Today I'm celebrating the birthday of Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini, a magician, illusionist, and great escape artist was born on this date in 1874. Houdini could free himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in plain sight of the audience. In a famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, holding his breath for more than 3 minutes. You can see Houdini's straitjacket escape on YouTube and watch Criss Angel also perform the trick.
Houdini also worked to debunk self-proclaimed psychics and mediums, exposing frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee, which offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities, but the cash prize was reportedly never awarded. Houdini left his wife a secret code of 10 words randomly chosen from a letter to him written by his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, fearing that spiritualists would exploit his legacy by pretending to contact him after his death. Although Wikipedia reports some conflicting statements, it was last reported "she steadfastly denied that any of the mediums presented the clue by which she was to recognize a legitimate message." I wonder what Houdini would think about the self-proclaimed medium John Edward. You can see the 20/20 video about John Edward on YouTube. I also wonder what John Edward thinks about Houdini's exposing of frauds and that cash prize which was never awarded. What do you think about this? Post a comment.
Here are some links to more information about Houdini:
- PBS' timeline of Houdini's life
- PBS' gallery of the posters collected by magicians, friends, and fans of Houdini advertising his performances and tricks
- magictricks.com's site on Houdini
- Harry Houdini tribute site
Here's a fan tribute video Harry Houdini Live! of posters and clips about Houdini to Kon Kan's song Harry Houdini
As posted on YouTube by heathywhodini
Today, if you're feeling all tied up and would like to escape, think of Houdini and how easy he made it look.
Image credit: Library of Congress, public domain per Wikipedia
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