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“Houdini could walk a tightrope, untie knots with his toes, scale skyscrapers, dislocate his shoulders, and hold his breath for over three minutes,” the Wall Street Journal wrote. Houdini’s remarkable talents ranged from routine card tricks to death-defying stunts of shock-and-awe.
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Within 15 minutes Houdini emerged triumphantly - later admitting that he nearly suffocated from the fumes of the embalming fluid. Hollowed out, and with Houdini chained inside, the opening was stitched shut with steel chains laced through steel eyelets installed three inches apart. Thousands of spectators watched as the dead “monster” was brought to B.F. Ten local businessmen challenged him to be manacled with leg irons and sewn into the rotting carcass and try to escape. (Reports say it was possibly a whale or leatherback turtle.) Houdini liked his fans to challenge him with new escape situations, and when some kind of 1,600-pound sea creature carcass was fished out of Boston Harbor, he faced something new. That never happened to Houdini, though he did have some close calls. His body was found the next day about a half mile downstream - still shackled by rope and chains. Ten minutes later, there was still no sign of him bursting triumphantly to the surface. His arms, legs and body were bound with rope and chain - then lowered upside down by crane into the murky Hooghly River (branch of the Ganges).įor several minutes the crowd waited anxiously. “The magic we are going to do today is so risky,” he said earlier while being videoed. In 2019, a magician in India named Chanchal Lahiri, or by his stage name Wizard Mandrake tried to duplicate one of Houdini’s acts near Calcutta (Kolkata). Think of the greatest of Detroit’s Masonic Temple.Īnd think of all the people in the audience of Houdini’s final performance who came not only to see a man escape from chains, but to connect to something higher.Time and again, Houdini's escapes from seemingly impossible predicaments thrilled audiences, who found in him a metaphor for their own lives, an affirmation of the human capacity to overcome adversity. A theatre so grand it attracted the famous actress and director Jessie Bonstelle to leave New York and open the Bonstelle Theatre in Detroit. Take a moment to remember one of Detroit’s lost treasures, the Garrett Theatre. He taught us that no lock or chain can restrain a determined soul.”Īnd with this message a request: Next time you think of Harry Houdini, Detroit, do not only of the fact that he died in Detroit, but take a moment to contemplate what connected him to Detroit. He showed us magick is possible with critical thinking and intelligence. Over a century later his work is still regarded as the top feats in illusion. The man created magic through sheer force of intellect. “He asked his wife to attempt contact with him on the anniversary of his passing each year, to either validate or discredit his thoughts on communication with the dead. At the time of his death, Houdini was the national President of S.A.M, an organization at the height of its popularity in 1926 with chapters across the country, including one in Detroit.Īnd herein lies what might be a secret to many-a message from a living practitioner of magic, Alejandra of Geminey Tarot: