Houdini(10)

Houdini also continued his nude cell escapes, his most famous of this era being from the high-security prison in Washington that had been designed specifically to hold President Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau. Houdini not only escaped Guiteau’s cell, but also let the other eight prisoners in the other cells of the jail out, convinced them to swap cells, locked them back in, retrieved his clothes, and arrived in the main foyer of the prison.



Houdini arranged for his brother Dash, now the magician Hardeen, to follow him to America and again be his closest rival. It is unclear how much of the rivalry, which was played out in boasts each made to the press, was staged and how much was real.



While performing in the States, Houdini opened up his biggest challenge to the public yet: essentially, that he could escape from anything, at anytime. The public rose to meet this challenge. A Pennsylvania tool company challenged Houdini to escape from their strong vises, a Chicago envelope company designed a huge envelope for him to escape from, and the United States Postal Services provided him with mailbags from which to escape. The list goes on and on. In an escape from automobile chains made by the Weed Tire Chain Grip Company, Houdini took nearly twenty minutes to get out and emerged exhausted and speechless.



In 1906 Houdini orchestrated three escapes in the city of Boston that had the city’s residents spellbound. In the first of the escapes, he was triple-handcuffed inside a rattan hamper. In the second, he broke out of the city jail, somehow eluding police stationed at the three exits, and called them blocks away from the theater to let them know that he’d left. In the third performance, at Harvard University, students tied him with over sixty feet of rope, from which he escaped in around twelve minutes. Houdini also performed his needle-swallowing trick for a group of Boston physicians.



The following year, 1907, Houdini returned to Boston for another daredevil trick: an escape from an iron boiler made by a Cambridge manufacturer. The trick did not go as planned, and Houdini took nearly an hour to escape, emerging bloody and trembling. His fame in Boston reached a huge climax.





V. Houdini, the Aviator





Read It and Know It




After reading this chapter, you will know more about



Houdini and the sea: Able to escape from handcuffs even underwater, Houdini nonetheless suffered from seasickness.



Houdini’s obsession: He didn’t just want to learn to fly; he wanted to be the first in the country.



Accidental fame: Although Houdini never intended to perform in Australia, the desire to fly brought him to the island continent where the tricks he performed to support his new obsession made him popular.



Houdini’s “flight”iness: After only a few years, Houdini was bored with flying and sold his plane.





Despite having vowed to never perform in Australia, Houdini found himself on his way to that continent on a ship called the Malwa in 1910. Houdini, who always got very seasick when traveling by boat, reportedly lost twenty-five pounds on the trip. He was determined, however, to reach Australian shores because of a new obsession: flying airplanes. In 1909 the first flights around the world were taking place, and Houdini immediately became obsessed with aviation. He bought himself a plane in Hamburg, Germany and rented the services of a plane mechanic named Brassac. Houdini began to train with Brassac in Hamburg and then in Paris. He was determined to become the first man in flight in Australia.



On February 6, 1909 the ship finally reached Australia. Houdini exhausted himself by continuing to perform his magic shows while keeping a rigorous flying practice schedule. Others on the Australian continent were getting close to getting into the air, and Houdini wanted to be the first. On the morning of March 18, he took three successful flights. A day earlier, another amateur aeronaut had also taken flight but didn’t reach an altitude high enough to technically have completed what officials called a flight. Perhaps troubled by this possible challenge to his record, Houdini kept taking more and riskier flights, with more and more spectators coming to watch.



While in Australia, Houdini performed his manacled bridge dives and became a celebrity there as well. He was able to obtain ringside seats to boxing matches, boxing being one of his passions.



In May of 1910 Houdini finally packed up his plane and headed back to New York. Houdini kept up with aviation in the United States, watching professional aviators take flights that were beyond his reach just a few years ago in Australia. In 1913 Houdini sold his plane and announced that he was done with flying.





In Houdini’s Words




Houdini’s experience in Australia was not limited to flying, as mentioned above. While there he traveled and performed. As always, he sought to improve his performance and explore the methods of other performers. In Miracle Mongers and Their Methods Houdini describes a story he became familiar with about the experience of the Australian traveler. His tone in this passage helps us to discover some of his thoughts about the island continent he was so reluctant to visit.