Mysteries & Scandals - Harry Houdini
Mysteries & Scandals - Harry Houdini
Transcript
00:00Suspended from a building, trapped in a straitjacket, chained in a box under water, bound and shackled,
00:08master of illusion, Harry Houdini always found a way to escape.
00:12With all his skills, strength and self-confidence, Houdini seemed invulnerable, but he found
00:16out that no one could trick death.
00:18On this episode of Mysteries and Scandals, we'll relive the tragic mishap when Houdini's
00:22fearlessness proved fatal.
00:24One young man said, you mean you could withstand a punch in your stomach with all my force?
00:31And the young man struck him.
00:33We'll also show you how Houdini constantly tempted fate.
00:37That may be the most terrifying of all, being in a confined area, locked under water.
00:41When you went to see Houdini's show, the visceral will be screaming, that crazy guy is going
00:47to be drowned.
00:48And the intellect will be going, no, that's a hero.
00:52And we'll reveal why no one dared underestimate the power of Houdini.
00:56My feeling about why we still talk about Houdini is that he was doing miracles.
01:00He said that if there was any way to communicate after death, he would find it.
01:05I'm A.J. Benza.
01:06Join me as we unlock the secrets of the world's most famous illusionist, and expose the one
01:10trap even Houdini couldn't escape.
01:22At the height of his career, illusionist Harry Houdini wowed audiences with his death-defying
01:38escapes.
01:39A typical stunt for Houdini had him tied up in ropes and suspended over a vat of flesh-eating
01:44acid.
01:45If anyone came through the door to help him, Houdini would plunge into the cauldron of
01:49doom.
01:50How's that for high drama?
01:51But even in his earliest days, Harry Houdini was well-acquainted with adversity.
01:56Houdini was born Eric Weiss in Budapest on March 24, 1874.
02:01His poverty-stricken family immigrated to the United States when Houdini was four years
02:05old.
02:06Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ken Silverman.
02:09Houdini had a difficult childhood.
02:10I mean, his father was an unemployed rabbi.
02:13He had come to America and tried to get work in Appleton, Wisconsin.
02:17He had barely enough money for food and clothing.
02:20The rabbi and his wife, Cecilia, struggled to support their seven children.
02:24Young Houdini did what he could to help earn money.
02:27Dorothy Young appeared on stage with Houdini in his later years.
02:31Young says that by the time he was nine years old, Houdini was already a showman.
02:35He took his cap and went down to the village square of Appleton, Wisconsin, and he would
02:41ad-lib and do a few little tricks.
02:44Then he would go home.
02:45He placed all the coins in his hair and a few on his shoulder, and he went in carefully.
02:51He said, Mom, shake me.
02:54And she took his shoulder and shook him, and all the coins fell to the floor.
02:59And he said, See, Mom, God helps those who help themselves.
03:04In search of a better life, the Weiss clan moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1887.
03:08There, the 13-year-old Houdini discovered his true calling.
03:12His mother gave him a magic set when he was, I don't remember, 10 years old or something,
03:17as a reward for bringing money into the house.
03:20By the time he was 16, he was already doing magic.
03:23And by the time he was 18 or so, you know, he was performing professionally.
03:27The first feat for Erie Weiss was to come up with a catchy name.
03:30He adopted the last name of French magician Robert Houdin and Americanized Erie to Harry.
03:36And presto change-o, Harry Houdini was created.
03:40Nancy Leschke is the spokesperson for the Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin.
03:45He started out as a pretty traditional magician in the vaudeville circuit and, you know, performing
03:50at dime museums and theaters with other acts as part of a, you know, a 10-act bill.
03:55While performing at Coney Island, 20-year-old Harry met a young singer, 18-year-old Bess
03:59Ranner.
04:00They were married two weeks later on June 22, 1894.
04:04Houdini's new bride soon joined his act just as he was starting to take off, master illusionist
04:10Houdini's big progression was actually using the news as a stage.
04:20He did tricks that were designed not for how they looked on stage, but rather for how they'd
04:25look written up in print.
04:27He really caught on to what attracted the public's attention.
04:30He started something called the Challenge Act, and he would take handcuffs to the local
04:35police station or to the local newspaper office and have the officials from that institution
04:41find him.
04:42And then he would, of course, escape every time.
04:44Well, almost every time.
04:46Once in New York, early in his career, a police sergeant who was patting him down thought
04:51that he saw something under Houdini's toes.
04:53And apparently there was some kind of small pick underneath his foot that maybe it squeezed
04:57between his toes.
04:58He didn't deal with the idea of magic at all.
05:01He dealt with the idea of trickery, of stunts.
05:04Celebrated magician Lance Burton.
05:07Houdini invented the whole idea, I think, of being an escape artist.
05:12He's the one that really made that into a big deal.
05:16I think he did that by hooking into people's emotions.
05:20It's not just a guy going in a box and then getting out of the box.
05:24It was a guy risking his life.
05:27By 1899, the tricks of 25-year-old Houdini became even more daring and bizarre.
05:32He went to an insane asylum, and he was allowed to watch an inmate in the asylum struggling
05:40inside a straitjacket, and he got the idea that it would make a good escape.
05:44He started presenting it, hiding behind a cloth or in a small cabinet, out of sight
05:49of the audience.
05:50But then he got the idea of doing it out in front of the audience, just on the stage and
05:55letting them see how he got out.
05:56He was doing the straitjacket escape in his show, and he had this crazy idea of, why don't
06:01we hang Houdini upside down, you know, downtown, out of a window, and thousands and thousands
06:08of people will gather around and watch this nut hanging upside down, trying to get out
06:12of his straitjacket.
06:13The most important fact about a straitjacket escape is it's easier to do upside down.
06:19Much easier to do, because you have the weight of your arms helps you pull it up over your
06:22head.
06:23But to Houdini's fans, the straitjacket stunt appeared life-threatening.
06:27The snow job of the straitjacket escape, hanging up high, is really phenomenal.
06:34What difference does it make?
06:35Whether you're six inches off the ground, or whether you're 200 feet off the ground,
06:40if you're completely secured in place, you're trying to get out of a straitjacket, it makes
06:43no difference at all.
06:45Crowds obviously loved Houdini.
06:46I mean, from newspaper accounts that we have, the applause was always thunderous, and people
06:50shouted and waved their hats.
06:52Hanging in a straitjacket over Times Square for a nation of immigrants, saying, I defy
06:57the jails of the world to hold me, there's nothing more American than that.
07:01Calling oneself an escape artist, a self-liberationist, is just the most purely patriotic American
07:07thing we could possibly have.
07:09A true hero.
07:11So what does a hero do for an encore?
07:13Well, in Houdini's case, he turned his already dangerous tricks deadly.
07:17Coming up, how did this master illusionist try to defy the laws of nature?
07:52This is Houdini.
07:53This is Houdini.
07:54This is Houdini.
08:23This is Houdini.
08:24This is Houdini.
08:52This is Houdini.
09:22This is Houdini.
09:52For generations, magicians have tried to duplicate the tricks of the world's leading escape artist,
10:13Harry Houdini.
10:14But none of his imitators have managed to capture the public's imagination like the
10:18great Houdini.
10:19In 1908, the 34-year-old illusionist elevated the danger of his stunts to a new death-defying
10:24level.
10:25A brewery had challenged him to escape from the milk can, and he was chained up as he
10:30was used to and dropped in the milk can, which was filled with beer instead of milk or water.
10:35He was very physically fit and did not drink or smoke or anything of that nature.
10:39And so he said that the fumes from the beer almost overcame him, and that was the time
10:44that he felt he risked his life.
10:46He had all kinds of devices to intensify the dramatic punch of what he was doing.
10:52For instance, in his milk can escape, he would be put in a milk can covered with liquid and
10:57he had a giant clock built for it so that the audience could see the time ticking away
11:04on the stage.
11:05And he also asked the audience to hold their breaths while he was inside the milk can to
11:09see how long they could hold it.
11:10Of course, after about 30 seconds, everyone went, but Houdini was still inside.
11:15It generated great newspaper stories because it seemed impossible, of course, and of course
11:20he escaped.
11:21Matthew Carpenter is the curator of the Houdini Historical Center.
11:25There's certainly a very interesting myth built up around this man, and in that way
11:31he's an incredible American self-promoter.
11:35One of my favorite Houdini stories is that when he was asked to write an entry on magic
11:39for the Encyclopedia Britannica, he wrote his entry on the history of magic.
11:44If only one magician is mentioned in it, that's Houdini.
11:47With 2,000 years of magic, you'd think he could come up with somebody else to mention,
11:51but it was just Houdini.
11:53Houdini authority and magician, Sidney Radner.
11:56I think that Houdini was an egotistical person, yes.
11:59I think he felt that he was superior to other people doing this type of thing.
12:04Houdini's theory was he wanted to be the best.
12:07He had a drive.
12:08He had something inside him that pushed him, and he was always trying to think of crazy
12:13things to do.
12:14Somebody who can stay inside a steel coffin underwater for an hour and a half is doing
12:18something that, you know, you have to go back to biblical times in a way to find anything
12:22that miraculous.
12:24Sometimes even Houdini thought he needed a miracle to survive.
12:27His tricks always worked.
12:28On the other hand, he was always getting beaten up.
12:31I mean, he was always getting mangled.
12:33He broke everything.
12:34He fractured everything.
12:35He ruptured everything.
12:36Physically, he was, you know, there was tremendous punishment.
12:39But no amount of physical pain could have prepared 39-year-old Houdini for the ultimate
12:43heartache.
12:44At 1913, Houdini's beloved mother, Cecilia, passed away.
12:48In his head, I think Houdini was always performing for his mother.
12:51I mean, that was really the audience.
12:53She was the one that he really wanted to mystify and captivate and please.
12:59And her death was very, very, very tough for him.
13:01Houdini couldn't bear to let his mother go.
13:03He started attending seances and visiting mediums in a sincere effort to contact his
13:09mother and see if there was any way to communicate with her after her death.
13:13Howard Houdini desperately wanted to unlock the gate between here and the hereafter.
13:18But could Houdini find a way to contact the dead?
13:20Just ahead, how the King of Illusion battled psychic phonies.
13:24And why even the great Houdini could not escape his tragic fate.
16:09Escape artist Harry Houdini freed himself from straitjackets, chains, and giant milk
16:18cans.
16:19But in 1913, he couldn't break out of the depression caused by his mother's death.
16:23Houdini attended countless seances, hoping to communicate with his dearly departed mom.
16:28By the early 20s, Houdini realized that the spiritual advisors he consulted were frauds.
16:33He went to the spiritualists because he wanted to contact his mother.
16:37And he was very, very hurt and mad because he discovered all these spiritualists he went
16:42to were using magician's tricks.
16:45Houdini thought they were wicked.
16:47They would prey on poor people to hear the voices and spend their last dollar.
16:53Because he was a magician, he recognized the techniques that these mediums were using to
16:57fool people into thinking that there indeed was some contact from their dead relatives.
17:01He began a crusade, there's really no other word for it, to debunk mediums and spiritualists.
17:08Houdini attended seances in disguise.
17:11Once he figured out the deception, he'd reveal his true identity and expose the scam.
17:15He was the first really famous magician to say, I'm doing tricks and so are they.
17:23Beginning in 1924, 50-year-old Houdini made his findings public.
17:27He went around the country lecturing against the spiritualists, and he'd give an hour demonstration,
17:32show how they were able to make trumpets blow and so on.
17:35He spent over a million dollars that one year exposing spiritualists.
17:40I don't think Houdini ever said he didn't believe it was possible to contact the dead.
17:48He was always hoping that he could, and he was always looking to find someone who was genuine.
17:54Houdini's obsession with death often pushed him to accept even more dangerous challenges.
17:59He was always tempting death, and he was a daredevil, he had that kind of temperament.
18:04One of the stunts, he stood on the top of a biplane and jumped into, handcuffed into Lake Michigan.
18:09He was always taking pretty big chances.
18:11In the winter of 1925, 51-year-old Houdini made his debut on Broadway.
18:16Audiences were thrilled to see his death-defying stunts.
18:20The most spectacular individual trick, if you want to call it that,
18:24that Houdini presented in his career was the Chinese water torture cell.
18:29They had this large cabinet filled with water, and they would tie his ankles and his hands
18:36and lift him head first down into the cell.
18:41When Houdini is put into that, there is a big feeling of,
18:46oh no, he's going to die, he's going to suffer, this is going to be miserable.
18:50But then he gets out okay, and that's when you know it's been art.
18:53But in many ways, Houdini's art was torture.
18:56He suffered countless injuries on stage, from broken bones to internal bleeding.
19:01Still, Houdini continued to push himself.
19:03And finally, in the fall of 1926, the 52-year-old illusionist faced the reality of his failing health.
19:09He was performing in Canada at the time that he first became sick.
19:13There are accounts that he may have had appendicitis for a little bit of time
19:17before the incident that provoked it or aggravated it.
19:20The famous story is that he was in his dressing room in Montreal,
19:23and a student asked him, can I punch you in the stomach?
19:26One young man said, you mean you could withstand a punch in your stomach with all my force?
19:35And Houdini nodded.
19:36And the young man struck him without any preparation or telling him.
19:41And it burst his appendix.
19:43Historians aren't sure right now whether he indeed had appendicitis before that time
19:48and the punch just ruptured his appendix or aggravated his condition in some way.
19:53Sick and in great pain, 52-year-old Houdini maintained his strenuous schedule.
19:58He was asked to see a doctor in Montreal, and he refused
20:02because he had a rather important engagement in Detroit.
20:06He went to the theater and performed and collapsed.
20:10It turned out that he had a ruptured appendix,
20:13and the ruptured appendix caused peritonitis to set in.
20:17Peritonitis comes from a bacterium.
20:19Appendicitis comes from a bacterium.
20:21And that couldn't have been given to him by a punch in the stomach.
20:23He must have had it before.
20:25But that punch to the gut no doubt made a bad situation worse.
20:29With his wife, Bess, and his brother, Hardine, at his bedside, Houdini took his final bow.
20:34On Halloween in 1926, a week after he had been punched in the stomach,
20:39he passed away.
20:40He simply said that he couldn't stand the pain anymore.
20:43He couldn't take it anymore.
20:44He died in his brother's arms on October 31st when he finally gave up.
20:49He said to Hardine, I have to give up.
20:53And he died.
20:55Come on, this is Harry Houdini we're talking about.
20:58And Houdini himself said if it was possible to communicate from beyond,
21:02he'd be the guy to find a way.
21:03So break out your Ouija board, folks.
21:05When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
21:08to prove there's life after death.
21:38I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised to prove there's life
21:42after death.
21:43When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
21:47to prove there's life after death.
21:49When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
21:53to prove there's life after death.
21:55When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
21:59to prove there's life after death.
22:01When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:05to prove there's life after death.
22:07When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:11to prove there's life after death.
22:13When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:17to prove there's life after death.
22:19When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:23to prove there's life after death.
22:25When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:29to prove there's life after death.
22:31When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:35to prove there's life after death.
22:37When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:41to prove there's life after death.
22:43When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:47to prove there's life after death.
22:49When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:53to prove there's life after death.
22:55When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
22:59to prove there's life after death.
23:29When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
23:33to prove there's life after death.
23:35When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
23:39to prove there's life after death.
23:41When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
23:45to prove there's life after death.
23:47When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
23:51to prove there's life after death.
23:53When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
23:57to prove there's life after death.
23:59When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
24:03to prove there's life after death.
24:05When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
24:09to prove there's life after death.
24:11When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
24:15to prove there's life after death.
24:17When we come back, I'm going to tell you the secret code Houdini devised
24:21to prove there's life after death.
24:23TESLAND
24:26at blank
24:28On Halloween 1926, the great escape artist, Harry Houdini,
24:32died at the age of 52 from Peritonitis.
24:35The family and friends he'd left behind wondered if Houdini
24:38could perform the ultimate magic trick and return from the dead.
24:42Meanwhile, the news of his unexpected passing shocked the world.
24:45Houdini biographer, Ken Silverman.
24:47Houdini's death really made front page news, and I mean front page.
24:51It was big headlines.
24:52The interesting story is Houdini was traveling around the country with a coffin in tow, and
24:59he died on the road, and they actually shipped his body back to New York in the coffin that
25:05he was carrying around to rehearse this Buried Alive trick.
25:09The funeral in New York was a huge event.
25:11Crowds all over the street, police saluting him, and people out to watch.
25:18Because he had a long-standing relationship with the press, they followed him in death
25:23as they did in life.
25:25Houdini's widow, Bess, also held on to the hope that if it was at all possible, her husband
25:30of 31 years would contact her from beyond the grave.
25:33After Houdini's death, Bess Houdini held a seance for 10 years running, starting in Hollywood,
25:38trying to see whether she could get back in touch with Houdini.
25:41They set up a code before he died to try to communicate with each other.
25:45Bess and Harry agreed their secret code would be, Rosabelle, believe, but Bess learned from
25:51Houdini himself to be skeptical.
25:53Finally, in 1936, after 10 years of attending seances, Bess acknowledged that Houdini was
25:59gone for good.
26:01Houdini never, never said he would come back from the dead.
26:05That's an absolute mistake.
26:08Houdini said if anybody could come back, being Houdini, he would do it.
26:14Houdini was someone who fought for rational thought, no supernatural, and remembering
26:19him as anything except a man of science and a man of truth and a straightforward man who
26:24believed in physics is just a spit in a hero's face.
26:28For generations of fans, Harry Houdini will be remembered as a hero.
26:33No matter what he had done, he wanted to find a more daring, more challenging way of doing it.
26:38He said to a reporter in Australia, and in one of his visits there, he says, I want to
26:41be number one, it is all I ask.
26:44Houdini was really the first magic superstar, and maybe the first superstar in show business.
26:50He is the thought of a century.
26:53He really is the idea that we can think our way through things.
26:58And it's a powerful idea that is emotional and at the same time intellectual.
27:03And we don't have any other stars in the 20th century that have come close to that.
27:08You know, when you think of it today, when you think of U2 playing a concert, you know,
27:13in the middle of an intersection, stopping traffic, well, we've all seen the footage
27:18of U2 doing that, but that's Houdini, Houdini started that.
27:22Even though he was a superb showman, in private life he was a kind, compassionate, very caring person.
27:32The Frank Sinatra of magic, exactly.
27:34He was sort of like the Evel Knievel of his day.
27:37Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, and Houdini, I think they had become legends.
27:45Two hundred years from now, there will be some scholars who will talk about Elvis Presley,
27:51but I think they'll still be talking about your boyfriend, Polina Houdini.
27:55And even today, so many decades after his death, many of Houdini's secrets are still secure.
28:01Houdini is lucky, we still don't know how he did a lot of his things.
28:04I am the only living person that was closely connected with Houdini.
28:09Houdini swore me to secrecy, and I've never divulged anything since.
28:14Houdini was a product of his time.
28:16I think if somebody would say to me, could anybody do a Houdini today, I don't think so.
28:21Every time you talk about freedom, every time you live freedom, you are working towards it.
28:28And it's part of the constant work of keeping things free.
28:32And I think that even on that silly, cartoony level of throwing off handcuffs and throwing off straitjackets,
28:38that it's still very, very important.
28:41And it gets people saying the word freedom.
28:44And I mean, I'll repeat it forever, I defy the jails of the world to hold me.
28:49It's kind of like an American anthem.
28:54So maybe Houdini couldn't actually come back from the dead, but his magic spell will live on forever.
29:00And if that's not escaping death, I don't know what is.
29:02I'm A.J. Benza.
29:04Join me the next time we conjure up Hollywood's tricks, tragedies, and triumphs on Mysteries and Scandals.
29:30I'm A.J. Benza.
29:31Join me the next time we conjure up Hollywood's tricks, tragedies, and triumphs on Mysteries and Scandals.