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Houdini Escapes
The Jewish Museum presents first major art museum exhibition of Houdini’s life and legend
Harry Houdini
At the outset, Houdini’s magic career resulted in little success. 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”. But he soon began experimenting with escape acts. Suffice it to say, Harry Houdini was one of the 20th century’s most famous performers.
His gripping theatrical presentations and heart-stopping outdoor spectacles attracted unprecedented crowds, and his talent for self-promotion and provocation captured headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
A couple of special highlights: a recreation of the famous Water Torture Cell (much of the original was destroyed in a fire in 1995), and two of Houdini’s private diaries.
Houdini’s death, which occurred on Halloween in 1926, has inspired many myths: that he was poisoned, that he died in the Water Torture Cell, and that he faked his death and escaped. It is more likely that he had been suffering from appendicitis and died of peritonitis after suffering a blow to the stomach by a student visiting his backstage dressing room. He is buried in the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York, in a bronze casket fabricated for his buried-alive stunt.
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