Kentish Express Ashford & District
When Harry Met and wowed the county
At 12.30pm on Tuesday, June 2, 1914, one of the world’s greatest escapologists, Harry Houdini, stood on a motor boat in Dover harbour and took in the scene before him.
The beach and piers were lined with fascinated onlookers - all eyes on the performer as he stood covered in locks and chains.
Like some medieval execution, he stood confined; the elbow irons and handcuffs limiting his movement.
He took several deep breaths, shouted ‘I’m ready’ and dived head first into the chilly waters between the Promenade and Prince of Wales piers.
A hush descended over the crowd; collectively holding its breath. Were they about to witness the legendary escape artist’s final stunt?
Harry Houdini, who stood just 5ft 5in tall, was at the peak of his powers and nearing the end of what would be his last UK tour before the First World War put everything on hold.
Born Erik Weisz in Hungary on March 24, 1874, he had moved to the US as a child. Performing for crowds had been in his blood from an early age - first performing publicly in a trapeze act at the tender age of nine.
Billing himself as Prince of the Air, he then started performing on the magic circuit - dazzling crowds with baffling card tricks and upgrading his nickname to the King of Cards.
But his reign was set to go beyond his wildest dreams when he became the Handcuff King developing a range of showcase stunts which not only defied explanation then but continue to baffle today.
He guarded his tricks of the trade fiercely - and when he died at the age of just 52 - he carried many of his secrets to the grave.
The result is that his illusions
and remarkable escape acts continue to fascinate people to this day; his surname becoming a byword for wriggling out of impossible situations.
So what had brought Houdini to plunge into the English Channel on that day?
Performing a live stunt in the places he visited to win column inches and whip up publicity for his shows had become a regular part of the hullabaloo which surrounded him in an era when the theatre delivered the primary form of entertainment.
He was performing at Dover’s King’s Hall in Biggin Street (today repurposed into the Buzz bingo hall) - a special string of dates to mark its reopening after refurbishment. The poster proclaimed he appeared “with the largest salary ever paid to an artiste”.
Those attending the shows two took place each day, a matinee and evening performance - would see some pretty remarkable things.
One was his famous Water Torture Cell act. It would see him suspended upside down in water, his ankles clamped and locked to the top of the tank, an act which the posters advertising the event proclaimed “bordered on the supernatural”.
Then there was the East Indian Needle Trick - which saw
him appear to swallow 50 needles and 20 yards of thread and then bring them up all threaded.
And if you still wanted more, then a regular show-stopper was Metamorphosis. It would see Houdini’s hands tied behind his back, before he was placed in a large sack which was then knotted shut and placed in a locked and strapped box. When his assistant closed the curtains obscuring the view for the audience, she would clap three times. On the third, Houdini would open the curtain himself - liberated. Remarkably, his assistant would now be the one chained up in the sack and box - with all seals apparently untouched.
Historian Derek Tait’s book, the Great Houdini the British Tours, explains what the Kent ticket-holder would witness: “Eight illusions were performed. Good-Bye Winter, involved the vanishing of ‘a living breathing human being in mid-air, in the centre of the stage, away from all curtain and in full glare of lights in less than one millionth of a second’.
“Another illusion entitled Arrival of Summer, described as ‘materialising in a most inexplicable manner, a fairy queen gardener, under the strictest conditions possible, everything open and above board, deceiving the five senses at one fell swoop’.”
In another masterstroke of publicity - and a well tried and tested method to add additional clout to his performances - he allowed the public to challenge him in a bid to test his escape skills.
Advertised in the local newspapers just as the tickets for his shows went on sale, he accepted a challenge from the Dover Marine Porters. They proposed tying him up in a way “used years ago on slave and sailing vessels”.
Their inventiveness couldn’t be knocked. According to the published challenge they said they “will tie a broomstick behind your knees, your hands lashed to each side. In this trussed up condition we will lay you on your back on to a seven foot plank to which we will secure you in a network of cords and ropes and finish up by tying your neck off at one end of the plank and your ankles at the opposite end”.
Houdini accepted the challenge on the sole condition “there must be no danger of strangulation” by the ropes tied around his neck.
But before that, Houdini still had the small challenge of extracting himself from a possible early watery grave in Dover harbour.
It took him just 22 seconds. Just as the crowd started to count down the time he had been submerged, he broke the surface of the water - proudly holding the chains and handcuffs which had constrained him high above his head.
It was another triumph of both escapology and publicity.
As he climbed aboard a boat and was taken back to dry land he was mobbed for his jaw-dropping antics by those who had watched the death-defying spectacle.
Houdini was no stranger to the county, having first performed here in 1905 when he played at the grandly titled Bernard’s Palace of Varieties in Chatham.
He performed a string of shows in the January and February at the venue and performed another high-profile stunt outside the confines of the theatre.
Explains Derek Tait: “New cells had recently been installed in the police station in Chatham when Houdini arrived. To publicise his show, he offered to break out of them. The Kent County Constabulary turned him down because they didn’t want it to appear that their new cells weren’t completely escape proof.
“However, Chief Constable Alfred Arnold, head of the Rochester police force, was happy to oblige. Houdini duly escaped and gained the publicity that he wanted.”
In 1911 he was back at the same venue for more shows and took on another challenge posed to him. This time from four officers from the town’s naval barracks.
It read: “We challenge you to stand in front of a loaded government 8-cwt, steel gun, to which we will secure you, insert a fuse which will burn for 20 minutes, and if you fail to release yourself within that time you’ll be blown to Kingdom Come.
“In lashing you to the muzzle of the gun, we will place a rifle barrel between your arms behind your back, bringing your hands on your breast, where we will securely lash them. Your feet we will tie off to an iron ring which we will nail into the floor. Your body we will lash against the muzzle of the gun in such a manner that we believe it will be impossible to free yourself. Test must take place in full view of the public.”
Added Derek Tait: “The house was packed on the night of the challenge and Houdini was bound and tied to the muzzle of the gun as stated. He quickly kicked off his shoes and amazingly untied most of the knots with his toes. Although the police chief had not allowed the fuse of the gun to be lit on safety grounds, Houdini still managed to escape with plenty of time to spare.”
The nearest Hal UK tour was in 1920 - where Kent was not on the agenda - possibly due to the huge sums of money he now commanded. Reports at the time suggested he earned £900 a week for his fortnight of shows at the London Palladium - which would be close to £50,000 in today’s money.
With films stealing much of the thunder of live theatre, he dabbled in the movie industry but found little success. Instead he continued to tour his act to sell-out crowds while spending plenty of time attempting to debunk those who claimed to be able to speak to the dead; using his knowledge of trickery and illusion to reveal just how they were able to dupe those who attended such shows.
Such was his commitment to disproving the claim, he agreed a secret phrase (‘Rosabelle believe’) with his wife, Bess, which he would relay, from beyond the grave, if it were indeed possible.
Houdini passed away in Detroit on October 31 - Halloween - in 1926, of peritonitis, and a ruptured appendix.
For 10 years after his death his wife, who had for many years performed on stage with her husband, kept a candle burning next to a photograph of Houdini.
She would stage annual seances in a bid to contact him. All were unsuccessful.
Since then, it has become a tradition among magicians to attempt to contact the great escape artist. Almost 100 years later, he has never made contact. But, as the magicians which still revere him today say, “if anyone would be able to escape from the beyond, it’s him”.
The Great Houdini - His British Tours by Derek Tait is available to bury from publisher Pen & Sword at tinyurl.com/Houdinitours.
‘He quickly kicked off his shoes and amazingly untied most of the knots with his toes’