It’s Halloween in 1936
on top of the Knickerbocker Hotel
in Hollywood
and a strange séance is taking place.
Harry Houdini swore a pact with his wife Bess
that if he died before her
he would get a message back
from beyond the veil of death.
He’s not managed it so far,
but will this year be the one
that the man that no earthly bond could hold
will be able to make his most incredible escape?
Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary
on March 24th 1874.
His parents named him
Erik Weisz.
In 1878
the family moved to the US,
coming in through Ellis Island
and lived in Appleton, Wisconsin
where his father served for a time as a Rabbi.
The Rabbi lost his job in 1882
and the family eventually settled in New York.
Young Erik was one of 7 children
and the family lived in poverty.
To help with the family finances,
at the age of just 9 years old,
Erik started his show business career
by performing as a trapeze artist.
Billed as Ehrich – Prince of the Air!
As a young man,
Ehrich was quite the sportsman.
He was a cross country runner,
an accomplished swimmer
and could hold his breath underwater
for an extraordinary amount of time.
He also learned to be extremely flexible
and gave demonstrations as a contortionist
and was so dextrous with his toes
he could use them like fingers
and even pinch you with his feet!
He started working in a tie factory as a cutter,
but at the age of 17
gave it up.
He named himself
Harry Houdini
after the French illusionist Houdin
and decided to become an illusionist.
He wasn’t particularly successful.
He performed in dime museums
performing traditional card tricks
and was regarded as having
“adequate skills”, but
without finesse.
Houdini struggled and took several side jobs.
He even performed as
“Projea – The wild man of Mexico”
where he was locked in a cage
and growled as “trainers”
threw raw slabs of meat into the cage
to be devoured by Projea.
He met his wife Bess
when he was 19.
Bess was working as a dancer at Coney Island
and had started dating Harry’s brother, Theo.
However she fell for Harry
and they were married
within just 1 week of meeting.
Harry was devoted to the women in his life,
his wife Bess and his mother, Cecelia,
who he called,
“My two sweethearts”.
Bess became Harry’s assistant on stage
and they toured together.
They started to perform one of their signature acts,
“Metamorphosis – Exchanging places in 3 seconds!”
which had been invented by Harry.
Houdini would be tied at the hands
and then put in a sack
which was also tied and then locked in a trunk.
Bess would push the trunk behind a curtain
and clap her hands 3 times
at which point Houdini would magically appear.
He would then unlock the trunk
and Bess would be bound inside.
Even with this amazing trick
the press called the act
“satisfactory and interesting”.
January 1899 was possibly the lowest point of his career.
He was working a low end dime museum in Chicago.
He said that he would escape from any handcuffs
or pay $50.
He had already removed 6 pairs of handcuffs
when the local police Sergeant turned up
with his own handcuffs.
Houdini tried for 20 minutes in vain to remove them.
They had of course been specially rigged by the Sergeant
and had to be removed by a hammer.
The next day the headline of the local paper read
“Handcuffs Resist Magic”.
From that point on,
Houdini always checked the cuffs
as a part of his performance.
Houdini's big break came just 2 month later
when he was spotted by show business manager Martin Beck.
He was impressed
and told Houdini to concentrate on escape acts.
In a few months
Houdini was playing the top vaudeville theaters in the United States.
Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe
and Harry and Bess boarded a boat to England.
With no bookings when he arrived
and no reputation in England,
Houdini went to Scotland Yard.
Scotland Yard was the Police Headquarters
and arguably the most secure place in England.
There he gave many demonstrations
of his incredible ability to escape handcuffs,
baffling the police,
creating headlines
and earning him 6 months of bookings.
He went on to tour Europe.
Wherever he went
he challenged the police to restrain him.
He would have all his clothes removed,
and be searched beforehand.
In Moscow he escaped from a prison transport van
destined for Siberia.
In Germany he sued a police officer
that had spread the rumour
that he only managed to escape
because he was bribing his captors.
In an extraordinary feat of showmanship,
Houdini won the case
by successfully opening the Judge’s safe.
He returned to the US in 1904
a very wealthy man
and presented his mother with a dress
that had been made for Queen Victoria.
He later said
it was the happiest day of his life.
He became famous as the man
that no earthly bond could hold.
He escaped from anything anyone could think of.
Some of the stranger ones included
a man sized football,
a man size sausage skin
and a dead sea monster!
He became internationally famous
and was one of the A-list celebrities of his time.
In 1919 Houdini wowed and amazed New Yorkers
with a 19 week booking at the Hippodrome Theater
by making an Elephant disappear
in front of 5000 people at a time.
The Elephant named Jennie
was led into a large cabinet
which was closed up
after Jennie had made her way in.
The cabinet was then turned towards the audience.
When the cabinet doors were opened
at the front and back
the elephant was gone!
No one can be quite sure
how the vanishing elephant trick was done
and the apparatus nor any photos
of the equipment for the performance
has ever been found.
The vanishing elephant remains one of Houdini's most mysterious
and unexplained tricks.
In 1920 he travelled back to the United Kingdom
and made friends with the famous author of Sherlock Holmes,
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle.
Conan-Doyle was a great believer in spiritualism
and thoroughly believed
that Houdini had supernatural powers.
In 1922 Sir Conan-Doyle
and his wife Lady Doyle
travelled to the US.
While in Atlantic City,
Lady Doyle who believed she was a medium
and could receive messages from beyond the grave,
gave Houdini a séance.
With the help of Phineas,
her spirit guide,
she “made contact” with Houdini’s mother
who had died 9 years earlier.
Automatic writing several pages of text,
the Doyles were sure
that Houdini was emotionally moved
by the whole experience.
However afterwards Houdini publicly announced
that he did not believe
that the 15 pages of perfect English text from the séance were genuine.
Not least because
his mother was not a very good English speaker in life.
Also his Jewish mother was very unlikely
to make the sign of the cross.
Houdini’s scepticism cost him
his friendship with Conan-Doyle
who remained a committed spiritualist
throughout his life.
Following this incident,
Houdini went on a mission
to expose mediums as fakes.
He along with Scientific American
offered a $10,000 reward
to any medium
that could genuinely prove
the ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
There were many attempts
which we’ll cover in another video.
Though
no one could perform anything supernatural…
that Houdini could not reproduce
through his skill as an illusionist.
One famous medium,
Mina Crandon, who was known as Margey,
allegedly tried more
intimate means
to gain favour from Houdini
to validate her claims as a medium
but Houdini said
“Her apple sauce means nothing to me”.
On October the 22nd 1926
Houdini was resting in his dressing room
in the Princess Theater in Montreal.
Two students came to visit.
One asked if he could indeed withstand
any blow to the abdomen.
When Houdini replied
yes, he could,
one of the students,
J Gordon Whitehead,
immediately hit Houdini 4 times in the stomach
before Houdini had a chance
to prepare himself…
Houdini winced on each blow.
The next two days,
he continued to perform
though in great pain
but he refused to seek medical help.
On the 3rd day he visited a Doctor
who diagnosed acute appendicitis.
That night Harry performed
and collapsed on stage.
Bess implored him to go to hospital.
He relented
and his appendix was removed… He relented
and his appendix was removed…
but it had already ruptured.
The doctors gave him 2 days
but he clung on for a week.
Finally he said:
“I’m tired of fighting,
I do not want to fight anymore”
and The Great Houdini died
on October the 31st – Halloween.
He was buried in New York
on a pillow of his mothers letters
with more than 2000 people in attendance
Houdini had agreed with Bess
that if at all possible
he would communicate the words
“Rosabelle believe” after his death.
Rosabelle was their favorite song.
His wife held a séance every year for 10 years
waiting to hear the words
“Rosabelle believe”.
This was to be the last séance
on the roof of the Knickerbocker hotel
and it was transmitted on a radio broadcast.
When midnight had passed,
the séance ended.
Bess put out the candle
that she had kept burning
next to a photograph of Houdini
for the last 10 years and said:
“My last hope is gone”.
Once the transmission ended
and only in the immediate vincinity of the hotel
there was a violent thunderstorm
that drenched the séance attendees.
Many still believe
that this was the great Houdini
fulfilling his last
and greatest escape…
Oh, who let the cat in here?
Goodness me!
If we had more patreons,
we could have better scenery and actors!
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