Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-11-01
HOUDINrS SECRETS OF ESCAPE
LOCKED IN MYSTERY OF DEATH
Magician Dies With Feats
Unexplained Even to
Own Managers.
Son of Rabbi Won Fame by
Offer to Duplicate Me-
diumS' Works.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
DETROIT, Mich, November l.
Harry Houdinis mysterious feats of
escape, which thrilled spectators
throughout the world in his life, to-
day were locked in the mystery OF
death.
The magician, hailed by his fellow
died here last night, taking with him
the secrets of how he escaped from
manacles, chains, collins, strait
jackets and other contrivances, per-
formances which no other man ever
had duplicated under his challenge.
Although Houdini wrote copiously
on magic, the fruit of his quarter OF
a century experience as a conJurer,
his managers announced that his own
methods never were revealed.
His stunts were his own and not
adapted from something some one
else had DONE" said B. NJ. L. Ernest,
vice president of the Society of Amer1-
can MagicianS, in explanation of his
unrevealed mysteries.
Great Skill in Escapes.
Although Houdini performed the
usual run of magical tricks and gained
considerable notice for his untiring
attacks on spirit mediums, the public
probably was most attracted to his
adept1ess in releasing himself from
almost any kind Of confinement that
could be devised.
In one Of his favorite tricks he per.
mitted himself to be bound hand and
foot in a box wrapped with ropes and
chains and placed under water. He
escaped from thousands of strait
jackets, picked innumerable locks and
freed himself while hanging from a
derrick in manacleS and strait
jacket.
Probably one of his most spectacular
feats, also one Of his latest, was when
he was confined in coffin under water
for 80 minutes. This performance re-
suited from his long-standing chal-
lenge that he could duplicate or ex-
pose any seemingly magic trick. Ray
men Bey, an Egyptian man Of magic,
had been creating discussion by re-
naming in a sealed coffin under water
for 10 minutes and he accepted Hou-
dini's defy to duplicate the trick.
Explained by Short Breaths.
"Short breaths and conservation of
oxygen did it," was Houdini's expla-
nation after he had bested the Egyp-
tan at his own game by remaining
under water more than four times as
long.
Although Houdini's appearance be-
fore the public began at the age of
as a trapeze performer with a circus
troupe, he first turned his attention
to the business Of opening locks with
out keys when he was apprenticed to
a locksmith in Appleton, Wis, his
birthplace, after his mother objected
to a continuation of his circus career.
The trick Of opening handouts was
discovered when a handcuffed prison
er was brought into Appleton by q
sheriff who had lost his keys. Hou,
DIM said the trick was known only
to him. his wife and the prisoner.
Challenge to Mediums.
One of the magician's standing
offers, which he never had to pay,
was $4,000 to any medium who could
produce phenomena which he could
not reproduce solely by his strength
and mental agility. Holding that the
works of mediums. hypnotists and
mesmerists were spurious, he waged
q continuous war on what he termed
their frauds, both through stage
presentations and through books, in
Guiding "A Magician Among the
Spirits" and one intended to expose
the medium who won the Scientific
Houdini was born in Appleton April
6, 1874, the son Of Rabbi Mayer Sam
uel Weiss. later adopting the name
by which he was known on the stage.
He was taken suddenly i'll during
a performance here and was operated
ON for appendicitis last Monday,
peritonitis resulting. His widow sur
wives The body will be taken to New
York in the bronze casket he carried
everywhere.
Died Mentioning Ingersoll.
Friends of the magician said today
that Houdini died with Robert Inger-
soils name on his lips. Houdini had
been a close personal friend Of Inger-
soil and possessed the largest cOllec-
ton Of Ingersoll letters in the world.
Houdini, however, was not an agnos-
tic, according to H. Elliot Stuckel, his
personal manager.
A statement issued by the family
blamed Houdini's fatal illness on
blow struck by a McGill University