Houdini in his heyday.
Posted on 10/30/2026 12:09:15 PM PDT by bitt
An escape artist pulled off a thrilling stunt high above Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death on Halloween.
Performer Houdini II successfully escaped a straitjacket while suspended upside-down from a crane about 80 feet high next to the castle.
The escape artist took just under 2 minutes free himself, saying the straitjacket was an “exact replica” of the one actor Tony Curtis wore in the 1953 film “Houdini.”
He completed the escape without an airbag or protective landing system beneath him.
Houdini has performed stunts like jumping from Miami’s MacArthur Bridge into Biscayne Bay, bound with ropes and chains, and then escaping from a submerged coffin-like wooden box, organizers said.
Organizers said before the stunt that Houdini II would throw $1,000 from the sky as a “gesture promoting social unity, peace, and global harmony.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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“Given enough time and money, man will always find a way to harm, maim, or kill himself.”
Houdini in his heyday.
Harry Houdini died on October 31, 1926, at age
52 from peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix.
A few days earlier in Montreal (on October 22, 1926), a college student named J. Gordon Whitehead punched Houdini in the stomach unexpectedly while Houdini was sitting down and unbraced.
Houdini was already suffering from abdominal pain and a fractured ankle, but he refused to go to the hospital and continued performing. After collapsing following a show in Detroit at the Garrick Theater, he was taken to Grace Hospital where he died on Halloween.
Medical consensus attributes the ruptured appendix to a medical coincidence rather than a direct result of the punch, though the blows may have masked or aggravated his symptoms.
All aviation records back in that era are sketchy but on 18 March 18 1910, Harry Houdini became one of if not THE first people to fly an airplane ... in Australia.
He’d bought the plane in Germany the year before. Then he taught himself to fly because back then there were no flight instructors. EVERYBODY who knew how to fly was self-taught. Those who didn’t catch on quick enough were dead.
Houdini shipped the plane to Oz, flew it 18 times and shipped it to the US but never flew it again. Where it went to remains a mystery.
Some people seem born to do such stunts.
They have no fear of heights + They are natural performers ,Showboats and B.S. Artists. The gift of blather.
Thanks for posting.
A friend in my Sherlock Holmes scion society (I’m no longer active) used to gather with others at the room at Grace Hospital there Houdini died because Houdini said he would come back there after he died. Didn’t happen and the hospital was finally demolished in 1979.
https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/grace-hospital
Interesting.....thx.
Houdini said he would come back to Grace Hospital after he died.
Didn’t happen and the hospital was finally demolished in 1979.
Tony Curtis as Houdini
There was never anything special or spectacular about escaping from a strait jacket. Holding didnt need any hidden tools, or fix the strait jacket in any way ahead of time. It wasn’t really that difficult to escape from one, just by wriggling.
Exactly. Wanna be impressive? According to Houdini biographer Walter Gibson, there were three challenges Houdini accepted that he said he’d never do again: being buried alive, directly in dirt, without a box or coffin; being covered in blankets, soaked with ice cold water, in layers from head to toe; and, my favorite, the Ladders and Rope Challenge.
In that one, a tripod was made of three ladders. Houdini’s legs were spread and his feet each tied to the bottom of a different ladder. His neck and chest were bound to the top of the ladders, where they joined. In effect, if he lost his footing at all, he strangled himself. He had no leverage because he was suspended, so even gaining the benefit of shifting his center of gravity was impossible. Finally, the structure was so shaky that if he pulled too hard, the whole thing would come crashing down on him and he would be unable to prevent serious injury.
Any performer that wants to use Houdini’s name to make a name of his own is nothing unless he does these.
His iron self-discipline combined with genetically-gifted athleticism propelled him to world stardom, earned by his continually outdoing his previous feats. Harry withstood extreme temperatures without clothing, was able to hold his breath for minutes while slowing his metabolism and commonly concealed lockpicks underneath his skin without revealing discomfort.
The literal personification of "thinking outside the box" - from getting out of so many.
Old dad used to find it amusing to chain or rope me up, with a way out if I found it, when I acted up. I heartily recommend this for brats who disrupt store aisles with their tantrums.
You relayed the widely-held story of Houdini's demise. Just recently it has come out that it was more likely an intestinal infection and not a burst appendix that got him. It was also found that he passed on October 30th. Moving the time a few hours over to coincide with Halloween was just too great to resist - a perfect epitaph for a career that will never be matched.
“Holding”
*Houdini
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