CARDIFFREMEMBERED Houdini’s legendary escape from a tight spot in Cardiff

HARRY Houdini, who remains to this day the greatest escapologist of all time, visited Cardiff no fewer than five times.

The first time, in 1905, he appeared at the Kings Theatre which used to be in Westgate Street and is now a Wetherspoons pub.

The other four occasions he visited our beloved Cardiff, according to Derek Tait’s magnificent The Great Houdini: His British Tours, were in 1911, 1913, 1914 and 1920.

The author also informs us that “a letter sent to the ‘postbag’ section of the South Wales Echo published on August 11, 1978, stated that Houdini jumped off Canton Bridge in Cardiff in either 1916 or 1917. However, this can’t be verified.”

I knew about Houdini jumping off Newport Bridge in 1913 but as for jumping off Canton Bridge, or Cardiff Bridge to give it its correct title, I have no knowledge at all.

Houdini’s first UK appearance in 1913 was at the Empire Theatre, later the Gaumont Cinema, which used to be in Queen Street, and he was paid £150 for the week – no mean sum back then!

It was reported in the Western Mail that for the first time the British public would be able to see Houdini escape from “the Chinese Water Torture Cell” and he was quoted as saying that the act was first performed in Berlin in 1912 and that the idea had first come to him when he had previously appeared in Cardiff.

“He produced a copy of an older Western Mail, from his earlier Cardiff tour, showing illustrations of Chinese tortures.

“However, copies of the newspaper from the time show no such illustrations.”