Bess Houdini's Costume

The Potter and Potter Auction that is coming up on August 23rd, features a costume apparently worn by Bess Houdini. It is Lot #77. The piece has a nice description of the costume and some information on who Bess gave the costume to and how it has survived. The estimated value is $7000 & $9000.

John Cox over at WildaboutHoudini.com wrote about the costume. And he provided a photo of Bess wearing the costume from an old postcard. However, to my knowledge, no one has given much more information than that. Until now.

This is the costume Bess wore around 1900+ when she performed the Metamorphosis with Harry. I'm not sure if that adds more value to the costume or not. She probably wore the costume throughout the whole act, but for sure she wore the costume during the Metamorphosis. And how do I know this???

In the book, Metamorphosis by Bruce MacNab, on the Table of Contents page near the front of the book is a photograph, actually a series of photos (4) of Harry and Bess presenting their Metamorphosis routine. Bess can plainly be seen wearing this incredible costume. The photos are from the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library. Try as I might, I couldn't dig them up online.

But if you turn to the Table of Contents in this book, assuming you have a copy, you can see Bess wearing this incredible costume in action, for yourself!

Houdini's Water Torture Cell by Norman Bigelow

Norman Bigelow is an interesting fellow. He is an escape artist of the highest order. He is a Houdini devotee. He is a psychic investigator and in fact he has spent a great deal of time of late exposing and researching modern day mediums and fake spiritualist con artists. I also want to add, above all these things Norman Bigelow is a Patriot! Follow him on Facebook and you'll understand why I say that.
By the way, Norm's Birthday is Aug12th, and if you haven't done so, be sure to wish him a Happy Birthday as well!!!

The Bigelow Cell has two bands around the center, no doubt for stability and also protection in case the glass needs to be broken to save his life. The bands would stop him from hitting any glass that might remain in the frame. Houdini used an inner cage on his Cell as a precautionary measure for the same reason.

One thing you have to know about Norman, he was the first escape artist to introduce the 'full-view'

picking technique. No hiding behind curtains for Norm. He does everything out in the open. For his Water Torture Cell, he is put into a leather harness, chained and locked and then dropped head first into his 360 Gallon tank of water.

Through sheer will and ability he stays underwater, in full view, and escapes from the locks, chains and harness before getting out of the cell itself.

Now, in his own words, Norman Bigelow describes his Water Torture Cell.
"I built my first one before I was twenty out of hard wood and glass but the glass blew out from the pressure. I was on top getting ready to get in. So Philip Moore of Vermont built me a steel tank. I had the lowering rig built in my home town so it was all self contained and I need no stage rigging to lower me..

At first I had an open top and my legs were in loops and chained. I was in a Trudel harness called the Spider Web Escape. Later we made the top solid and it opened like a bulk head door. Some one would lock the stocks with a padlock inside and then the top was lowered and locked from the out side. So I was always able to do it full view.
　
I could escape the harness and then get up to the lock between my legs. Later on I replaced the Water Cell for the Gas Chamber escape and avoided needed all that water and weight on a stage. One over looked problem a lot is sneezing. If you sneeze all locked in you could die."

Bigelow toured with his Water Torture Cell in the College Market in the 1970s. I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of bringing this huge prop, along with all his other equipment for a college audience. But I'm thinking in terms of modern day college students who tend to be jaded. I've read some of the reviews that Bigelow received back in the 1970s and 80s and they are nothing short of overwhelmingly fantastic. The college audiences held their breath, bit their lips and grabbed their chairs while sitting spellbound by his mindblowing escapes.

I think Houdini would be quite proud of this version of his escape!

Houdini's Water Torture Cell by Steve Baker

When I was a kid, I saw Steve Baker's performance of the Escape from The Water Torture Cell on TV. I don't recall if it was a rerun or if I was seeing it live.  I have had the good fortune to talk to Steve about his version of the Water Torture Cell many times. There were some features of Steve's routine that were different from the usual escape. For one, a chain held his hands to the bottom of the tank. Two, he was known to present the cell slightly differently each time he was on TV.

The first performance was on a show called Dick Clark's LIVE Wednesday Show. This was a weekly Variety Show on NBC. Steve's appearance was so impressive, that he was brought back numerous times to appear and do different escapes on the show. When the show ended and Dick Clark started another show, well he again brought over Steve Baker.

Steve told me his tank was built by John Gaughan but after he picked it up from him, he went about altering the escape methodology. Steve was very proud of his tank and his method. He would boast that no one, outside of his crew knew the method he used to escape, not even the original builder. Though, one young escape artist was up for the challenge and figured out the secret. Steve was quite taken back that his closely guarded method was figured out. The escape artist swore to never reveal it to anyone, and I haven't. :)

Steve presented the Water Torture Cell on TV several times. The first was for Dick Clark's LIVE Wednesday as mentioned above. The second was as the opening escape of an HBO Special featuring the Greatest Escape Artists in the World. Third time was below and then there was a very controversial time on Australian TV, the Don Lane Show, where Steve was trapped in the cell for real, an apparent attempt at sabatoge by a member of his own crew. Steve came out of the cell with bloody feet from trying to kick and break the top of the lid open. It took him over 6 minutes to free himself, all of his other WTC escapes were 2-3 minutes.

Sadly, today Steve's tank is gone. The whereabouts are unknown. IF anyone knows where this tank might be today, I'd surely love to know.

The video below is of one of the later presentations of the Water Torture Cell by Steve. I think this was in the early 1980s. The original WTC on Dick Clark LIVE Wednesday was around 1976.