According to legend, Houdini first sees an inmate at an insane asylum struggling in a straitjacket and it gives him an instant idea to add this into his act.
In 1900 Houdini is in Europe and he sends a telegram to his brother DASH, to come over, his exact words were, "come over, the apples are ripe". Which meant, get your butt over here, you can make a killing! And sure enough he did. Theodore -Dash- Hardeen stayed in Europe for 7 years. He was there even after Houdini had come back to America. But there is an interesting thing that happened to Hardeen. I mentioned this in a recent episode devoted to Hardeen, but it bares repeating.
Both Hardeen and Houdini were presenting the straitjacket escape. They would perform it live on stage, having a committee secure them in their jackets and then, Houdini and Dash both did this, they would step behind a curtain, likely the curtained cabinet used for the Metamorphosis, and proceed to escape. For Houdini it got very good results. For Dash, on one particular night, he got heckled. An audience member assumed there was a hidden accomplice in the cabinet who simply let him out. Honestly, not a bad suggestion really.
But that was not the case. And Hardeen chose to repeat the escape, this time in full view of the audience. And this time, this escape he'd been doing for quite a while, now brought the house down! Now it was time for Hardeen to wire his brother in America and tell him, DO The SJ in Full View!!! And from then on, Houdini did just that.
Of course, Houdini would use the jacket in different ways. Sometimes it was as a Challenge from the Local Insane Asylum. They could bring their own jacket or use one of his. Having very muscular medical attendees putting him in the jacket gave it even more legitimacy. It didnt stop him from escaping, but it sure looked good. Of course, if it wasn't a challenge, he could just call it a device to hold the criminally insane, and then proceed to be strapped in it. I know they used it many times in Challenges.
But then came the biggest twist of them all. Being Suspended upside down from his ankles wearing the straitjacket. This was usually from a newspaper office or near one whenever possible. This guaranteed covered. Thousands of people would come out to watch him escape. Seeing a man suspended high in the air, stopped traffic!
I had always thought this idea came from a young man name Randini. But Joe Notaro and John Cox both discovered there was a guy who used the stage name Mysterio and also went by the name the Great Avin, who was doing the suspended straitjacket escape at least a year before Houdini. There are a lot of correspondence between Houdini and Randini (Randolf Douglas), so I am sure Randini helped Houdini in some aspect, maybe with the rigging, maybe with how he was tied by his feet. Hard to say.
Although I can say one thing. I found something very interesting visiting Ken Klosterman's collection years ago. He had, among his Houdini items, two strange leather devices........used as a leg harness for the suspended straitjacket escape. My mind was blown the first time I saw them. I never knew Houdini used such a thing. This is sort of the secret behind the secret! But to be honest, it always seems frightening to me just to have rope wrapped around your ankles. Here we can see, it wasn't just wrapped around the ankles but the rope was also going through loops in the leather device to assure he was going to be safe. And he also had a safety rope on top of it!
His very first hanging straitjacket escape was in Kansas City, MO Sept 8, 1915. And recently, Lance Rich, magician and fellow historian, presented a hanging straitjacket escape in Kansas City to commemorate both Houdini's escape and as part of a ceremony where a new plaque was put up commemorating Houdini's first hanging straitjacket escape! Funny, I dont think anyone put up any plaques for Mysterio.
more to come...
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