A deepish dive into the master magician’s
life and times in the Steel City
By Rob Zabrecky
Pittsburgh is a wonderful city. Many of its original buildings, homes, and small businesses are still intact and operating. There are more neighborhoods than you’ll be able to visit, and many of its downtown areas could easily be stunt doubles for lower Manhattan’s streets and alleys. And let’s not forget that Steel City was a regular stop for Harry Houdini, who headlined its theaters, jumped off one of its bridges, and wiggled upside down out of a strait jacket before legions of curious onlookers long before you were born.
The master magician performed in Pittsburgh many times, primarily at the Grand Opera Theater (1906 – 1915) at 332 Fifth Avenue in downtown (now operating as The Warner Centre). Pittsburgh was a regular stop during his touring years. He performed here nearly annually for two decades until his death in 1926. Next time you’re there don’t miss:
The Houdini Triangle…at least that’s what I call it. The following three locations are within a few short walkable blocks of each other. Each location represents a different aspect of Houdini’s performing and touring career:
*Houdini Upside-down Straightjacket Escape: At lunchtime on November 6, 1916, Houdini hung like a bat outside the office windows of the Pittsburgh Sun newspaper performing his world famous upside-down straightjacket escape. He dangled and escaped from the straightjacket high above legions of Steel City spectators prior to his show later that evening at the New Davis Theater. This performance also served as a publicity stunt, making local headlines and ensuring every ticket for his full evening show was sold.
100 years later to the day, Pittsburgh magician and escapologist, Lee Terbosic, recreated Houdini’s escape before a large and enthusiastic crowd to commemorate Houdini’s original feat.
Liberty Avenue & Wood Street, one block from Liberty Magic, 811 Liberty Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh
*Houdini Bridge Jumps/Plunges: Houdini jumped off the old Seventh Street Bridge into the Allegheny River twice, both times while handcuffed in Pittsburgh Steel. The daredevil’s first jump was on May 22, 1907 and was repeated the following year on March 13, 1908.
The second jump proved much more difficult than the first; the nearly freezing temperatures of the early spring water was much colder than during his previous jump. Houdini biographer Bill Kalush wrote: “On March 13, 1908 Houdini told a reporter from The Pittsburgh Leader that the day before the leap he sent a cable to Hardeen, who was doing similar act then in Europe, and the charges came to exactly $13. That same day Houdini’s mail consisted of 13 letters. He switched rooms at his hotel and the new room, was no. 26, divisible by 13. The letters contained 13 new challenges, the license plate of the auto that drove him to the bridge totaled up to 13, and the cinematographer who was filming the jump had exactly 1,300 feet of film in his camera.”
“I feel nervous today,” Houdini said. “There is a goneness in my innards that isn’t pleasant.” He ate an apple to settle himself down, then dove. It was exactly 1:13.
“In a minute and half from the time, I struck the water I had freed myself and was ready to rise to the surface,” Houdini told the press. “Small boats were cruising about looking for me, and, as luck would have it, I came rushing up at great speed just underneath one of these crafts. So rapid was my ascent that in rising I hit my head a fearful blow…and sank back into the water again stunned and bleeding. When I struck that boat I thought of the thirteens of the day and concluded that it was up to me to battle for my life. Just when it seemed that all was over with me, I rose to the surface and willing hands dragged me to safety. It isn’t any fun taking your life in your hands. Really, I’m in earnest. If a fellow wasn’t married it would be a different thing, though even a single man oughtn’t to be hankering for chances to risk his life”
The Seventh Street Bridge/Andy Warhol Bridge
Seventh Street & The Allegheny River
*Location of former Alvin Theater: Nearly a year before his death, on September 18, 1925, Houdini was winding down a run at Pittsburgh’s Shubert Alvin Theater. During the run he offered $10,000 to anyone who could use supernatural powers to correctly answer three questions that were placed by him into sealed envelopes. Then then pastor of the Pittsburgh Church of Divine Healing, Reverend Dr. Alice Dooley, attempted — and failed — to answer Houdini’s secret questions.
119 Sixth Street, near Sixth Street Bridge. Currently a closed Bailey’s Gym.
Many of Houdini’s Pittsburgh performances were presented at the now defunct Grand & Davis Theaters:
September 24-29, 1906: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
May 20-25, 1907: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
May 27 – Jun 1, 1907: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
March 13, 1908: Houdini jumps from 7th Street Bridge, known today as the Andy Warhol Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA
March 16-21, 1908: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
November 13-18, 1911: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
March 8-13, 1915: Grand Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
November 6-11, 1916: Davis Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
March 6-11, 1922: Davis Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
February 1, 1924: Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh, PA
February 23-28, 1925: Davis Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
September 14-19, 1925: Alvin Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
*
From an article titled, “Harry Houdini and Pittsburgh – the ties that bind,” Clay Morgan wrote:
Industrial dominance drove the growth and identity that brought Pittsburgh to prominence and made it a major destination for famous vaudevillian performers. Houdini arrived in 1905, fresh off a five-year European tour that created his reputation as escape artist and "King of Handcuffs."
Around 40,000 Pittsburghers were treated to the nail-biting exhibition one century ago on March 13, 1908. Houdini stripped to his swimsuit, surrendered to tight manacles fashioned from Pittsburgh steel and leapt 40 feet from the original Seventh Street Bridge into the stinging Allegheny River waters. In a short while, his head bobbed up and vanished before he emerged for good, free and holding the conquered cuffs.
Houdini’s first Pittsburgh plunge came almost a year earlier, on May 22, 1907. A rare photo from the time peers over the backs of spectators staring at the bridge in direction of the North Shore. In the background, filthy factories pour billows of smoke into the lunchtime sky over the crowed waterfront. To the right, onlookers crowd the rails of the bridge. Over a dozen boats linger in the water. In the center of it all is Houdini in mid-jump – dressed in a white bathing suit and falling, knees still up. In less than two minutes he rose from the murky stage.
However, his first trip to Pittsburgh was in November 1905, The Jewish Criterion wrote: “He defies anyone to come on the stage of the Grand next week and bind him successfully.”
The Grand Opera House hosted Houdini during his first visits to Pittsburgh from 1905-08. Intense buzz in 1906 created so many sell-outs that Houdini stayed a third week so everyone around town could have a chance to experience the mind-jarring show.
He returned to the Pittsburgh Grand in 1913 [most likely 1915] and brought influences from afar, the East Indian Needle Trick and the legendary Chinese Water Torture Chamber.
On Nov 6, 1916, Houdini escaped from a Straitjacket while hanging from the Pittsburgh Sun Building 50 feet in the air.
On Nov 7, 1916, Pittsburghers packed in the New Davis Theatre to see Houdini headline.
In October 1919 (as Congress outlawed alcohol), “The Grim Game” opened in theatres such as the Grand, Strand and Belmar. Houdini played Harvey Hanford, wrongfully accused of murder and desperate to escape.
Pittsburgh’s strict “blue laws” also outlawed movies and performances on Sundays, so Houdini won by grabbing the headline show on Saturday evenings. In Pittsburgh, he topped his buddies Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Tom Mix.
Over the final years of his life, Houdini dueled with Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an avid supporter of spiritualism. The men took turns lecturing in Pittsburgh. Houdini spoke at the Carnegie Hall on Feb. 21, 1924. The following year he brought a full medium exposing show to the Davis Theater. Once again, Pittsburgh demand kept him in town an extra week. Houdini’s final Pittsburgh show was at the Alvin Theatre in September of 1925.
In 1916, Houdini — now 42 years old — returned to Pittsburgh to appear at the former Davis Theatre. He drew thousands of people into the street by hanging upside-down in a straightjacket on a rope in front of the offices of the Pittsburgh Sun newspaper at the corner of Wood Street and Liberty Avenue downtown. He wowed the huge crowd (and promoted his show) by successfully and safely wriggling out of the jacket.
