Did Houdini escape from a lion's den?

Here's a new one. Did Houdini do an escape from a lion's cage at a Belgian circus? The following is from The Football Post on January 4, 1913.

Football Post, Jan. 4, 1913.

Before we dismiss this as the product of an overly imaginative reporter, know that there is supporting evidence for this from Houdini himself. During his run at the Circus Hagenbeck in Brussels in late 1912, Houdini sent one of his circus playbills to his friend Quincy Kilby in Boston. On it he wrote:

I performed my act in the Lions cage. H. H.

The entire menage was ironed off like a hugh [sic] cage.

I'm still not entirely sure what Houdini did here, but he appears to have done something involving lions, and that's pretty wild!

Interestingly, one of "The Amazing Exploits of Houdini" stories features Houdini escaping from a lion's cage. "The Cage" ran in the February 18, 1922, issue of the Kinema Comic and is one of the stories collected in the new book from Joe Notaro and Arthur Moses, Kinema Comic 1922 (Jan-Jun) The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI.

Want more? You can see the original playbill Houdini sent Kilby as a "Scholar" member of my Patreon.

Top image generated by A.I.

Related:

• Locating Houdini's lion
• Houdini's bizarre plan to fight a shark
• When Houdini escaped the belly of the beast