- Announcer: Presentation of Houdini is made possible in part by the Oscar J. Boldt Construction Company.

Providing general construction, machinery installation, and construction management services throughout the nation.

[old-timey piano music] - Barker: Ladies and gentlemen!

Presenting for your entertainment and amazement, the King of Handcuffs, the Master of Manacles, Harry Houdini!

So stay right where you are for the final story, the incredible story of the man who made the impossible possible!

- Narrator: He was a man who became a legend by breaking loose from locks.

[door slamming] [locks clicking] He was the man who could slip any earthly bond.

[locks clicking] Sixty years after the magician's death, "to pull a Houdini" is still an expression that is part of our parlance.

It still stands for something magical, something altogether amazing.

[audience exclaiming and applauding] Of his contemporaries, perhaps only Charlie Chaplin has had the staying power of this entertainer, this escape artist who picked the medium of handcuffs and manacles and got a lock on the public's imagination.

- Thank you; I'd like to thank you for being so patient.

This is a great honor for me to be here today.

This is where Houdini was born, right over there they said, just past the second light post.

Now, Houdini... - Narrator: It's a lock that still holds tight today.

In spring of '86, Doug Henning, one of the country's top magicians, made a stop in Appleton, Wisconsin, the city that Houdini always claimed as his birthplace.

A sort of pilrimage to pay homage to the old master on his birthday.

- Doug: Houdini was my inspiration for my life.

When I was about seven years old... - Narrator: Henning's tribute was one of Houdini's favorite bits of magic: Metamorphosis, the trunk trick.

- Doug: Now, this illusion was first performed by Houdini around 1898.

It amazed people then.

In fact, when Arthur Conan Doyle saw Houdini do this, he actually thought the magician dematerialized and passed right through solid.

It's the fastest illusion in the world, and when you have a little music, it's called Metamorphosis.

[bright band music] Handcuffs, two chains around each one of Debby's wrists.

Locked with the padlocks.

Now, Houdini used to do this.

It took him about 20 seconds to do.

In today's more modern times, and things are faster, we're gonna do it in a third of a second.

Good, now, down Debby goes inside the satin sack.

Good, help me throw on the top, put the latches all the way around.

[triumphant music] Now, don't blink your eyes; you'll miss.

Metamorphosis!

One, two-- - Three, it's me!

[audience cheering] [Debby whooping] - Narrator: Magic.

The delight comes from seeing reality, probability demolished.

Yet magic is, above all, showmanship.

That extra kick.

[audience applauding and cheering] Magic: metamorphosis.

At his peak, Houdini was one of the world's most highly-paid enterainers.

He earned thousands a week, and tens of thousands in a week saw him perform.

[old-timey piano music] Houdini was born Erik Weisz in 1874, the son of a poor immigrant rabbi.

The family was often shackled with money woes, and when Erik was still a child, they left Appleton, the first of many moves.

Metamorphosis, to change.

Young Erik had always dabbled with magic, but things changed when he chanced upon the biography of a glamorous French illusionist, Robert Houdin.

Magic became a means of escape from the commonplace, the conventional.

Erik added an I to Houdin and took the name of his idol.

At the age of 17, he left his job as a cutter in a New York City necktie factory to fashion a new career as Harry Houdini, magician, King of Cards.

Houdini's own history would have a similar impact on Sidney Radner of Holyoke, Massachusetts, here surrounded by his collection of magic and Houdini memorabilia.

- You know, when I was, keep in mind, I was a youngster, I read the biography in one clip and I was hooked.

He was just the greatest thing on earth.

I mean, he was the hero of heroes.

- Narrator: Caught by the spell, Radner became a magician.

And just like Houdini, Radner soon graduated from cards and became an ace escape artist.

He was a protégé of Houdini's brother Hardeen, also in the business.

- They're very rare.

- Narrator: Radner is one of the last surviving experts on Houdini.

- These are other unusual locks that Houdini had in his collection.

- Narrator: Radner inherited, through Hardeen, the bulk of Houdini's handcuff collection.

[chains clanking] - Some of these are obviously leg irons 'cause they are huge.

- Narrator: Hundreds of handcuffs, keys, and locks, items of release and confinement.

- This is the very, very, very first scrapbook the Houdini put together with his own notes and the first clippings and so on.

- Narrator: And scrapbooks full of photos and stories, the links to Houdini's past that detail the life and often very hard times of the magician's early days.

Days spent on the road with his wife Bess, performing in dime circus acts and burlesque shows.

- This supposedly is the first story in which Houdini got any kind of publicity for getting out of handcuffs when he stopped and literally challenged the chief of police to get out of handcuffs.

The reason for the stunt and the reason why he came up with it is because he was traveling with an American Gaiety show, and they weren't doing too well.

So to drum up some publicity, Houdini started to do this handcuff bit.

- Narrator: The handcuff bit, the challenge act.

It would become Houdini's signature.

During his travels, he would challenge the local police to do their best to hold him.

Houdini simply could not be held anywhere by any bonds.

[upbeat piano music] What began with handcuffs did not end there.

- He got out of all kinds of strange devices many times, never having seen them before.

That is where the challenge is.

- Narrator: Leg irons, manacles, straitjackets, jail cells, packing cases.

[frantic piano music] A U.S. government regulation mail bag.

A man-sized football.

A man-sized envelope.

A man-sized sausage skin.

Anything that could be closed and confined, Houdini took on.

He accepted challenges from carpenters, lunatic asylum attendants, submariners, suffragettes.

- This is what made Houdini Houdini.

- Narrator: These challenges required not only an impressive knowledge of locks and picks, but also a certain amount of sheer bravado, something that Houdini had in abundance.

This success was not an easy thing to capture.

Early in their career, business was so bad for the couple that Houdini nearly took a 9 to 5 job with the Yale Lock Company.

He needed a break, so in 1900, he took on what would be his biggest challenge.

[steamship horn blowing] At age 26, with $50 in his pocket and not a single booking to his name, Houdini set sail for Europe.

There, the master of manacles confounded Scotland Yard.

[cymbal crashing] And Houdini was a hit, his reputation secured in England, France, Germany, Russia.

His success in Europe made Houdini an instant headliner at home.

The days of hardship were over for the couple.

For the next 25 years, Houdini captivated the press and the public.

He became so synonymous with wonder that to "Houdinize" would become a word.

It would capture an entry in the dictionary.

Houdini was a superb athlete, small, only five foot five, but extremely strong.

Young Erik Weisz had tried out for the Olympic swimming and diving teams, and even at age 50, Houdini could still hold his breath underwater for up to four minutes at a time.

[water splashing] - Now, that's at Niagara Falls, when he did The Man from Beyond.

That's Aunt Bess and Houdini.

- Narrator: Marie Blood, Houdini's niece, here shown visiting the magician on a movie set, recalls visiting the Houdini household as a young girl.

- Well, I'm the last one that actually lived with him in his home; I'm the last one alive.

I would knock on the door, and they'd say, "Come in, Marie!"

And I'd go in and I'd jump in bed with them.

And he, you know, he would hold me and hug me, and then he would pinch me with his toes.

He could work his toes the way you would your fingers.

[lively piano music] - Narrator: Yet magic is as much manipulation of the mind as it is manipulation of fingers or toes.

One of the top in the current crop of magicians, Harry Blackstone, on Houdini.

- His ability to communicate with the audience was unsurpassed.

It was wonderful.

And they remember that.

And the people felt that when they saw him perform, they saw a true miracle.

- Narrator: Miracles, of course, should be difficult to do.

Early in his career, Houdini hit upon this important secret: Make it look hard, even if it isn't.

- Following his escape from the milk can, which was done inside of an enclosure, that one of his assistants came over to the enclosure, where Houdini had long before escaped but hadn't presented himself to the audience, and said, "Harry, you're reading the newspaper in there.

"I can hear you turning the pages.

Do it more quietly."

And Houdini's remark was, "Tell the orchestra to play louder."

So apparently, when he finished reading his newspaper, he would then take some of the water and throw it on himself, and come out and go through the grand act of having just, just barely made it out.

- Narrator: Some claim that as a magician, Houdini was only average.

No one doubts that as a showman, he was an unsurpassed genius.

- Houdini was, in my opinion, one of the true greatest showmen in American history, the other being P.T.

Barnum.

And I don't think that any other person before or after have equaled the two.

But there's no question.

Houdini was Houdini, and Houdini spent a lifetime making sure that his name was in the paper bigger and better than someone else's.

Everything he did was with the press in mind.

When others took on handcuffs, he jumped off bridges.

When others copied his milk can escape, he created the Chinese Water Torture Cell.

Houdini was keenly aware of his competition and kept scores of scrapbooks on other magicians.

Blackstone's father, Harry Blackstone Sr., was one of the top magicians of Houdini's era and one of Houdini's most bitter rivals.

- Well, for instance, there were items on Houdini's performance contract that he always used.

And it said that neither Blackstone nor Thurston could work any theater that the great Houdini worked for 30 days before nor 30 days after.

As he gained more confidence, that became three months before and three months after.

He hated competition.

- Narrator: Consider the case of the packing case.

- And he brought my dad up on charges of having stole his idea of the underwater box escape.

So interestingly enough, my father had newspaper clippings that predated Houdini's attempts at doing this.

And Houdini said, "Well, if you really did it, show me the box that you escaped from."

And my dad said, "Yes, it's over in the warehouse."

This was when they were both in New York City.

They went over to the warehouse, and lo and behold, that box, that trunk that my father had been using for many, many years was gone, never to be seen again.

Until in 1928, two years after Houdini's death, the great Joe Dunninger, the mentalist and collector of magic memorabilia, went to Houdini's home uptown in New York City and said to Beatrice, "I want some of the material that Houdini had, "some of the memorabilia to put into my collection and to purchase it."

And Bess said, "Sure, go ahead, whatever you want."

And he says, "Well, all of these books and papers and things, I need to carry 'em home."

She said, "Well, there's a bunch of boxes and things down in the basement."

He went down there, and here was this lovely trunk.

And he said, "Bess, can I have this?"

She said, "Sure, take it."

So he grabs it by the handle and is starting to bounce it up the steps, and the trap door, which was used in this thing, fell open.

And inside of it on a small brass plaque, it said, "The property of Harry and Pete Bouton."

My father and his brother's real name.

So that missing trunk somehow appeared in Houdini's basement, and that's one of the great unsolved mysteries of magic.

- Narrator: Houdini did not always stick to magic to make his mark.

[plane engine roaring] - In 1910, he set out to conquer the skies above Australia.

He said about this feat, "Even if history forgets about Houdini the Handcuff King, it must write my name as the first man to fly here."

After several failures, on March 16, Houdini's fragile Voisin plane inched skyward.

The Handcuff King broke free of the bonds of gravity and captured an entry in the record books.

- I think that most people have forgotten that.

So Houdini was wrong, but they never forgot Houdini.

- Narrator: He was a man who could change with the times.

Metamorphosis.

When movies came in, Houdini plunged into a film career.

[tense music] He battled Niagara Falls.

He battled nasty thugs.

And Houdini of course battled his way out of jails during his brief career on the silver screen.

Yet Houdini could not beat back a different sort of pain.

All of his life, Houdini was deeply devoted to his mother.

When she died while Houdini was abroad on tour, the magician was devastated.

Letters to relatives, bordered in black, spelled out his grief.

"I can't seem to get over it.

"Sometimes I feel all right, but when a calm moment arrives, "I am as bad as ever.

My heart will always ache for our darling mother."

He longed to share some final words, and from this longing began Houdini's foray into spiritualism.

He made the acquaintance of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a tall, courtly English gentleman, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and one of the world's most ardent believers in spiritualism.

- Spiritualist: Oh, thou spirits, your religion is based on love.

And by that... - Narrator: Through Doyle's auspices, Houdini attended hundreds of seances.

The magician knew all the tricks necessary to manufacture a message, yet his desire to communicate with his mother was so strong that he turned to spiritualism.

When it gave him no reply, he turned on it with a vengeance.

- That looks entirely different than Houdini, but this is Houdini in disguise that he would typically make up and go and visit the medium and go and get information, and then invite mediums to the audience and debunk them right in the audience.

And started to produce challenges for $10,000 to anyone who could do anything that he could not expose or could not duplicate and so forth.

- Narrator: With disguises and detective work and absolute dedication, Houdini took on the debunking of the spiritualists.

It was a typical Houdini performance, but then, he approached all endeavors with an unabashed intensity.

Consider his literary collection.

Here at the Library of Congress rest the results of those efforts.

The bulk of Houdini's books on magic and spiritualism, all 4,000 of them, and over 100 scrapbooks stuffed with clippings.

Houdini, of course, had to have the biggest, the best collection in the world.

And he succeeded.

To be the best, that is what he wanted.

The recently-retired curator of the Houdini collection, Leonard Beck.

- That's right.

To be the best, all the time, all the time.

- Narrator: All this work had a purpose.

- Leonard: It's well-known that Houdini made a practice of going to the graves of the dead magicians and making sure those graves were well taken care of.

The other thing about Houdini is he was a man trying to find roots for his art, to justify his art, perhaps almost to himself.

Maybe the word there is roots.

And it is, it seems to be nothing more than a man making pilgrimages to the graves of the saints, so to speak.

- Narrator: The man then became a saint, a kind of mountain, a Mount Everest for other magicians to overcome.

- Not a mountain.

If anything, he's like the great wave that tends to keep pushing us towards the shore.

He has been the one who made magic an acceptable variety medium.

It is an acceptable art form.

[locks clicking] - Narrator: Driven by competition and his own curiosity, Houdini constantly topped himself and made magic into something new.

Others pulled a rabbit from a hat.

Houdini made an elephant disappear.

[cymbals crashing] Others swallowed fire.

Houdini swallowed sewing needles and then pulled them from his mouth, threaded.

[cymbals crashing] Others did dove acts.

Houdini used an eagle.

[cymbals crashing] The magician's inventiveness resulted in patents, such as a diving suit and a constant flow of new illusions.

He wanted to escape from a block of ice, a trick he tried only in the movies.

And he had plans to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

[water rushing] He never made it.

In October of 1926, Houdini began what he described as his farewell tour.

Early on, he broke his foot in the Chinese Water Torture Cell.

Then in Montreal, he had an unusual encounter backstage.

Sidney Radner.

- Some students came back and one of the students asked him if it was true, they heard stories about his physique and so on, and asked him if it was true he could take a blow on the stomach, and Houdini said, "Yes."

He was reading mail, and the student asked him if he could test him.

And Houdini said, "Yes."

The student gave him a good wallop, and Houdini said, "No, not now.

"I gotta be ready; let me know.

I wasn't ready."

And he said, "All right, now try it."

So he allowed him to hit him again.

Houdini felt pains that night, and felt that it was just muscle strains and so on and continued with the show.

- Narrator: Houdini's supberb physique was no match for the first unexpected blow.

It ruptured his appendix and peritonitis set it.

The doctors gave him less than 12 hours to live, but Houdini hung on for over a week.

He died early in the morning on October 31, Halloween.

- I remember going outside, and I had heard my parents talk about that he was in the hospital.

I don't think they knew the extent of how sick he was, and then all of a sudden, we heard on the street the "Extras!"

So years ago, they used to do that.

And I ran in the house and I said to my mother, "They're outside, they're yelling, 'Extra!

Houdini dying!'"

- Narrator: Houdini was buried with a pillow of letters from his mother under his head.

And over his grave, the American Society of Magicians broke a magic wand.

[gentle piano music] [upbeat music] Yet the memory of this magician has not dimmed.

Amid the waves of neon in dowtown Niagara Falls, Canada, one can pick out the lights of an unusual museum: the Houdini Hall of Fame.

- Recording: This museum, which has been called a shrine dedicated to my memory, contains the only authentic display of Houdini equipment and memorabilia in the world.

After all... - Narrator: It's flashy and theatrical, and visited by thousands of tourists.

Houdini would love it.

Henry Muller, owner of the Houdini Hall of Fame, describes one of the exhibits.

- And in this envelope is an original letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Houdini, where Houdini took ten words in that letter and circled the ten words.

Then, he wrote ten code words, which I have in my pocket.

And the combination of those 20 words, the ten words circled and the ten words in my pocket, make up the secret message which will come back, if Houdini comes back.

Houdini believed that if anybody could come back after death, it would be he.

- And this was the particular pair that Theodore Hardeen told me that Houdini said he would open up if he came back in a physical way.

This has appeared on numerous seances on the center of the seance table.

- Narrator: Special handcuffs and special codes.

Houdini may have scorned the spiritualists, but to his wife, he left a secret message that would spell out her pet name, Rosabelle, and the word "believe" if he returned.

Scores of seances later and Houdini's silence has been his final victory over the spiritualists.

Yet other mysteries remain.

- These here were devices that Houdini used when he was in Germany, believe it or not, to open many of the German locks.

Now, 'cause people say, "Well, how could he conceal all these?"

Well, I thought he did it very well.

- Narrator: The answers to some of Houdini's tricks were sometimes glaringly simple.

- If he said, "Put this pair of handcuffs on there," and then he would control which was on first, second, third, and fourth, and this was important.

'Cause if he had examined handcuffs and he found out that one might be very, very difficult and might be a problem, the trick there is to get it way up here.

And then get seven or eight pairs of handcuffs on and then get the ones that are difficult up here.

So when you took off the first five or six, the seventh could be slipped.

- Narrator: Other solutions take some detective work, such as the search for a myster man, Jim Collins, seen here and there in Houdini's photos.

- Collins was Houdini's chief assistant for many, many years.

And a magic show of any kind depends very much on a chief key assistant.

He is all-important in the ways that I can't begin to tell you without exposing tricks.

- Narrator: Sometimes, the trick lay in a lump of clay.

- And what he would do is during the course of checking to see if the handcuffs were working right or locks were working right, he'd palm this in his hands and got two impressions.

One this way and one endwise.

With those, his crew, his assistants could anticipate and get among the collection a lockpick that would be suitable for him to use on that particular lock or handcuffs.

- Narrator: Or did his wife simply hand him a key, hidden in a handshake?

The mechanics of magic can be easy to grasp or purchase.

Houdini himself bought his famous illusion of walking through a brick wall from another magician.

Tricks are easily obtainable, but tricks only explain part of Houdini's mystery.

After his death, Bess wrote these words about her husband.

"He buried no secrets.

"Every conjurer knows how his tricks were done, "with the exception of just where or how the various traps "or mechanisms were hidden.

It was Houdini himself that was the secret."

[gentle piano music] - What makes greatness?

Dominance over the others in your field, you close the gap between what you are and what you could have been.

And he really made something out of himself, didn't he?

Maybe that's greatness.

- He was of an era in which he personified what the great hordes of Europeans who came to the United States to escape the political problems that were in Europe.

That he was the personification of the great escape.

- Magic teaches this very important lesson about life.

And that's that nothing is impossible.

Nothing's impossible.

- We can escape from the earthly and imaginary bonds that we create for ourselves.

That's more what Houdini did.

- Narrator: Most of us live lives that are often contained and cautious.

We keep our dreams locked away, our eyes closed to possibility.

Houdini caught our heart by breaking free from poverty, from gravity, from bonds of steel and iron.

Houdini: He made himself a living by escaping from locks and chains.

He made himself a legend by showing us that limits of any kind are illusions.

[lock slamming] [gentle piano music] - Announcer: Presentation of Houdini is made possible in part by the Oscar J. Boldt Construction Company.

Providing general construction, machinery installation, and construction management services throughout the nation.