over from Hamilton as manager of the National Casket Company in 1922. The company pioneered a standard branch layout containing offices, a warehouse, and several "selection rooms" for clients to choose from the company's products, all within a single building. During

3024-902: Is emerging interest in eco-friendly coffins made of purely natural materials such as bamboo , X-Board , willow or banana leaf. In the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century in the United States, glass coffins were widely sold by travelling salesmen, who also would try to sell stock of the companies making the coffins. Custom coffins are occasionally created and some companies also make set ranges with non-traditional designs. These include printing or painting of peaceful tropical scenes, sea-shells, sunsets, cherubim, and patriotic flags. Some manufacturers have designed them to look like gym carry bags, guitar cases, cigar humidors, and even yellow dumpster bins. Other coffins are left deliberately blank so that friends and family can inscribe final wishes and thoughts upon them to

3132-643: Is packed with dried grasses. Sometimes coffins are constructed to permanently display the corpse, as in the case of the glass-covered coffin of the Haraldskær Woman on display in the Church of Saint Nicolai in Vejle , Denmark or the glass-coffins of Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong , which are in Red Square , Moscow and Tiananmen Square , Beijing , respectively. When a coffin is used to transport

3240-410: 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

3348-729: The Greater Accra Region . These colourful objects, which are not only coffins, but considered real works of art, were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1989. The seven coffins shown in Paris were done by Seth Kane Kwei (1922–1992) and by his former assistant Paa Joe (b. 1947). Since then coffins of Kane Kweis successors Paa Joe , Daniel Mensah , Kudjoe Affutu or Eric Adjetey Anang and others have been displayed in many international art museums and galleries around

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3456-657: 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

3564-469: 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

3672-523: The 1920s, the company was a distributor of funeral cars made by the Kissel Motor Car Company , selling around 200 a year. the company was a distributor of In his 1924 A Magician Among Spirits the escapologist Harry Houdini recalled successfully escaping from a casket made by the company. The company had challenged Houdini to make an escape from a heavy-duty hickory coffin whose lid had been secured with 6-inch (150 mm) screws. After

3780-476: The 1929 death of Ol' Rip the Horned Toad the National Casket Company provided a casket for display of his body. In 1944 one of the company's suppliers was the piano maker Steinway & Sons , who had diversified into coffin manufacture. The National Casket Company was a pioneer in the use of fiberglass-reinforced plastic coffins in lieu of more expensive bronze versions. By 1951 the National Casket Company

3888-450: The 19th century. The handles and other ornaments (such as doves, stipple crosses, crucifix , symbols etc.) that go on the outside of a coffin are called fittings (sometimes called 'coffin furniture' – not to be confused with furniture that is coffin shaped) while organizing the inside of the coffin with fabric of some kind is known as "trimming the coffin". Cultures that practice burial have widely different styles of coffins. In Judaism ,

3996-545: 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

4104-480: The D.E. Chase Company of Albany, New York ; by 1891. By 1901 the National Casket Company had acquired further businesses in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Nashville, Tennessee ; Louisville, Kentucky ; Indianapolis, Indiana ; Chicago, Illinois ; and New Haven, Connecticut . The company made the hand-carved mahogany casket for President William McKinley 's 1901 funeral (he was buried in a different casket). In

4212-594: The Hamilton, Lemmon, and Arnold Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Chappell, Chase, Maxwell, and Company of Oneida, New York. It was incorporated under the New York State Manufacturing Corporation Act of 1848 and had an initial capital of $ 3 million, soon increased to $ 6 million. The company was headquartered in Oneida, and its first president and general manager was C. William Chappell, who had started his career in Oneida as

4320-542: 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

4428-646: 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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4536-523: The UK are mainly similar to the hexagonal design, but with one-piece sides, curved at the shoulder instead of having a join. In Medieval Japan, round coffins were used, which resembled barrels in shape and were usually made by coopers . In the case of a death at sea, there have been instances where trunks have been pressed into use as coffins. Coffins usually have handles on the side so they will be easier to carry. They may incorporate features that claim to protect

4644-511: 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

4752-478: 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

4860-414: 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

4968-469: 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

5076-769: 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

5184-409: The body or for public health reasons. For example, some may offer a protective casket that uses a gasket to seal the casket shut after it is closed for the final time. In England, it has long been law that a coffin for interment above ground should be sealed; this was traditionally implemented as a wooden outer coffin around a lead lining, around a third inner shell. After some decades have passed,

5292-482: 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

5400-402: 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

5508-662: 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

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5616-403: The casket. The funeral home may not add any extra charges or fees to the overall bill if a family decides to purchase a casket elsewhere. If the casket was bought from the funeral home, these regulations require bills to be completely itemized. Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known as Harry Houdini ( / h uː ˈ d iː n i / hoo- DEE -nee ),

5724-604: The coffin must be plain, made of wood and contain no metal parts or adornments. These coffins use wooden pegs instead of nails. All Jews are buried in the same plain cloth shroud from shoulder to knees, regardless of status in life, gender or age. In China , coffins made from the scented, decay-resistant wood of cypress , sugi , thuja and incense-cedar are in high demand. Certain Aboriginal Australian groups use intricately decorated tree-bark cylinders sewn with fibre and sealed with adhesive as coffins. The cylinder

5832-527: The coffin, as determined by the number of timber frames in its composition, also emphasized the level of nobility , as mentioned in the Classic of Rites , Xunzi and Zhuangzi . Examples of this have been found in several Neolithic sites: the double coffin, the earliest of which was found in the Liangzhu culture (3400–2250 BC) site at Puanqiao, Zhejiang, consists of an outer and an inner coffin, while

5940-429: The coffin. However, no coffin, regardless of its construction material ( e.g. , metal rather than wood), whether or not it is sealed, and whether or not the deceased was embalmed beforehand, will perfectly preserve the body. In some cases, a sealed coffin may actually speed up rather than slow down the process of decomposition. An airtight coffin, for example, fosters decomposition by anaerobic bacteria , which results in

6048-454: 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

6156-408: 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

6264-472: 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

6372-513: The deceased. In Taiwan , coffins made of crushed oyster shells were used in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1990s, the rock group Kiss released a customized Kiss Kasket , which featured their trademark makeup designs and KISS logo and could also be used as a cooler. Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was buried in one. Design coffins in Ghana , also called Fantasy coffins or figurative coffins, are only made by specialized carpenters in

6480-592: The early 1900s the company opened a factory in Niagara, Toronto (it closed in 1973). Chappell died in a motor car accident in July 1909, and afterward, William D. Hamilton of Pittsburgh managed the company. the company began a national magazine advertising campaign that year. It was one of the leading advertisers in the Confederate Veteran and had won first prize at a Southern heritage parade in 1908 with

6588-457: 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

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6696-456: 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

6804-432: 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

6912-606: 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

7020-529: 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

7128-475: The figurative palanquins which had existed already a long time. With the resurgence of cremation in the Western world , manufacturers have begun providing options for those who choose cremation. For a direct cremation a cardboard box is sometimes used. Those who wish to have a funeral visitation (sometimes called a viewing ) or traditional funeral service will use a coffin of some sort. Some choose to use

7236-499: The firm and charging them a premium to buy them back. Richmond was imprisoned on fraud charges in 1982. In 1976 the company was one of the two main employers in Garrard County, Kentucky , employing 248 people on an annual payroll of $ 1.5 million. The company was sold by Walco to Gulf and Western Industries in 1980 for $ 12.5 million. Gulf and Western had purchased Wallace Metal Products, which made coffin furniture, in 1979 and

7344-687: 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

7452-462: 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

7560-576: 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

7668-461: The individual cemetery . In parts of Sumatra , Indonesia , ancestors are revered and bodies were often kept in coffins kept alongside the longhouses until a ritual burial could be performed. The dead are also disinterred for rituals. Mass burials are also practiced. In northern Sulawesi , some dead were kept in above ground sarcophagi called waruga until the practice was banned by the Dutch in

7776-480: The inner box is removed and the deceased is cremated inside this box. Traditionally, in the Western world, a coffin was made, when required, by the village carpenter , who would frequently manage the whole funeral . The design and workmanship would reflect the skills of that individual carpenter, with the materials and brasses being the materials that were available to the carpenter at the time. In past centuries, if

7884-421: 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

7992-637: 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

8100-417: The lead may ripple and tear. In the United States, numerous cemeteries require a vault of some kind in order to bury the deceased. A burial vault serves as an outer enclosure for buried remains and the coffin serves as an inner enclosure. The primary purpose of the vault is to prevent collapse of the coffin due to the weight of the soil above. Some manufacturers offer a warranty on the structural integrity of

8208-467: 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

8316-496: 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

8424-497: 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 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

8532-465: 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

8640-743: 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

8748-430: The public, and only work with funeral homes. In that case, the funeral director usually sells the casket to a family for a deceased person as part of the funeral services offered, and the price of the casket is included in the total bill for services rendered. Some funeral homes have small showrooms to present families with the available caskets that could be used for a deceased family member. In many modern funeral homes

8856-587: The reception of bodies carried by the CS Mackay-Bennett from the scene of the sinking of the Titanic . Baseball player Harry Fritz was an associate for the company after retiring from sport in 1915. In 1916 a flood in Asheville, North Carolina , inundated a company warehouse, leading to caskets floating in the floodwater next to the bodies of victims of the disaster. In 1919 the company purchased

8964-516: 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

9072-463: 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

9180-668: 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

9288-413: The showroom will consist of sample pieces that show only the end pieces of each type of coffin that can be used. They also include samples of the lining and other materials. This allows funeral homes to showcase a larger number of coffin styles without the need for a larger showroom. Other types may be available from a catalogue, including decorative paint effects or printed photographs or patterns. Under

9396-433: The traditional Ga and their kings, many families who use figurative coffins are indeed Christians. For them design coffins have no longer a spiritual function, their appeal is more aesthetic, aimed at surprising mourners with strikingly innovative forms like automobiles or aeroplanes, fish or pigs, onions or tomatoes. So the figurative coffins, rather than constituting a new art form as it was long believed, were developed from

9504-593: The triple coffin, with its earliest finds from the Longshan culture (3000–2000 BC) sites at Xizhufeng and Yinjiacheng in Shandong, consists of two outer coffins and one inner. A coffin may be buried in the ground directly, placed in a burial vault or cremated. Alternatively it may be entombed above ground in a mausoleum , a chapel , a church , or in a loculus within catacombs . Some countries practice one form almost exclusively, whereas in others it may depend on

9612-657: The word coffin derives from the Old French cofin , from Latin cophinus , which means basket , which is the latinisation of the Greek κόφινος ( kophinos ), basket . The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek ko-pi-na , written in Linear B syllabic script. The modern French form, couffin , means cradle . The earliest evidence of wooden coffin remains, dated at 5000 BC,

9720-591: The word "casket" in this sense began as a euphemism introduced by the undertaker 's trade. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" and "caskets", using "coffin" to refer to a tapered hexagonal or octagonal (also considered to be anthropoidal in shape) box and "casket" to refer to a rectangular box, often with a split lid used for viewing the deceased as seen in the picture. Receptacles for cremated and cremulated human ashes (sometimes called cremains) are called urns . First attested in English in 1380,

9828-541: The world. The design coffins of the Ga have long been celebrated in the Western art world as the invention of a single, autonomous artist, the coffin maker Kane Kwei (1924–1992) of Teshie . But as Regula Tschumi shows with her recent research this assumption was false. Design coffins have existed already before Kane Kwei and other Ga carpenters like Ataa Oko (1919–2012) from La have built their first figurative coffins around 1950. Kane Kwei and Ataa Oko had only continued

9936-471: 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

10044-538: 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

10152-452: 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

10260-466: 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

10368-433: 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

10476-550: 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

10584-474: 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

10692-407: 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

10800-526: Was found in the Tomb 4 at Beishouling, Shaanxi . Clear evidence of a rectangular wooden coffin was found in Tomb 152 in an early Banpo site. The Banpo coffin belongs to a four-year-old girl; it measures 1.4 m (4.6 ft) by 0.55 m (1.8 ft) and 3–9 cm thick. As many as 10 wooden coffins have been found at the Dawenkou culture (4100–2600 BC) site at Chengzi, Shandong . The thickness of

10908-488: Was in Boston. The Oneida factory closed in 1967, its equipment having become outdated (the building burned down in 2006). U.S. Congressman Fred Richmond 's Walco National Corporation merged with the National Casket Company in 1969, in one of its first major moves towards diversification. At the time National Casket was the second-largest American manufacturer of caskets. Walco made a large amount of money by buying stakes in other companies that did not want to be associated with

11016-715: 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

11124-451: 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

11232-605: 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

11340-491: 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

11448-601: Was subsequently investigated by the Federal Trade Commission on monopoly grounds. The National Casket Company changed hands several times in the 1980s before eventually closing. Coffin Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets , particularly in American English. Any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewelry , use of

11556-425: 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

11664-464: Was the largest manufacturer of caskets and other funeral supplies in the world. It had branches in 34 cities east of the Rocky Mountains and operated 15 factories. At this time the president of the company was Howard M. Tuttle, son of John F. Tuttle, and the general manager and first vice-president was Leo Stein. The company remained headquartered in New York state but its main office facility

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