The Baker Challenge Belt

 

The picture above was hand made by escape artist Steve Baker. It was part of a run of 25 belts, but mine was unique in that it was the only black belt, the only one with gold cuffs and gold trim. Kind of the Rolls Royce of Challenge Belts.

The original belts were called Tom Horn Belts and also known as Australian Torture Belts. The originals did not have handcuffs, but rather chains with padlocks. From what I can find, there were ads in The Linking Ring for the Tom Horn Belts back in the 1950s. Later, Prince E. Wheeler had a few for sale. John Novak wrote about the Australian Torture Belts in his book on the Art of Escape Volume 5.  Steve Baker was using a Tom Horn Belt back in the late 1960s and decided to create his own version which he called The Escape Proof Challenge Belt. Below is a photo of Steve's belt.

I never liked the name because the whole idea behind the belt was to escape from it. But Steve created it so he could challenge other performers who would then not be able to escape, thus the name. It should have just been called The Steve Baker Challenge Belt. It's one of the few items that Steve never presented on Television.  But he did perform it live, many times. As you can see it combines the aspects of a handcuff escape with a straight jacket where the arms are held in place, this time with with leather straps instead of the sleeves with straps. 

When Steve built mine, I had no idea it was going to turn out the way it did. And I am especially lucky because Steve's health started to deteriorate as he was making these belts. If memory serves, there were several belts he never finished. I know most people got their belts, but I do believe there were 2 or 3 who may have never gotten a belt because Steve's health went down hill fast. One of his issues was memory. He had a good long term memory, but his short term memory was failing. I can recall being on the phone with him and about every 5 minutes he acted as if I just called, and we'd repeat the same conversation again and again. The other issue were his hands. Years of abuse via escapes had taken their toll on him and doing any sort of work with his hands became more and more difficult.

Let me get back to the belt. So my belt has the distinguished honor of not only being made by Steve Baker, but another famous escape artist from the 20th Century actually wore it during a challenge, and that was Norman Bigelow. I loaned my belt to Norm to use in a Challenge between him and Steve Baker. I spoke about this on Episode 37 of my podcast. Norm went all out and even used the neck restraint that came with the belt. This was an optional piece and I don't think it was offered on the standard belts. Below is Norm Bigelow in my belt. 

Finally, here is the one time I wore the belt. Yes, I said one time. The belt is so nice I feel bad even using it. It's more a work of art in my opinion. I may use it again, at some point, but the next time, will be the last time....maybe.