Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Steve Baker's Houdini tributes

Here's an ad for Steve Baker's Houdini Tribute show in Eugene, Oregon, on Halloween 1974. I especially like the juxtaposed images of Steve and Houdini. Steve Baker once said in an interview that he was inspired to become an escape artist after reading Walter Gibson's Houdini on Magic at age 8. 

The Register Guard, Oct 31, 1974.

The Register Guard, Oct 25, 1974.

While Steve would sometimes boast that he was "better than Houdini" (a very Houdini thing to do), he frequently honored Houdini by recreating his escapes. Below is Steve doing a suspended straitjacket on Hollywood Blvd. in 1976.

Press Telegram, June 12, 1976.

On Halloween 1976, the 50th Anniversary of Houdini's death, Steve did the Water Torture Cell at the Mayfair Music Hall in Los Angeles. Below is a flyer I picked up at a magic shop in Tarzana, where Steve and his wife, Julie, lived. Did you know the Water Torture Cell was "the escape that brought about Houdini's death"? Now you do!


I wish I had gone and seen this. What a way to spend the 50th. But I was only 11, and Halloween was all about trick-or-treating back then. By the way, the Mayfair Music Hall was converted into a variety theater by none other than Milt Larsen.

You can dive a bit deeper into Steve Baker via the links below.
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3 comments:

  1. Leo HeviaJune 3, 2026 at 7:21 AM

    Thanks! Great Steve Baker stuff! Lots of YouTube videos of his performances. The Dick Clark Show USD performance was great! For a while there back in the late 1970s, Clark brought back vaudeville to television audiences. We owe him a debt of gratitude for that.

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  2. AnonymousJune 3, 2026 at 10:58 AM

    Steve Baker was a local celebrity in the Bay Area in the 1960's, his straightjacket escape from The Tribune Tower especially created a lot of buzz, (and front page photo!). He appeared on local TV shows and later Art Linkletter's "House Party". Unfortunate the factors that put him out of the spotlight after his Dick Clark era.

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  3. CarnegieJune 3, 2026 at 6:08 PM

    So nice to see Steve featured. I think I have a couple of those original clippings. For a moment I wondered if this was one of the WTC Escapes he did on TV around Halloween. But the date on this was 1976, so that would have been shortly after the Dick Clark Live Wednesday where he did the WTC. The Halloween special was either late 70s or early 80s, I forget and I dont have my files handy.

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