Why The Challenge Escape Act Was Pure Houdini Genius

Of all the various escapes that Houdini performed in his life, I personally think his Challenge Escape concept was the best. Houdini was mainly a Vaudeville performer, which meant he was on the bill with quite a few other acts. The majority of the acts, did the same material over and over and over and over. Sure they might have had a small collection of different routines they could do, but most just did the same act or some form of it.

Along comes Harry Houdini who is making a name for himself as an escape artist. Yes, pushed along by Martin Beck, but still Houdini was the one with the abilities. He starts with a fairly general style escape act, and soon it's being copied and ripped off.  So he adds the idea of being challenged with anyone's handcuffs. This works well for a while and establishes the whole Handcuff King idea in the minds of the audience. But then it too is copied.

Houdini then comes out with the Challenge Escape Act. Let's say he is booked for a week at a theatre. Most acts are doing the same material. Houdini can offer a different act every night. And often something never before seen. At the time, I'm sure every 'challenge' seemed unique, but history shows that often these challenges were duplicated in different cities. One example is escaping from a metal can filled with water, then in another city, a iron drum filled with milk, and still another city, a giant metal keg filled with beer. Same escape, different liquid inside. But for each town it was new to them. Plus, it wasn't like you could turn on the TV and watch Houdini. If you wanted to see him face these challenges, you had a go see him in person.

In a given week you might see Houdini escape from a packing case, then another night, escape after being tied up by Sailors, then another night escape from some unusual contraption like an oversize Paper Bag, and on and on it would go. He could also put his regular material in there as well. If I have a chance to see Houdini face a different challenge every night, I'M GOING! It's a sure fire draw.

We know today that Houdini arranged a lot of the challenges. Flyers and small posters like the one below would advertise the coming feat and usually the daily newspaper would include the challenge in the drama/theatre section. It's pure brilliance. Houdini, the little guy, is challenged, usually by some authority or business, and faces the possibility of failing in front of the live audience. In the minds of the audience Houdini is the Underdog. But the truth is, he is an expert at this stuff. He knows this world better than anyone alive and is actually the driving force behind many of the challenges. It's exciting and dramatic and it makes for great theatre!

The Houdini Picture Corporation

 

For some reason I used to get the Houdini Film Development Corporation and the Houdini Picture  Corporation confused. I guess I sort of thought they were one in the same, they were not. They were different and had different locations. The Film Dev. Corp was run out of a warehouse in New Jersey.

The Houdini Picture Corporation had a slightly more prestigious address in NYC.

The Picture Corp was located in the Candler Building on West 42nd Street. This is one of those rare addresses that still remains today. If you've been to NYC you might have been in this building or at least seen it because the ground floor is taken up with a huge McDonalds.

The Candler Building is a high rise that was build back in 1914. It sits right in Times Square and as mentioned, houses one of the busiest McDonald's in the country.

I don't know what floor Houdini's company was located though it's a good guess that it was NOT on the ground floor. Houdini had big plans for his Picture Corporation, but those plans never came together. The Houdini Picture Corporation only put out two films, The Man From Beyond and Haldane of the Secret Service. He had plans to put out other films but it never happened.

The movie business turned out to be a lot harder than Houdini first expected. In addition, seeing Houdini's feats on the big screen, were not quite the same to his audiences as watching him do his incredible escapes live! Still, he did produce two movies and often used his magic/escapes to promote the movies.

The Magic Detective YouTube Show is Returning Next Week!

After a very long absence, The Magic Detective Youtube Show is returning! I had a lot of emails over this from folks wondering when I was going to resume. Well, the first new episode is already done and will debut next week. The upcoming episode will actually not have any Houdini stuff, but you can expect Houdini pieces after. The upcoming episode has a couple items on Robert Heller.

So get ready for the new season of The Magic Detective Show! Coming Soon....