Thursday, May 3, 2018

Houdini hanging out in Houston

Magic collector and dealer Ken Trombly has posted this terrific photo to his Magic Posters Instagram. Not an image I've seen before.


Going by Houdini's appearance and "Houston" visible on the window behind him, I believe this is his suspended straitjacket escape from The Houston Chronicle building on Tues., Jan. 25, 1916, during his first tour of Texas. (Although he sometimes did these rope tests the day before.) He had good reason to make sure that rope would hold. He did this particular escape 100 feet in the air!

Thanks Ken. Check out his website MagicPosters.com.

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3 comments:

  1. From the way he's contorted in this pic, he must have tested ropes for these escapes by literally twisting and pulling and yanking at it with his body just as he did when he was upside down in the straight jacket. He never did anything half-way! Such a cool and unique shot; thanks for sharing, John, and to Ken for posting.

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  2. My dad was born in 1908. I remember him telling me about seeing a man hanging upside down outside a building in Houston,Texas when he was a little boy. He didn't know who it was but after he became and adult he thought it just might have been Harry Houdini. If Houdini was there in 1919 that would have made my dad 10 years old.

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    1. Oh wow. Houdini did suspended straitjacket escapes in Houston in Jan. 1916 and Nov. 1923. (He wasn't there in 1919.) Could your dad have seen one of those? How cool if he did!

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