Houdini and The Overboard Packing Case Escape

 Houdini was no stranger to the packing case escape. In reality, it goes back to his earlier days, as the Metamorphosis, that started his career, could be considered a packing case. It was a steamer trunk in reality, but served a similar purpose. In fact, it served the exact same purpose, to escape from.

Before he gets to the most spectacular version of the escape. lets dive into some of the earlier versions. I mentioned the Metamorphosis. This was Houdini's first big magic/escape. It was traditionally called the Substitution Trunk. A person is tied, placed into a bag, which is tied, that is then placed into a trunk, which is locked and secured shut. A curtain goes around it. The assistant steps behind the curtain and in 3 seconds or less the performer originally locked inside is FREE. But that is not all, the assistant is now found inside the trunk, in the bag, wrists tied, just as the performer had been only moments before. It's a great mystery, and still popular today.

The Overboard Packing Case, and other packing case escapes all were things Houdini had to escape from but there was a difference. In the case of the simple packing case, that would often be built on stage by a local shipping department, and then Houdini would escape in the theater. But with the Overboard Packing Case, this was designed to be featured outside and using a body of water to hide the escape. Naturally, when you are adding a body of water, that means, the box is lowered into a lake or river or pool, and while underwater, Houdini would have to escape.

The danger element skyrockets with the Overboard Packing Case escape. The photo above sohws Houdini on a tugboat in NYC. He has one leg inside the box, one outside. He is about to climb into the box, and then the lid would be nailed shut. Ropes are then wrapped around the box and it is hoisted in the air and lowered into the water. Usually metal tubes filled with weights are attached to the lower ends of the box to help weight it down so that it sinks below the surface.

To be inside the box, the moment it hits the water is a stress filled moment. In one case, another boat in the water caused a wave and when the box, with Houdini inside, hit the water, it twisted, and Houdini got quite thrown around inside the box, just as the water rushed in. Everything goes black really fast and he had to hold his breath, or he could drown inside the box before he had a chance to free himself.

Other escape artists have suffered this fate. A well known Canadian escape artist nearly drowned on his very first packing case escape. Thankfully, he lived and continues to perform today. 

STAGE VERSION

Houdini would first present this in 1902 in Essen, Germany. He would continue with this most of his career. It made a great challenge escape that involved cross promotion. 

• 1902 – Essen, Germany. This was the first one.
• 1904 – Zoo-Hippodrome, Glasgow. 
• 1907 – Los Angeles, a challenge from Hamburger’s dept. store.
• December 1909 – Hansa Theater, Hamburg.
• November 30, 1915 – Los Angeles Orpheum, Hamburger Dept store a second time. 
• May 1926 – Goodyear, Akron, during his “3 Shows in One” tour. 

OVERBOARD VERSION

• July 7, 1912 – New York, from a tugboat off Governors Island in the East River. This was the first one. The box was slid down a plank. There is some archival film footage of this.
• July 15, 1914 – New York, Battery Park, with a crowd of about 15,000. 
• July 28, 1915 – Atlantic City, from the Garden Pier. 
• June 30, 1917 – Westport - Saugatuck, Connecticut, into Long Island Sound, at a Red Cross charity drive held at the home of Frederick E. Lewis II. Possibly his last overboard escape.
• Interestingly, his brother Hardeen would do the Overboard Packing Case Escape when he was in his 60s in Atlantic City to promote his shows there. And he did it often!

Houdini and the Art of Jumping From A Bridge

 

Generally, when you hear about someone jumping off a bridge, it's bad news. They are probably attempting to commit suicide. Depending upon the height of the bridge and the angle of their descent, it's likely they will succeed. Houdini, chose to use this concept of jumping off a bridge as a publicity stunt, but he would take it up a notch.

You see, not only was Houdini prepared to jump, he would also do it handcuffed. This adds another element of impossibility for those watching. So he has two things he must handle, he must survive the jump and then he must get the cuffs off of himself before he drowns!

One can clearly see Houdini's athletic abilities on full display here. Just the ability to jump and land without hurting yourself is remarkable. You could easily bash yourself in the head or the face with the cuffs as you hit the water. And, though it looks like a very soft target, water is nearly like stone due to its surface tension. Once you break through you are ok, but if you hit the surface wrong, the result can be devastating. Think of someone doing a belly flop dive into a pool. I have vivid memories of doing this myself as a kid and how painful it was when I hit the water. 

Then there are other elements to consider. How about the temperature of the water, or weather conditions in general? This type of stunt is ideal for warmer temps, in other words Summer time. But Houdini's first attempt would be on November 27th, 1906. This was on a Tuesday, and just before Thanksgiving that year. Houdini would be jumping from the Belle Isle Bridge in Detroit, Michigan. This is also the jump that would go down in history as having to cut a hole in the ice so that Houdini could jump and then getting stuck under the ice do to the current of the water. It was depicted quite graphically in the 1953 Houdini movie with Tony Curtis, and later in the Adrien Brody Houdini Miniseries. First biography to cover it was the Harold Kellock biography. The only problem was, that part of the jump never happened. The water was never frozen over. It would have been ice cold, but not frozen over. And yet it was Houdini himself, that started to whole 'story'. He would make the claim, on more than one occasion, that they had to cut a hole in the ice and he nearly died trying to escape. Totally, bulls**t, well let's be nice and call it 'fluttery' lol. 

HOUDINI-Tony Curtis 1953

But he did jump from the Belle Isle Bridge, about 25 feet from the top of the bridge to the surface of the water. He wore two pair of handcuffs and he apparently wore a safety rope as well. Actually quite smart thinking for someone who had not done anything like this before. He also had a safety boat to pick him up once he made the jump. Considering the temperature of the water, another smart move. Once Houdini hits the water in the handcuffs, he initially is overcome with cold shock, sudden immersion triggers, hyperventilation, gasping and a spike in heart rate. This will continue for several minutes until the blood begins to cool and then the ability to swim rapidly decreases. So, both the safety line and the safety boat were smart precautions.

For me as a kid watching the 1953 movie, I often wonder if I would have gone into magic had this under the ice scene not been in the movie. It was the one scene I had caught over and over when they showed that movie on TV, and the only one I would see for a while. It wasn't until the day I asked my Dad what that movie was and what it was about that I took the time to sit down and watch it end to end. Well, that was the day my life changed. But back to Houdini.

BOSTON JUMP

Houdini would do a lot of exciting things in Boston during his career. But on April 30th 1908 he announces he is going to jump from the Harvard Bridge, into the Charles River, while handcuffed and manacled. That image is at the top of the page. He is wearing leg irons on his arms and a the chain between the leg irons is padlocked around his neck. He also has a pair of handcuffs on his wrists which are behind his back. As an escape artist, this tells me everything I need to know about the escape. But for you, the lay person, I don't give up secrets.

An estimated 20,000 people came out to watch Houdini jump off this bridge into the Charles River. Notice it was April, a much warmer time of year, though still not Summer time. It should also be pointed out that far more people could see a stunt like this than could see a Jail escape. Both were certainly strong publicity events, but the Bridge Jump was more spectacular and a bit more dangerous. Interestingly, both likely had to be coordinated with the police. Which I might add, was a pretty fast process as compared to today when you'd need permits and permission and insurance and who knows what else. Houdini gets to Boston, and a short time later, days, is jumping. And before then, he has time to notify the media, print flyers and make the arrangements for a safety crew, as there were boats in the water ready to pull him out once he jumped. Oh, and he has a film crew on hand to document the entire thing.

There is a commemorative plaque today on the Harvard Bridge, dedicated to Houdini's jump in 1908. They do get the date wrong, the plaque says May 1st and it was actually April 30th. One thing you might note, the photo at the top of the page and the photo of him dropping into the water, clearly not taken from the same spot. Brilliant marketing frankly. He gets some good publicity shots, which appear as if he is about to jump. Then the goes over to the actual location and has a film crew standing by to record the entire thing. They are filming from a different location, possibly even from a boat. 

All in all the bridge jumps are an education in Houdini thinking. So many aspects are involved here. You have the technical side, how will he be manacled, with what, and how far down is the water? Then you have the logistical side, media, the authorities, the audience. No small feat for a stunt that actually lasted a mere moment. He was out of the manacles and on the surface of the water in 30 seconds. But look at how much publicity he received. Imagine how the ticket sales for his shows was have blown up that week. Wow.

Houdini's last bridge jump would be in England in 1913, he would have been 39 years old. His brother, Theodore on the other hand,  though he also stopped doing bridge jumps around this time, was doing underwater escapes well into his 60s. So, the moral of the story is, don't let age stop you if you really want to do something (and NO, this does not apply to kids). It should go without saying, but Im saying it, these types of things are EXTREMELY dangerous and should only be done by professionals and by taking every precaution possible. 

The Master Mystery - The Original Terminator?

 

In 1918, Houdini made a Silent Movie Serial called The Master Mystery. Before the Terminator, before Skynet,  before AI, Houdini faced the danger that we all are concerned about today,  Q-The Automaton. This was the first evil movie robot in American movie history.  They called it an Automaton, because the word 'robot' had not been coined yet, let alone, 'android', 'cyborg'  or any other sci-fi word.

The movie is a 15 serial, or 15 episode production. IMDB says of the movie, "Quentin Locke, a Justice

Department agent, is sent to infiltrate a fraudulent patents company. In an attempt to gather evidence on the phony patents, he takes a job as the manager's secretary who takes up residence in the mansion of business partner Peter Brent. Brent wants our of the nefarious scheme and has been rendered mentally incapable of cooperating with Locke through exposure to "Madagascar Madness", a chemical substance that was added to the wax of candles in his room. Locke accepts the challenge of protecting his daughter Eva as the gang pushes forward with their unethical agenda. The vicious gang of thugs use an ambulatory mechanical man to assist them in intimidating the household into supporting their plans."

The original robot is lost to time. But a few years ago, master builder John Gaughan rebuilt Q and he even made an appearance at a Magic History Conference. Today, two of them exist, one in John Gaughan's collection, the other in Roger Dryer's Houdini museum. Im assuming Mr. Gaughan built both of them.

The Master Mystery marked a new chapter for Houdini, the movies. He had made smaller productions in 1905 and 1909, but The Mastery Mystery would be seen by many more people and would lead into several other movies.

Now, if you have nearly 4 hours, you can watch this epic silent movie!