To mark the occasion, here's a sensational letter from the collection of our friend Thomas Ewing of Haversat & Ewing Galleries. This is Houdini's own account of the accident in a letter to magician James S. Harto written 88 years ago today.
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I met with an accident with the Water Torture Cell last night. The cover snapped as we were drawing it up, and I have some sort of a fracture on the left leg. The left side of my body is somewhat weaker than the right, or perhaps it just struck a glancing blow. Anyway, it hit with enough force to smash the cover which is of heavy nickel-plated steel. If the blow had not broken the cover, I was informed by a doctor who was in the audience that it would have cut off my left ankle. I cannot believe that, hardly, but I guess it is so.
Tom points out the intriguing mention of Houdini's body being weaker on the left side than the right. Evidence of some early stage of illness? The final paragraph is utterly chilling as he maps out exactly what will be his final days on stage.
Thanks to Joe Notaro for reminding me of this anniversary. Joe also has some info on the Albany accident today on his blog Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence.
Thanks to Tom Ewing for allowing me to share this remarkable letter on WILD ABOUT HARRY.
UPDATE: Here's an interesting addendum to this story. This is a newspaper notice from the Van Curler Theater in Schenectady, Houdini's next stop in his tour, downplaying the accident and assuring audiences that he would perform as planned.
Related:
I am not understanding this....what is meant that the cover snapping AND what hit the cover that smashed it in? Perry.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely clear either. Click over to Joe's article. Many newspaper accounts said it was a counterweight of some kind that fell on his ankle.
DeleteSame here. Counterweight that tangled and broke the cover/stocks?
DeleteDoes anyone know who owns Houdini's diaries?
DeleteThe heirs of Houdini's lawyer, Bernard M.L. Ernst.
DeleteOk I get it. The cover broke after being it by the counterweight. I was confused since I have examined the original USD lid and it was predominantly made of wood with metal trim and handles.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point. Houdini says here that the stocks were damaged, yet the surviving USD was fine. Collins cold have fixed them the next day, or maybe what was on the cell that Hardeen gave to Sid were backup stocks.
DeleteAccording to Ken Silverman's book: Houdini, while he was being lifted from the stage to be put into the cell, something in the apparatus twisted or shifted and this cracked the stock half. Later, a doctor opined that if the stock half had not cracked (in taking the force of the shift) Houdini's ankle would have been severed. Each stock half is a heavy wooden block with half of 2 ankle holes in it. The 2 are hinged together. After his ankles are in the stocks and the halves are closed and locked together around his ankles, a square frame of angle iron with lifting eyes is passed over his supine body until it surrounds, but is not attached to the closed stock assembly. The lifting apparatus is then attached to the lifting eyes and the angle iron frame is raised, carrying with it the stock assembly that is closed upon Houdini's ankles. If the stock half broke as reported, I don't think it would be an easy fix to replace it. The stocks were the most intricate parts of the USD and replacing one of them would be no small task. The way things wound down in October 1926 makes me think replacing the stock half would not have been high on the list in that Houdini knew it would be a while before he could safely attempt it again. Maybe the work was begun but not finished before he died. I also wonder if Hardeen substituted the stock assembly from the "spare cell" he had before he passed it on to Sid Radner because reports say the one Sid Radner had was not damaged. Interesting to think about...Somewhere out there might reside a stock assembly that Houdini really had his ankles in for the last time....
DeleteA cracked wooden stock assembly would gave been tossed out. At least the cracked section would have been discarded. There must have been a back up set of stocks somewhere. That's likely the one on the USD Hardeen sold or gave Radner.
DeleteAll I have read says Houdini carried spare glass with him but not other parts of the USD. So maybe the spare cell for parts that Hardeen wound up with supplied the stocks if indeed they needed to be replaced. It is still open to conjecture if the wood of the stock half actually split or broke. Other possibilities have arisen that bear looking into...
DeleteHoudini carried spare glass cuz this was fragile and prone to cracking. You had to have extra glass panels at all times when performing the USD. There were surely other spare parts and back up pieces for the USD, but only one tank in existence. Over the years HH cannibalized previous tanks to build the next one.
DeleteThere was a second cell. Remember THIS.
DeleteBut the cover was not made of heavy nickle plated steel. No matter how I try to interpret Houdinis remarks I cant make sense of it. Am I wrong to remember that the cover/stocks was made predominantly of wood? I do remember trying to lift the lid from the cell myself and it appeared very heavy.
ReplyDeleteThe wooden stock assembly itself sits in a steel angle frame with steel eyes that the block and tackle assembly snap into. Perhaps this is what is referred to?
DeleteSomething heavy must have fallen onto the stocks with enough force to cause damage. According to Silverman, the stocks twisted while Houdini was being hoisted and that lurch cracked the stocks and broke his left ankle. I'm sure Houdini meant that the stocks were reinforced on the outside with the nickel-plated steel. When you read Houdini's letters, you have to interpret his mental shorthand.
ReplyDeleteIf this accident had not happened, Houdini might not have need to lie on that dressing room couch in Montreal to get some pressure off his left ankle.
Here is another account of the accident from The Key:
ReplyDeleteSix inches, three seconds and the goddess of luck last night saved Houdini, master magician, from an injury which would have left his physical prowess only a memory.
When the heavy wooden frame binding his feet loosened as he lay flat on his back on the stage of the Capitol theatre, the vise-like snap of the stocks fractured his left foot. He was being lifted by the shoulders for the beginning of the Chinese Water Torture Cell trick.
In another three seconds he would have been free of the stage. Had the frame loosened then, its snap would have severed his leg. Dr. Elwynn Hannock, who attended him, said today, Or had the frame struck his leg six inches higher, it would have snapped his leg, he said.
Houdini plays today and tonight. When the foot is better, he will try the Chinese trick again.
Interesting stuff. I always enjoy hearing things from Houdini himself. I'm inclined to believe that his comment about being weaker on the left side would have to do with hand dominance; do we know whether he was right-handed or left-handed?
ReplyDelete-Meredith
I think he was right handed. I've seen 2 photos of Houdini writing at his desk holding a pen in his right hand.
ReplyDeleteFriends,
ReplyDeleteAn item of clarification on this letter. This letter (and the one on the Buried Alive) are from the collection of the late Gene Keeney of Indianapolis. When I was writing the monograph on Harto, Gene allowed me to copy letters from Houdini to Harto and use them both for the monograph and for historical research purposes. So, what you're seeing are photocopies of the original letters. I want to clear that up.
Also, I know in an earlier posting someone asking if Harto ever did escapes. He certainly did and he and Houdini corresponded on types of cuffs, wire escapes, and Harto was a real resource for Houdini. I also have several Harto broadsides and flyers illustrating his escape work. He "borrowed" imagery of Houdini for these flyers and I must assume he waited to do this until after Houdini was dead. I can't imagine Houdini allowing anyone, friend or otherwise, to purloin his imagery. I will send them to you John and you may post as you wish. They came from my lecture on Harto before the Magic Collectors' Association.
Thanks, Tom. I will indeed share those Harto images in a post on their own.
DeleteOne thing about the USD, half of the effect was hoisting Houdini up in a safe manner to the opening of the tank. Are there any diagrams illustrating the mechanism by which he was lifted up? If the counterweight fell, wouldn't Houdini have come crashing down, or yanked up quickly? Since the counterweight is pulling something like 200lbs at least.
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't a counter weight.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is writing about this as if they don't understand how the effect worked and was presented.
Would love to hear your take on this, Patrick. You gotta admit, it's not really clear what happened from the various descriptions.
DeletePatrick is correct. There wasn't a counter weight. I found an article by Houdini Himself, in the January 1919 Strand Magazine where he states:
Delete“It is this element of danger that makes my Chinese torture-cell a good trick. Before doing the trick the audience sees the narrow glass case filled with water and my legs clamped with a three hundred and fifty pound weight. It then watches me as I am lowered, head downward, into the water. In sight of the audience the case is then locked and closed.”
Ahhhhh......now I get it. Perry from NJ.
ReplyDeleteThat's great Joe but it doesn't say anything about the mechanism by which Houdini was hoisted off the stage. Perhaps Houdini used the block and tackle system:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_and_tackle
Could have also been different theater to theater, depending on my what kind of system them had in place.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the block and tackle we see being used to hoist Houdini during a suspended straitjacket and the overboard box is the same one used during the USD? HERE
The Key has a photo with a caption that reads: “Kukol handles the block and tackle while Vickery and Collins prepare to guide Houdini into the cell.”
ReplyDeleteThe Key also says that Houdini laid flat upon his back on a mat resting on the stage floor while his assistants and members of the volunteer committee clamped down the stocks-shaped cover of the Cell upon his legs. Ropes lowered from the flies were then hooked on to the corners of the cover securing Houdini, and by means of a windlass in the wings the cover was slowly raised until Houdini was suspended head-down, directly above the transparent and water-filled Cell…
It appears that the weight referred to in Newspaper accounts, is really referring to the stocks-shaped cover.
I have read all of these related posts in an attempt to discover if October 11, 1926, the date Houdini's ankle was broken, was the last time he attempted the Water Torture Cell escape. I know the bill for the next stop on his tour says he will present his show in its entirety but with a broken ankle, could he have still hung by his ankles from the stocks? I am trying to ascertain, with certainty, the last date he successfully performed, in its entirety, the Chinese Water Torture Cell escape. Can anyone shed any light on this via newspaper accounts of later performances? I don't think I'd trust playbills as they could be printed ahead of time and are meant to draw the crowd in. Houdini was surely a "trooper" when it came to performing but did he perform the USD again after the accident?
ReplyDeleteOct. 11 was almost certainly the last time he performed the USD. But it appears he was considering bringing it back in Detroit (check out THIS POST). That was to be a two week engagement, so unclear when he planned to put it back, but it was not part the show on Oct. 24, which proved to be his one and only appearance in Detroit.
DeleteI don`t believe Harry performed the USD after that October 11 mishap. The wooden stocks were supposedly cracked and his ankle broken. In all likelihood a back up effect was substituted. Perhaps the Needles?
ReplyDeleteIn Schenectady, the next stop, HH announced that he would replace the USD with five other tricks. So his three act show became two acts with a lengthened first act of magic. (POST.)
DeleteIf Houdini was weak on his left side, could that have been the beginning of his appendicitis and he didn't know it?
ReplyDeleteHere's my interpretation of the incident as best I can figure:
ReplyDeleteThe ankle stocks seem to have been essentially a square-shaped lid to the cell that was composed of two halves hinged on the side so they can open like a movie scene clapper with split holes for the ankles which are locked in place when the stocks are closed and presumably fastened or locked closed -- pretty much exactly like old west stocks for outlaws without the head hole.
It makes sense that Houdini would have had to lay on his back with his legs straight up for the stocks to be lowered, opened, and fastened around his ankles. When lifted into the air, his shoulders would almost certainly have to be supported or his own weight would pull down on his trapped ankles unless he remained directly under the stocks until fully airborne.
If you look at a photograph such as: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Water_Torture_Cell#/media/File:Houdini_performing_Water_Torture_Cell.jpg you can see that once in the air the stocks are lifted by two ropes to the left and right of Houdini's feet (although each rope supports two corners, as shown in the photo). If one of those two lifting ropes, presumably lifted by a person via a block and tackle pulley set, a twist in one of the two ropes might come undone thus dropping one side of the stocks lower than the other. You can imagine Houdini's body weight would have pulled downward the ankle holes which were now no longer parallel to the ground but angled. I'm guessing the sudden jolt of the twisted rope going straight broke either the hinge or closing mechanism on the stocks thus releasing the shearing pressure on Houdini's legs and saving him from an even nastier injury, further relieved by Houdini also being held by assistance as he wasn't fully suspended.
Any thoughts?
That sounds pretty good to me, Scott!
DeleteJohn (and all), I have a new thought. What if the stocks were cracked by the floor?
DeleteTo be put into the USD, Houdini had to lay on the floor, his back on a mat with his legs lifted to be inserted into the stocks / USD lid which was perpendicular to the floor, like an astronaut before takeoff -- seated but face to the ceiling.
If the stocks were just starting to be lifted and Houdini's shoulder's were being supported before his weight was fully supported by the airborne stocks, a twist or slack in the ropes would cause the USD lid to fall to the stage floor. That much weight falling from even a few feet could certainly crack the stocks inside the frame, and if Houdini's ankles were already in place, that jolt could certainly crack a bone.
Here's the other thing: the doctor on the scene said that another few seconds and the stocks would have amputated Houdini's foot. This would make sense if the stocks would have fully twisted akimbo if one rope went slack. Forgive the descriptive image, but I imagine that without the floor, the free-hanging stocks would have fallen unevenly and pried against Houdini's leg like a bottle opener removing a cap.