Huis van Houdini at Bellewaerde Park in Belgium

The Bellewaerde Park in West Flanders, Belgium, has a "Huis van Houdini" (House of Houdini) ride attraction. This appears to be the same ride that one can find at Six Flags in New Jersey and MagicLand near Rome. I gotta say, I love that there are Houdini rides at amusement parks, and I love the facades.

You can watch a video of Huis van Houdini below.

Don't forget that you can go inside the real house of Houdini in New York. Although I'm not sure if it spins around! Click for details.

Related:

• Houdini is back in action at Six Flags
• Rainbow MagicLand's Maison Houdini
• "I'm not a Frenchie, I'm a Belgie!" (Patreon)

10th Anniversary: Houdini re-haunts Six Flags

Ten years ago today I reported on the reopening of "Houdini’s Great Escape" at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. The popular ride is set inside an imaginative version of 278 and had been non operational for two years.

Houdini is back in action at Six Flags

TEN YEAR UPDATE Happily, "Houdini’s Great Escape" is still in operation at Six Flags Great Adventure, although the park itself is temporarily closed due to Covid-19. There is also a "Houdini's Great Escape" at Six Flags New England set inside a haunted Opera House. I love that Houdini lives in these popular attractions and I wonder how many children get their first exposure to the Houdini story this way.

Related:

• Welcome to our WILD 10th year!
• Houdini haunt returns to Knott's
• Rainbow MagicLand's Maison Houdini

Mystifier, Fourth Quarter 2000

Continuing my issue by issue look back at the Mystifier, the newsletter of the Houdini Historical Center that ran from 1991-2003.

The fourth quarter 2000 Mystifier begins with an excellent article by guest contributor Massimo Polidoro about Houdini's exposure of pellet reading medium Bert Reese. It's well researched and not a common story.

This is followed by a report on the HHC's recent children's Halloween event with a performance by member Rondini. Among the list of new members is the familiar name of Leonard Hevia.

Guest contributor Paul Rosen then provides a first hand report on the Houdini ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Paul even describes his experience of standing in line and overhearing people talking about Houdini:

The group discussed how Houdini was punched in the stomach and died later that day in the "big water tank trick." They spoke of his ability to "Talk to the dead." And one gentlemen even knew that he was once married to Jamie Lee Curtis' mother!

The ride in set inside a mock up of 278. Paul describes the impressive decor inside and out. He then does his best to explain the ride itself:

The best way I can describe the ride is that we were given the sensation that we were somehow rotating, although we felt no ill effects of such travel. We never felt gravity kick in, even though we defied it while presumably upside down. Many people seemed to enjoy the ride.

In his "Backstage" column, Sid Radner reports on that year's Official Houdini Seance held at The Humphrey Scottish Rite Masons Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He then says he and his wife Helen have purchased a condo in Florida where they will spend winters. He also reports: "There are strong rumors about a Houdini stamp to be issued by the United States Postal Service in 2002. All of us at the HHC hope this turns out to be true."

Sid signs off by wishing all a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year.

Mystifier

Volume 10, Number 4

Fourth Quarter, 2000

6 pages

Contents:

The Unmasking of Bert Reese
New HHC Event a Success
Welcome New Members
Houdini Gets Taken for (or as) a Ride

Backstage with Sid Radner

PREVIOUS ISSUE | INDEX | NEXT ISSUE

Related:

• Houdini is back in action at Six Flags
• New Italian Houdini biography by Massimo Polidoro
• Houdini honored with U.S. postage stamp

Let her out!

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is running an ad showing UK celebrity Charlotte Crosby trapped inside a "Houdini style" tank. The ad takes aim at SeaWorld and means to highlight concerns about confining marine mammals inside tanks.

You can read more about the issue and the making of this ad at Sunderland Echo.

Below are links to more ads that play on Houdini imagery.

Related:

• Mary-Louise Houdini
• Houdini the Budget Gourmet
• Ehrich Weiss makes a name for himself

Houdini mystery prop at FrightFest in Oklahoma

Wryne Higgins at the Houdini & Doyle Fan Group on Facebook (which has now been around longer life than the series itself) posted this image she took at Frontier City's annual FrightFest in Oklahoma. This wasn't part of any existing attraction, it was just sitting on its own. Anyone have any idea what this could have once been a part of?

Below are links to some other Houdini amusement park attractions.

Thanks Wryne.

Related:

• Houdini is back in action at Six Flags
• Houdini haunt returns to Knott's
• Rainbow MagicLand's Maison Houdini

Coney Island: Where Harry met Bessie

Harry and Bess Houdini first met while they were performers at Coney Island in 1894; Harry as part of the Brothers Houdini and Bess with a song and dance troupe known as The Floral Sisters. But where exactly were they performing? As with so many aspects of Houdini's life, biographers over the years have offered up different answers.

Walter B. Gibson, who knew Houdini and sourced information from the man himself, says in The Master Magicians (1961) that they were at the Sea Beach Palace. Milbourne Christopher in Houdini The Untold Story (1969) says the Coney engagement was "first at the Vachress Casino, then at Sea Beach Palace." Some non-Houdini sources, such as the unpublished Last Stop, Coney Island, also name Sea Beach Palace as the location, so let's take a look at that candidate first.

Sea Beach Palace was not actually on the sea or beach. It sat inland north of Surf Avenue and was a hotel, pavilion, and the depot for the New York & Sea Beach Railroad. Below is a description of Sea Beach Palace from the excellent website, Heart of Coney Island:

The Sea Beach Palace had originally been constructed on the grounds of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia [the first World's Fair held in the US], where it served as the United States Pavilion. Dismantled and shipped to Coney Island by barge over the winter of 1876-77, it was one of several structures from the exposition that were later moved to Coney Island and helped create the amusement area's distinctive profile in the first years of the nineteenth century. The main building of Sea Beach Palace was a domed structure 375 feet long and 60 feet deep, with spacious wings on either end. The facility included a dining room that could seat 3,000 guests, and the railway terminal was to the rear of the structure."

Sea Beach Palace was demolished in 1920 and today the site is the Luna Park Co-op at 2879 West 12th Street. Sea Beach Palace stood at the site of what is now Building #5.

Modern map showing location of Sea Beach Palace.

While it's easy, even logical, to believe that Harry and Bess performed at Sea Beach Palace, there actually isn't any documentation to confirm it. And that brings us to William Lindsey Gresham who suggests a different and long forgotten venue that was, literally and figuratively, on the other side of the tracks. But Gresham has the evidence to back it up.

On page 25 of his classic work Houdini The Man Who Walks Through Walls(1959), Gresham reproduces a news item from the Coney Island Clipper dated June 22, 1894, the day the Houdinis were married. The clipping concerns a challenge to the "Hunyadi" Brothers box trick from a local man named Risey, and it specifically names the theater where the Brothers Houdini were performing: Vacca's. It also suggests a location in the sub headline: "Much Merriment Along Coney Island's Bowery."

The Bowery lay south of Surf Avenue and was Coney Island's main draw before the great amusements parks of Steeplechase, Luna Park, and Dreamland grew up around it. For help locating the precise location of Vacca's (which was probably called Vacca's Casino, Vacca's Hall, or Vacca's Pavillion), I turned to David Sullivan who runs Heart of Coney Island website. David came through and provided maps and a terrific description of the area:

Vacca's Casino was at the corner of Buschman's Walk and Ocean Avenue. Ocean Avenue was better known as "the Bowery." The Bowery was the heart of the social scene at Coney Island, filled with bars, restaurants, dance halls, performances, arcade games and even roller coasters. It is fair to say that Houdini performed in the heart of Coney Island's raucous social district, which frequently made the newspapers as a place where the police looked the other way and where patrons mixed with dancing girls and where the public drank freely and generally ignored the strict social proprieties of the times.

Attached is a map of 1895 so you can get a feel for what the area looked like. In the 1895 map, look at the intersection that is immediately above and to the right of the number 77. Vacca's likely was the "Hall" directly across the street from Connor's Hall. Alternatively, Vacca's may have been one of the smaller venues at the northeast corner of the intersection. We'd have to find actual photographs to know for sure.

1895 map showing the likely location of Vacca's (X).

Overhead of the Bowery today (Google Earth).

As for Milbourne Christopher's claim of an engagement at "Vachress Casino," he was likely sourcing Gresham and confused the name. Again, according to David Sullivan, there was no such theater called Vachress. And while it's tempting to think Vacca's was maybe a nickname for Vachress, David says: "We know that 'Mr. Vacca' and 'Mrs. Vacca' actually did exist based on the newspaper articles (assuming the reporting was done properly), and at that time, almost all halls were named after the proprietors because of the way land/rents were handed out by a corrupt local politician to specific individuals."

In his book, Coney Island - The People's Playground, author Michael Immerso says the Floral Sisters were at the Sea Beach Palace and the Brothers Houdini were at Vacca's. I don't know Immerso's source for his info on the Floral Sisters, but this nicely squares the reports of them at both venues, and it has a romantic ring to it. The boy from the Bowery falls for the girl at the Palace.

Bowery Street still remains today. However, all the structures from Houdini's time are long gone. Today the area is mostly empty lots. Bushman's Walk, which was not a street but a wooden planked sidewalk that ran down to the beach, is no longer marked in any way, so it's hard to pinpoint precisely where Vacca's Casino once stood. But we now know it was somewhere along this short stretch of Bowery Street, so visitors to Coney Island can still walk in the footsteps of the young Harry and Bess Houdini.

Interestingly, while doing my own search for Vacca's, I found a clipping from a May 6, 1894 New York Times that announced: "OLD CONEY IS NO MORE - Law and Order to be Established in the Lawless Realm of McKane." According to Brooklyn's Mayor Schieren: "Nothing in the way of entertainment would be permitted to go on except sacred concerts." Among those venues singled out to be "suppressed for good" was "Sea Beach Palace and Vacca's Pavilion."

This article appeared a month before Harry and Bess arrived. If any of the mayor's reforms took place, they were not as far reaching as threatened, and thank goodness for that! Had Vacca's and Sea Beach Palace been shuttered, the Houdinis may have never met.

Coney Island remained a favorite spot for the Houdinis. If they were in town at the time of their anniversary, they would always spend the day at Coney and have an anniversary photo taken at one of the tourist photo stands or a playful photo on the beach. For Harry and Bess Houdini, Coney Island was magic.

A very big thanks to David Sullivan of www.heartofconeyisland.com for all the valuable information and images, and to Colleen Bak whose recent trip to Coney Island was the inspiration for this investigation.

UPDATE: A few updates thanks to our readers. Vacca's full name was "Vacca's West End Casino" and it did indeed sit at the South-East corner of Ocean Ave and Bushman's Walk, exactly as marked on the 1895 map above. It appears the mayor's edicts did take effect in 1895 and Vacca's license was revoked (Sea Beach Palace survived). Finally, Manny Weltman in his great work Houdini Escape Into Legend, The Early Years: 1862-1900 confirms that The Floral Sisters were performing at the Sea Beach Palace while the Brothers Houdini were at Vacca's.

Related:

• When Harry met Bessie
• Man of Magic - The Floral Sisters
• The Modern Monarchs of Mystery (Bros. Houdini)
  
• Haldane of the Secret Service screening in Coney Island

"Houdini's Hidden Workshop"

Here's yet another "escape room" attraction with a Houdini theme. This one is at San Diego's popular Haunted Hotel and is called "Houdini's Hidden Workshop."

Long before David Copperfield and David Blaine, there was Houdini, the Grand Master of Illusion and the greatest escape artist of all time. Houdini'd soul is trapped in his hidden workshop; you and your group have just 60 short minutes to release him. Follow the clue trails and solve the mysteries to set yourselves and Houdini's soul free!

You can make reservations for "Houdini's Hidden Workshop" at the Great Room Escape website (be fun to do this with a group of Houdini nuts). And if you still haven't had enough, you can also visit The Great Houdini Escape Room in San Fransisco.

Related:

• The Great Houdini Escape Room in San Fransisco
• New book finds Houdini in San Diego
• Houdini returns to Knott's Scary Farm

Houdini returns to Knott's Scary Farm

The Houdini themed "Black Magic" haunted maze attraction returns to Knott's Berry Farm's annual Halloween scarefest, Knott's Scary Farm. This year the maze will reportedly feature a new skeleton room in which "Houdini himself tortures his fans."

Houdini’s vengeful spirt continues to wreak havoc on the Faux Theater, where the veil between the living and the dead is severed. Houdini’s ghost comes alive and ushers a host of demonic illusions to play tricks on anyone who intrudes, only to finally meet Houdini in a show-stopping finale. Back for its third year, Black Magic is one of the most popular mazes at Scary Farm.

Black Magic was designed by Daniel Miller and made its debut in 2013.

Knott's Scary Farm runs September 24 to October 31. For more information and to buy advance tickets visit their website.

Related:

• Houdini haunt returns to Knott's
• Knott's 41st Halloween Haunt will have Houdini-themed attraction

The Great Houdini Escape Room in San Fransisco

A Houdini-themed "escape room" attraction has opened in San Fransicso's Palace of Fine Arts. I'm not entirely sure what these "escape rooms" are all about, but they appear to be shared funhouse-type experience that challenges a group of people to puzzle their way out of a locked room. Below is an explanation of The Great Houdini Escape Room and a video with the room designer.

The Great Houdini Escape Room is the world’s first “escape room” — built 100 years ago by the escape master himself, Harry Houdini, as a challenge to 8 brilliant innovators, to see if they could escape his contraption filled room within 80 minutes.* These innovators — Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Charlie Chaplin, John Philip Sousa, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Helen Keller, and Luther Burbank — all participated in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco. The room is now open to the general public, available by reservation only.

* This first line may not be exactly true — but let’s pretend it is! The rest IS true.

A visit to to "The Great Houdini Escape Room" is included in one of the Kickstarter premiums for The Official Houdini Seance 2015, which is being held in San Fransicico this year.

To make reservations and to get more information, visit http://houdini-escape.com.

Related:

• Rainbow MagicLand's Maison Houdini
• Houdini is back in action at Six Flags

'Houdini' review in October MAGIC

I'm proud to report that the October 2014 issue of MAGIC Magazine features a review of the Houdini miniseries written by yours truly. This is a condensed version of my full review published here on WILD ABOUT HARRY. Even though I had to drastically reduce this review (from 2400 words to 500), I was thrilled to see it still received a full page.

The magazine also features a report on the recent Potter & Potter Houdini auction in Chicago; Mike Caveney's always must read Classic Correspondence column (this time "Neil Foster to Jane Thurston"); and a terrific look at the magical effects inside Disneyland's classic Haunted Mansion ("Revisiting the Haunted Mansion: Disney’s Magic Show"). The cover features magician Yu Ho-Jin.

Thanks to Stan Allen for allowing me to share my Houdini thoughts with the readers of MAGIC. Visit the MAGIC Magazine website to buy this issue and to subscribe.

Houdini haunt returns to Knott's

The Houdini themed Black Magic haunted maze attraction returns in this year's annual Knott's Berry Farm Halloween scarefest, "Knott's Scary Farm."

The veil between the living and the dead is severed when Houdini’s ghost materializes during a séance and ushers a host of demonic illusions to play tricks on anyone who intrudes on his theatre. From the prop room to the main stage this dilapidated theatre will make visitors skin crawl. Will you be part of the disappearing act?

Black Magic was designed by Daniel Miller and made its debut last year. According to the Knott's website, there will be some scary new additions this year, including "more places for monsters to hide" and a "mind-boggling hall of mirrors."

Knott's 42nd Halloween Haunt opens today and runs through November 1. For more information and to buy advance tickets visit their website.

Spotting Mr. Houdini

When I'm not blogging about that man from Budapest, my day job these days is to quality control movies for the major studios. This pretty much means I sit in a screening room all day and watch movies which, yes, really is the world's greatest job for a movie nut (if you don't mind watching Brave 64 times -- my record).

One movie I had the pleasure of working on recently was Saving Mr. Banks. I even got to QC some versions in Walt Disney's original screening room on the Disney lot (called "the Sweatbox"). Of course, I'm always excited to catch a reference to Houdini in the films I screen. In the past I've pointed out nods in OZ The Great and Powerful, John Carter, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. But it wasn't until my umpteen viewing of Saving Mr. Banks that I noticed Houdini is in that film as well!

So did anyone else catch "Houdini" in Saving Mr. Banks? If so, leave a comment below. And if you haven't yet seen the movie, I would highly recommend it. It's a great movie for movie lovers.

The answer after the jump:

Knott's 41st Halloween Haunt will have Houdini-themed attraction

Every year Knott's Berry Farm in California remakes their entire theme park into a massive Halloween scarefest -- "Knott's Scary Farm." Among five new mazes for the 2013 season will be one with a Houdini theme called Black Magic. Here's a description:

The veil between the living and the dead is severed when Houdini’s ghost materializes during a séance and ushers a host of demonic illusions to play tricks on anyone who intrudes on his theatre. From the prop room to the main stage this dilapidated theatre will make visitors skin crawl. Will you be part of the disappearing act?

Black Magic is designed by Daniel Miller who, according to PE Bloggers, "found himself contemplating Harry Houdini’s attempts to communicate with the dead and imagines what would happen if the magician were able to return from the other side."

"I’m going to have lots of fun with it," says Miller.

Knott's 41st Halloween Haunt will open on Sept. 29. For more information and to buy advance tickets, visit https://www.knotts.com/haunt.

Boo!

Rainbow MagicLand's Maison Houdini

Looks like there is a Houdini-themed attraction at an amusement park outside of Rome called Rainbow MagicLand (there's a name). I'm not sure exactly what "Maison Houdini" offers riders, but it could be a funhouse simulator like Houdini’s Great Escape at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.

Here's a very vice photo of Maison Houdini courtesy of Julie Grajed. Julie's Instagram page was how I discovered this lastest Houdini attraction. Let's ride!

Click here for Julie's full size photo.

Rainbow MagicLand

Paul Michael Glaser helps solve a 'Great Houdinis' mystery

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting my favorite "Houdini", Paul Michael Glaser, at The Hollywood Show in Burbank. Here I was finally able to clear up one of the mysteries about his 1976 TV movie, The Great Houdinis.

In my Making of blog from last year, I noted that the final day of principle photography (May 25, 1976) was planned for the Belmont Amusement Park in San Diego, which was to double for Coney Island. Here a scene in which Harry proposes to Bess (Sally Struthers) aboard a roller coaster would be filmed.

While it appears in the script and shooting schedule (as well as in the novelization), this scene didn't make it into the final film. Was it cut, or never shot? It seemed unlikely that a TV movie would cut a scene that took this much effort and expense to film, so it was my guess that the scene and location were scrapped and the last day was used instead to complete a schedule that may have run over.

Even though it was 36 years ago, I figured Mr. Glaser would remember filming a scene aboard a rollar coaster, so I brought the question to him at the show and he was able to confirm that I was correct. The Belmont Amusement Park/Coney Island proposal scene was never shot. "No, we never did that," he said.

Thank you Paul Michael Glaser for clearing up the mystery. Below is the scene (that never was) as it appears in The Great Houdinis screenplay.

Click to enlarge

Related:

• Houdini is coming to Burbank
• Making the great Great Houdinis
• The Great Houdinis (1976)

Disney giving Mickey a Houdini makeover

Our friends at the Magic Newswire report that Walt Disney World in Florida will convert their Town Square Theater on Main Street, U.S.A., into the new home of Magician Mickey Mouse. Guests can go backstage to visit Magician Mickey in his rehearsal room along with the Disney princesses. The new attraction is set to open in early April.

But here's the part I really like. According to a Disney Imagineer, various posters featuring Mickey’s magic acts will be placed throughout the queue line and are designed to enhance the experience even more:

“You will recognize the poster style as that of turn-of-the-century magicians such as Houdini, but these posters carry Mickey’s magical touch that can bring them to life and interact with you while you wait.”

This makes the second Houdini/magic themed feature to hit the Magic Kingdom recently. In 2009, "Houdini's Magic Shop" took control of the historic Main Street Magic Shop at the original Disneyland park in California. It now displays authentic Houdini artifacts from the Geno Munari collection.

Looks like it's time for a trip to Disneyland!

Houdini is back in action at Six Flags

The popular "Houdini’s Great Escape" ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey is back in action after being SBNO (“standing but not operating”) from 2008. The ride reopened on May 22, 2010. According to Wikipedia, "Houdini's Great Escape is widely believed to be the best flat ride in Six Flags Great Adventure, as well as the most well-themed and unique."

The following ride description comes from Wikipedia:

Queue
The queue weaves through Houdini's garden, which features several trees, shrubs, and an ornate fountain. The queue line is next to the park's Carousel, as well as the Dare Devil Dive SkyCoaster. Screams can be heard from the Dare Devil Dive while waiting in line for Houdini. The line stops in front of Houdini's house, which features posters advertising Houdini's magic tricks, as well as daily seances which are held in the house.

Preshow
After entering the house, guests come into Houdini's library, complete with faux candles and books. Margery, an unseen narrator, tells guests about Houdini and about their goal - to bring back the spirit of Houdini to the world of the living. She shows a film of Houdini so guests can concentrate on his image. Soon after the film ends, all the candles in the room blow out and Houdini's spirit begins to enter various objects in the room, including chains, gargoyles, and the Chinese Water Torture chamber. After making the candelabra in the front of the room move, Houdini's face appears on the mirror in the front of the room. The candles light themselves again and Margery congratulates guests on bringing back Houdini's spirit, and invites riders move on to Houdini's parlor, where the main ride takes place.

Ride
After sitting down in one of two sets of benches which face each other, the exit doors close and the lights dim. A crystal ball illuminates, showing Houdini's head inside the ball. He denounces Margery and other frauds who claim to bring Houdini back to the world of the living, since he claims he never left. In order to show you his power, he locks you in place with a set of magical keys (projected onto mirrors) and tells you he will show you his greatest illusion to date. The room begins to rotate, and the benches swing, leading guests At the climax of the ride, the room and benches stop so that riders should theoretically be upside down. Once the ride ends, Houdini unlocks riders from their position and allows them to leave the ride, forever believing in the power of Harry Houdini.

"Houdini's Great Escape" is a Mad House attraction, manufactured by Vekoma. The ride's benches, in reality, do not even rotate beyond 50 degrees, but they do rotate while the room spins to give the illusion of flipping. The themeing of the attraction was done by Showquest Studios. A near clone of the ride exists at Six Flags New England, called Houdini: The Great Escape, but it is inside of an opera house instead of a Victorian-style house.

Houdini was closed for safety modifications after a power failure in the park had trapped riders for a period of time. Modifications made the ride safer and it re-opened to the public.

For more pics and information about Houdini’s Great Escape and other Six Flag Great Adventure attractions, visit Great Adventure History.com.

"Houdini’s" will be new Disneyland magic shop

The tricks and magicians are set to return to the classic Main Street Magic Shop at Disneyland next month. Houdini’s Magic Shop is slated to take over as a private operator of the retail outlet when it re-opens in about a month, but it will keep the same Main Street Magic Shop name, Disney announced this week.

The shop closed Sunday so the store could be remodeled for Houdini’s takeover.

But even before it closed, the shop had lost its magic. Only generic Disney merchandise sat on the shelves in recent months, blogger Sally French reported.

Magic shops have a long tradition in Disneyland.

The first one — Merlin’s Magic Shop — opened near the Sleeping Beauty Castle on the park’s first day in 1955. The Main Street Magic Shop opened two years later. After Merlin’s closed in 1983, the Main Street location remained. Actor Steve Martin got his start at Merlin’s and briefly worked at the Main Street shop.

While Disneyland has run the Main Street shop since 1965, it was previously run by an outside operator.

Houdini’s was selected because of its strong reputation and the fact that it holds rights to key magic tricks, said David Gill, a Disneyland spokesman. Plus, Houdini’s will employ certified magicians to do tricks for guests inside the shop.

Houdini’s has run shops since 1983 and has locations in 10 spots, including a kiosk at Downtown Disney.

“I’ve had a passion for magic since I was a young boy. I am thrilled to be able to share my enthusiasm with Disney guests from around the globe,” said founder Geno Munari in a prepared statement.

The magic shop employees were moved to other stores during the remodeling.

by Sarah Tully, Orange County Register

Six Flags Houdini attraction SBNO

The popular ‘Houdini’s Great Escape’ ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey is currently SBNO (“standing but not operating”). That’s fancy amusement park parlance for “closed.”

According to greatadventurehistory.com, the experience of Houdini's Great Escape was a complete themed presentation from start to finish. Guests passed through the gates (marked 278) and entered the garden in front of the house. Guests were then ushered into the parlor, sometimes by a costumed actor who helped set the scene. The room was decorated with gothic fixtures and escape devices from Houdini’s career, including an eerily smashed Water Torture Cell.

An unseen narrator gave background information on Houdini with an accompanying film showing him as a young man. The spirit of Houdini was channeled and moved objects in the room in an attempt to cross over from the other side.

A set of doors opened and the audience was ushered into the next room with the sets of benches lining both sides of the room and a small table in the center. Once everyone was seated, Houdini locked his guests into place with a set of lapbars and the illusion began with the room rocking and then eventually turning a full 360 degrees.

After the first season, the storyline was modified slightly. The original show concluded with a huge illuminated mural of Houdini visible through the large skylight above the room. When modified, the center table with crystal ball and the illuminated keys at the ends of the rooms were added to conclude the story.

Houdini was closed for safety modifications after a power failure in the park had trapped riders for a period of time. Modifications made the ride safer and it re-opened to the public.

For the 2008 season, Houdini's Great Escape was SBNO. Before the season had started plans were in place to open the ride, and new signage was even in place in the weeks leading up to the park's opening day. At the last minute a high level decision was made not to open the ride, and for opening day all the ride's signs had been removed, and the entry gates padlocked. During the season the building was used as a venue for autograph signings, but no other activity took place.

For more pics and information about Houdini’s Great Escape and other Six Flag Great Adventure attractions, visit Great Adventure History.com.