5 of Houdini’s Greatest Stunts

This act was created by John Nevil Maskelyne, one of the preeminent magicians of the 19th century (and also, inventor of the pay toilet). In Maskelyne’s version of the act, he would get into a small box which was then locked, chained and tied. Then he would escape in a flourish.

The trick is now mostly associated with Houdini, who made some changes to the illusion. He would be elaborately locked up and tied into a canvas sack, then placed in a box. An assistant, usually his wife Beatrice, would roll the box briefly behind fans or curtains, clap three times and then reveal the two had switched places.

Even for spectators who knew there was stagecraft at work, the speed of the transition (seen here in a more modern execution by the Pendragons) was confounding. The fact that the act’s method is now well-known has stoked some anger among magicians.

Houdini liked to brag that no cell could hold him. In 1906, he made a sort of tour of the jails of Washington, D.C., invited by law enforcement brass eager to see if their strongest locks would hold up.

In the 10th Precinct on New Year’s Day, Police Chief Major Richard Sylvester placed Houdini—who had been searched and stripped naked—in one cell and his clothes in another. Just to mix things up, he changed the designated locks at the last minute. Houdini freed himself from handcuffs, padlocks and two cell doors in 18 minutes.

A few days later on January 7, Houdini escaped from the prison cell that had held Charles Guiteau (President James Garfield’s assassin) in a mere 2 minutes. He spent the next 19 minutes playing a musical chairs-like game, freeing other prisoners from their cells and relocking them in new ones. Only then did he reappear before guards fully dressed. Police Chief Sylvester could only comment, “That baffles me.”

Houdini made a name for himself on his ability to escape from just about anything that could traditionally (or non-traditionally) bind a man. Handcuffs, ropes, padlocks, water torture, milk pails—no device or restraint could keep him confined for very long.

He spent his career, where possible, raising the stakes of a given escape. Performing in Los Angeles in 1915, Houdini read in the papers that, while folks were impressed by his stage shows, there was still the possibility that he used theatrical apparatus or distractions. Could he wow everyone in the open?

In December of 1915, Houdini escaped from a straitjacket while suspended 50 feet in the air (this film shows him getting ready). It took 2 minutes and 7 seconds. He would repeat the feat many times over coming years, very often in front of the challenging newspapers’ offices, suggesting that the performer and press were likely in cahoots to drum up a good crowd.

On January 6, 1918, the New-York Tribune announced: “To-morrow at the Hippodrome one may see a full sized, real, live elephant disappear in full view of the audience on a brilliantly lighted stage, before one’s very eyes."

The next day, as promised, Houdini led a 10,000-pound elephant named Jenny around the arena floor, directed her into a large tunnel-shaped box and in a flourish of curtains caused her to disappear, in full sight of the crowd. Trap doors were not a possibility, as the Hippodrome stage had a large water tank beneath it for lavish production numbers.

It may have confounded skeptics (and still challenges the imagination), but it also inspired its share of dad jokes. A 1925 issue of The Sphinx, a magicians’ journal, said: “The Vanishing Elephant seems to be a good trunk escape.”

The magician Rahman Bey (real name Antonesco Gemmi) challenged Houdini to this feat, which Houdini undertook only three months before his death at age 52. Bey, who performed as an Egyptian “fakir," had spent an hour in an underwater coffin and claimed to enter a trance state in which he did not need to breathe.

Houdini, who knew better, accepted the challenge of proving that Bey used natural techniques. He trained for weeks to increase lung capacity and moderate his breathing. He conducted test runs in glass caskets both above ground and under water.

On August 5, 1926, Houdini entered the pool at the Shelton Hotel in New York, sealed into an airtight casket. Despite near 100-degree heat in the coffin and one moment when the casket nearly overturned, creating a risk of drowning, Houdini won the day. He emerged 91 minutes later, sweat-drenched and white as a sheet.