Houdini's Fort Worth street feats

Here are some great photos of Houdini's suspended straitjacket escape from the Star-Telegram Building in Fort Worth on January 13, 1916. This was the first stop of his first tour of Texas. The initial images show Houdni testing the scaffolding in front of the newspaper's headquarters at 815 Throckmorton along with his police challengers. The paper asked, "Will Texas prove his Waterloo?"

The successful escape was witnessed by some 4000 Texans who packed the intersection of Throckmorton and 8th Street as seen below.

Click to enlarge.

I'm always excited to find images of Houdini's suspended straitjacket escapes from this era. Most photos and film footage are from 1923-24 when big cities looked more like...big cities. But in 1915-16 many cities still looked like towns with older buildings that give it all a different flavor. (Houdini repeated the stunt in Fort Worth in 1923.)

Today the site of the original Star-Telegram Building is a parking lot. But the paper survives with offices just one block over on 8th Street.

This wasn't the only outdoor stunt Houdini is said to have performed in Fort Worth during this 1916 engagement. An account of a somewhat bizarre second feat appears in the 1973 book, Locklear: The Man Who Walked On Wings by Art Ronnie. This is a biography of Ormer Locklear, a Texas daredevil who would later become a famous wing-walker in Hollywood. Below is an edited excerpt:

One block from the Majestic was the Trav Daniel Sporting Goods store, where James, Ormer's younger brother, was working as a clerk. One day, to the delight of the clerks and customers, the magician came in to buy a pair of white Spaulding track shorts. "They're pretty good for underwear," he explained to James, standing behind the counter in awe of the illusionist. Finally able to talk, James blurted out that he enjoyed Houdini's act at the theater. He had also seen Houdini free himself from a strait-jacket while hanging upside down from the scaffold swung from the top of the Star-Telegram Building. Susceptible to flattery, Houdini talked about his act to his young admirer. During their conversation, James mentioned his brother's trick motorcycle riding. Houdini was amazed. A plan to use Ormer's daring to his advantage was already forming in his inventive mind and he asked to meet the "crazy fellow who would ride a trick motorcycle." Houdini liked the man he met. Satisfied, Houdini made the unusual suggestion that Ormer drag him, fettered, behind his motorcycle down Fort Worth's Main Street. "The publicity will be good for me and my act," Houdini said in his rough way. Only after Houdini's assurance that he would take certain precautions against injury did Ormer agree to go through with the stunt. 

 

Houdini chose Main Street for his demonstration because it was the first "paved" street in Fort Worth. A series of wooden blocks, or round stumps, has been recessed into the street to protect the hooves of horses from injury. To protect himself, he wore a thick quilted overall. A hood to shield his head gave him the appearance of an Eskimo. Eager volunteers, attracted to the scene by the gathering crowd, tied his hands behind his back. A length of rope from Ormer's motorcycle was then attached to Houdini. The starting signal was given and with one last apprehensive glance behind him, Ormer reluctantly gave the gas to his cycle. Moving ever so slowly at first and then assured that his "passenger" wasn't being hurt by the jouncing about, Ormer gradually increased speed. But before he could attain real momentum, and much to his relief, it was all over. Houdini was free from his bonds and then from the rope attached to the motorcycle. The publicity paid off. The rest of his stand in Fort Worth, Houdini played to a packed house.

It's a great story. I think my favorite part is learning Houdini wore white Spaulding track shorts as underwear. However, I've never been able to corroborate it. I cannot find any photos or a single newspaper account. It does appear in a several Houdini books (Cartlidge, Silverman, Kalush), but their source is the Locklear book, which, as far as I can tell, is the only source for this second Fort Worth street feat.

So did it really happen? Or is it a Texas-sized Houdini myth? Ormer looks like he knows, but he's not talking!

Ormer Locklear - the man who dragged Houdini?

Related:

• Houdini tours Texas
• Houdini hanging out in Houston
• LINK: The Great Escape: When Harry Met Amon

Houdini tours Texas

It was a 100 years ago this week that Houdini embarked on his first tour of Texas in 1916. The reason it took Houdini this long to appear in the Lone Star State was probably because Texas was not part of the Keith-Orpheum vaudeville circuit, on which Houdini was a headliner. Texas vaudeville was controlled by Karl Hoblitzelle and his Interstate Amusement Company. Hoblitzelle's theaters were called "Majestic." It was not typical for Houdini to appear on another circuit, but Texas was not a typical state!

Karl Hoblitzelle's Majestic Theaters.

Houdini kicked off his tour on January 10 at the Majestic Theater in Fort Worth. This was a popular Vaudeville house that sat 1500 and stood until 1967. To promote his appearance, Houdini performed a suspended straitjacket escape from the Star-Telegram offices at Throckmorton and 8th Street. Later in the week, he was bound and dragged down Fort Worth's Main Street behind a motorcycle ridden by daredevil Ormer Locklear who would later become a famous wing-walker. Houdini wore a hood and heavy protective overalls and freed himself before Locklear could get up to speed. Possibly the stunt felt a little anticlimactic as the papers appear to have not covered it.

Houdini then traveled to Dallas where on January 18 he performed a suspended straitjacket escape from the Dallas Morning News building at Commerce and Lamar. Later in the week, he faced a punishment suit challenge from Sheriff W. K. Reynolds.

Next came Houston. Houdini performed at the local Majestic (called the New Majestic) and on January 25 he again performed a suspended straitjacket escape from the Houston Chronicle building. This time he was raised to a height of 100 feet, twice as high as in Dallas and Fort Worth. While the papers praised his Water Torture Cell and challenge escapes (one from a sea bag nailed to the stage), there was one criticism. Houdini's popular Needles trick had recently been performed in Texas by two other magicians, and the papers noted:

He introduces the well known needle trick which has been worn thread bare this season on this circuit and trailing so close in the wake of Long Tack Sam this feature should be eliminated, as it cheapens the work of the great artist.

On the Majestic circuit it was customary for acts to perform a "Free Cabaret" on Thursday nights. At these shows, Houdini performed magic and also exposed tricks. (One wonders if these might have been spiritualistic in nature.) One of the tricks Houdini performed was the Jesse James Hanging Trick.

Houdini also gave a talk about his life to newsboys at the Emma R. Home and Club. His advice: "Be true to yourself, honor your parents and hew the line."

Note the mention of the Free Cabaret.

Houdini's next stop was in San Antonio where he played a Majestic Theater that only held 300. Perhaps this smaller theater could not accommodate the Water Torture Cell, for the papers did not mention the famous escape. They instead reported that Houdini freed himself from a straitjacket and accepted challenges.

On an unusually chilly day, Houdini performed a suspended straitjacket escape from The Express building at the corner of Navarro and Crocket before 12,000 spectators, the largest crowd of his Texas tour. The Express did an especially good job of infusing the stunt with a sense of life and death danger:

There are two veins in Houdini's forehead, one in each temple and which feed the blood to the brain. Should one burst under the tremendous strain of dangling head down so many feet in the air and so many minutes, Houdini would become a helpless paralytic beyond aid of medical science. A slow, certain death would be his position.

Houdini's final stop was the state capitol of Austin. Houdini played a newly opened Majestic Theater, which still stands today as the Paramount. (The theater recently featured a Houdini hologram.) On February 10, he escaped from a straitjacket suspended from the fifth floor of the Littlefield Building at 6th and Congress. That same day he faced challenges at matinee and evening performances. During his Austin engagement, Houdini stayed at the famous Driskill Hotel.

Houdini's Majestic is today the Paramount.

The Paramount still celebrates Houdini's appearance.

The Driskill where Houdini stayed in 1916.

So popular and plentiful were Houdini's Austin challenges that his engagement was extended. Because the rest of the company had moved on to Arkansas, the Majestic's bill was filled out with movies during his extended run. Houdini did turn down a challenge to escape from the Travis County Jail, saying that jail breaking for him was "old stuff."

Houdini's final challenge came from students at the University of Texas in Austin who nailed him inside a packing crate. Today the University is home to the Harry Ransom Center which houses one of the largest and most important Houdini archives in the world.

Of his time in Texas, Houdini told a reporter:

"I am glad to have come to Texas. It has been a revelation and a tonic. I like your atmosphere and I like your people. There is a broad civilization down here which seems to be characteristic of the State. That greater things will follow down here goes without saying. They will come just as surely as death and taxes."

Houdini would tour Texas again in October-November of 1923. His made his final visit with his anti-spiritualism lecture for one week in October 1924.

For a definitive look at Houdini's appearances in the Lone Star State, a must read is Houdini's Texas Tours 1916 & 1923 by Ron Cartlidge. Ron followed up with Houdini and the Ku Klux Klan (2005) and Houdini’s Final Texas Tour (2010).

Related:

• Houdini in 1916
• Houdini returns to Austin theater...as a hologram
• Bess costume among rare Houdini items on display in Austin
• LINK: Houdini’s Final Texas Tour By Ron Cartlidge
• LINK: The Great Escape: When Harry Met Amon