Harry Houdini
This past week in December of 1916, the great Harry Houdini known as the
"handcuff king" visited
us in Dayton, Ohio to perform at the B. F. Keith’s Theater, which is at the corner of Fifth and Ludlow. He was the top billed
actor for the week and is internationally famous. He hasn’t visited Dayton for
nearly 20 years. And this time he has upped his acts from the well-known
handcuff tricks to more death defying stunts. From December 11th to the 17th,
he spent a week in Dayton putting on shows that amazed and confused all his audiences. For his shows he was performing his famous Chinese water-torture
cell escape where he was placed upside down into a cell which is then placed
into a case filled with many gallons of water. Houdini was then fastened in place
by his ankles and only had minutes to escape before he could drown. To add to
the suspense he was covered by a curtain and his assistances stood nearby with
axes, preparing for the worst. He easily escaped every night to the
astonishment of his audiences. Also, among other various tricks, he performed
the trick of swallowing needles and thread only to produce them again with the
needles threaded.
On several occasions throughout the week he put on special
exhibits for the people of Dayton. On December 11th, Houdini was strapped into
a straight-jacket and hung upside down from the Dayton Daily News building. In
under 3 minutes, he was able to escape from those confines to the amazement of
the almost 6,000 people gathered. His wife was there but she said she couldn’t
watch. Houdini had said that he does these tricks knowing that each one could
be his last.
On
December 12th at his evening performance, Houdini took up the challenge of
DELCO employees and escaped from a wooden box that they built. It was made of
8inch boards with many nails in almost every place to keep it tight. It took
him only 6 minutes to escape from the box, easily making the DELCO employees
lose their challenge.
For
the evening of December 15th, Houdini again changed his performance.
He was challenged by employees of the Olt Brewery Company to attempt an escape
from a vat of beer. Houdini accepted the challenge and was locked into a cask
of nearly 60 gallons of beer. While there is conflicting reports, it is said
that he escaped the vat in about 2-3 minutes. Houdini had joked that if he
could not escape he would just drink himself out, but this is not true. Houdini
who must keep in excellent shape does not drink or smoke or have other vices.
Due to this, when he did escape from the beer cask he needed time to revive
himself from the fumes of the beer.
Houdini
was well received in Dayton alongside many other great acts throughout the
week. He moves onto the next city to amaze even more people.
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