WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.379 I want to start today's deep dive with a single 00:00:02.379 --> 00:00:06.580 word. It's a name, technically, but in the English 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:08.599 language, it's become something else entirely. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:12.140 It's a verb. Houdini. It really has. You hear 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:15.500 it constantly. In sports, in politics, you know, 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:18.059 just in casual conversation. Yeah, a quarterback 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:20.620 escapes a collapsing pocket. He's pulling a Houdini. 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.679 Or a teenager sneaks out of a boring family dinner. 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:25.800 They pulled a Houdini. It's just part of the 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:28.519 lexicon. Exactly. It's shorthand for escaping 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:32.219 the inescapable, for performing, I guess, a miracle 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:34.679 when you are backed into a corner and the walls 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:37.439 are closing in. But here is the issue I want 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.299 to tackle with you today. When we use that word, 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:42.859 when we throw that name around, we are almost 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:45.039 always thinking about a cartoon version of the 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.399 man. We picture the guy in the straitjacket or 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:49.240 maybe the guy holding his breath underwater and, 00:00:49.259 --> 00:00:51.140 you know, we stop there. The caricature. Yeah, 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:53.560 the man on the poster. Right. But when you actually 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:55.659 look at the source material we have in front 00:00:55.659 --> 00:00:58.600 of us today, which is this massive comprehensive 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:02.420 breakdown of his life, his diaries, police reports, 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:05.500 even the medical records around his death, you 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:07.879 realize the magic tricks might actually be the 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:10.579 least interesting thing about him. That is a 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:12.920 bold claim for the most famous magician in history, 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:15.030 but I completely agree with you. I really do. 00:01:15.250 --> 00:01:17.049 Because when you strip away the cape and the 00:01:17.049 --> 00:01:19.969 handcuffs, what you are left with is a story 00:01:19.969 --> 00:01:22.530 about the invention of modern celebrity. Yes. 00:01:22.629 --> 00:01:25.250 You're looking at an immigrant hustler, a pioneer 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:29.349 aviator, a failed movie star, and a guy who spent 00:01:29.349 --> 00:01:32.700 his final years in a... bitter public war with 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:34.900 the creator of Sherlock Holmes. It's a chaotic, 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:38.120 messy, just fascinating life. And our mission 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.500 for this deep dive is to organize that chaos. 00:01:40.739 --> 00:01:42.859 We want to understand how Eric Weiss, a poor 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:44.579 kid from Budapest, convinced the world he was 00:01:44.579 --> 00:01:46.599 superhuman. Right. We want to move beyond the 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:48.420 image of the man in the straitjacket and meet 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:50.500 the man who essentially created the concept of 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:52.819 the viral stunt before the internet even existed. 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:55.739 And we need to answer the big question that hangs 00:01:55.739 --> 00:01:59.140 over his entire career. Was his greatest delusion 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.040 the idea that he was invincible? Because that 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:05.719 belief in his own invincibility is, well, it's 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.360 ultimately what killed him. So let's unpack this. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:11.340 Because before he was the great Houdini, before 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:14.979 the fame and the fortune, he was just Eric. And 00:02:14.979 --> 00:02:17.139 the story doesn't start on a stage under bright 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:19.979 lights. It starts on a boat. It does. We're going 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:22.879 back to 1874. He's born Eric Weiss in Budapest, 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:26.229 Austria -Hungary. But the formative experience, 00:02:26.530 --> 00:02:28.469 the trauma that I think shapes everything that 00:02:28.469 --> 00:02:31.069 follows, happens four years later. He's on the 00:02:31.069 --> 00:02:33.250 SS Frisia, crossing the Atlantic to America. 00:02:33.449 --> 00:02:35.229 And this isn't a luxury cruise. This isn't first 00:02:35.229 --> 00:02:37.469 class. Oh, no. Far from it. This is steerage 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:39.930 class. This is the gritty, classic immigrant 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:42.169 narrative. He's with his pregnant mother and 00:02:42.169 --> 00:02:44.650 four brothers. His father, Rabbi Meir Samuel 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:47.069 Weiss, had gone ahead to prep the way, but the 00:02:47.069 --> 00:02:49.610 American dream wasn't exactly working out as 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:51.569 advertised. Where did they land? They land in 00:02:51.569 --> 00:02:53.990 Appleton, Wisconsin, of all places. Which feels 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:56.189 like a strange place for a Hungarian rabbi to 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:58.289 set up shop. I don't imagine there was a massive 00:02:58.289 --> 00:03:00.169 congregation waiting for him there. It was a 00:03:00.169 --> 00:03:02.650 very small community. Yeah. And it didn't last. 00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:06.090 The father loses his job as a rabbi, and this 00:03:06.090 --> 00:03:08.669 is where the story gets dark fast. The source 00:03:08.669 --> 00:03:11.710 material describes their situation as a free 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:15.560 fall into dire... Poverty. Entire poverty. They 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:17.719 lose the house in Appleton, move to Milwaukee, 00:03:17.979 --> 00:03:20.460 and eventually end up in a boarding house on 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:23.060 East 79th Street in New York City. I think this 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:25.860 poverty is so crucial to understanding his psychology. 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:28.520 We aren't talking about a kid who got a magic 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:30.680 kit for Christmas and thought it was fun. We 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:33.199 are talking about a kid working odd jobs at age 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:36.340 eight just to help his parents buy bread. Absolutely. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.039 It created a hustle mindset that never left him. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:41.319 I mean, even when he was the highest paid performer 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:43.819 in the world, he worked with this desperate, 00:03:43.979 --> 00:03:46.319 frantic energy, like he was afraid he'd end up 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:48.180 back in that boarding house. What kind of jobs? 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:51.120 He was a tie cutter, a messenger boy, a photography 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.599 assistant. He did anything, you know, anything 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.699 to survive. But amidst all that struggle, there 00:03:56.699 --> 00:03:59.860 is a spark of the performer emerging early. And 00:03:59.860 --> 00:04:02.840 I love this detail. And nine years old, he makes 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.800 his debut, not as a magician, but as a trapeze 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.219 artist. The Prince of the Air. Herrick, the Prince 00:04:08.219 --> 00:04:10.840 of the Air. That is a level of confidence I did 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:12.900 not possess at nine years old. It tells you two 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:15.539 things immediately. One, he was physically fearless. 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:18.379 He was comfortable with his body in dangerous 00:04:18.379 --> 00:04:21.680 situations. He was small, athletic, and punchy. 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:24.360 And the second thing. And two, he had a desperate 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:26.319 need to be seen. He didn't want to be in the 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:28.000 audience. He wanted to be the one hanging above 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.240 them. He wanted eyes on him. But the transition 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:34.319 to magic happens because of a book. He reads 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.600 the autobiography of the French magician Jean 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:39.279 -Eugène Robert Houdin. Right. The greatest French 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:42.579 magician of the era. The father of modern conjuring. 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.160 And this leads to one of the most famous and 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.800 frankly hilarious misunderstandings in show business 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:50.660 history. Okay, what happened? Young Eric reads 00:04:50.660 --> 00:04:53.720 this book, idolizes this man, and decides he 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.170 wants to carry on his legacy. He thinks that 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:58.490 if you add the letter I to a name in French, 00:04:58.689 --> 00:05:01.649 it means like. So he thinks Houdini translates 00:05:01.649 --> 00:05:04.730 to like Houdin. No way. So he literally named 00:05:04.730 --> 00:05:07.589 himself the guy who is like that other guy. Exactly. 00:05:07.829 --> 00:05:10.610 He wanted to honor his hero, which is deeply 00:05:10.610 --> 00:05:13.899 ironic because decades later. Once Houdini is 00:05:13.899 --> 00:05:16.139 famous, the relationship with his idol takes 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:18.720 a very, very dark turn. Right. He writes a book 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.079 called The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, which 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:23.040 sounds like a takedown piece. It was a brutal 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.439 takedown piece. He basically tears his childhood 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:28.319 hero to shreds, calling him a fraud, a thief 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:30.899 and a liar. He accused him of stealing tricks 00:05:30.899 --> 00:05:33.100 from other magicians. What triggered that flip? 00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:35.339 How do you go from naming yourself after a guy 00:05:35.339 --> 00:05:37.439 to trying to destroy his legacy? It's classic 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:39.720 Houdini psychology. He was incredibly competitive. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:41.740 He couldn't stand being second best, even to 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:44.540 a dead man. Once he surpassed Houdin in fame, 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:47.699 he had to destroy him to stand alone at the top. 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:50.480 It foreshadows how combative he became. So if 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.759 you were his idol today, you could be his mortal 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:55.410 enemy tomorrow. Pretty much, yeah. So he has 00:05:55.410 --> 00:05:58.009 the name. He has the ambition. He has the prince 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:01.350 of the year confidence. But the 1890s are rough. 00:06:01.509 --> 00:06:03.230 I mean, he's not playing the palace theater right 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:06.029 away. No, he's in the trenches. We're talking 00:06:06.029 --> 00:06:09.529 dime museums and sideshows. And for you, the 00:06:09.529 --> 00:06:10.870 listener, if you don't know what a dime museum 00:06:10.870 --> 00:06:13.689 was, imagine a mix between a freak show and a 00:06:13.689 --> 00:06:15.990 low -budget circus. So you'd have, what, like 00:06:15.990 --> 00:06:18.490 a bearded lady? A bearded lady, a two -headed 00:06:18.490 --> 00:06:21.810 calf in a jar, and Harry Houdini doing card tricks 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:24.029 in the corner. And the source mentions he even 00:06:24.029 --> 00:06:28.490 doubled as the wild man. Yes. At a circus. I 00:06:28.490 --> 00:06:30.509 need you to paint this picture for me. What does 00:06:30.509 --> 00:06:34.050 a wild man do? It was a common act at the time. 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:36.490 Usually it involved wearing furs, messing up 00:06:36.490 --> 00:06:39.269 your hair, sitting in a page. In a cage. Yeah, 00:06:39.269 --> 00:06:42.269 in a cage. Maybe eating raw meat and growling 00:06:42.269 --> 00:06:44.709 at people to scare them. It was degrading work. 00:06:45.050 --> 00:06:47.970 The great Houdini growling in a cage for nickels. 00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:51.000 That is humility. It shows the grind. He was 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.399 performing with his brother, Dash Theodore, as 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:55.920 the brothers Houdini, and they were making near 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:59.000 -starvation wages at Huber's Guy Museum. It was 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.800 humiliating work, but he refused to quit. He 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.339 just kept pushing. And somewhere in this misery, 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.959 there is a bright spot. He meets Bess. Wilhelmina 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:11.000 Beatrice Rahner. Hmm. The love story is actually 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.300 quite sweet, but also a bit sharp, in true Houdini 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:16.779 fashion. She was technically being courted by 00:07:16.779 --> 00:07:19.259 his brother, Dash, at first. Oh, that's awkward. 00:07:19.379 --> 00:07:21.060 Hey, brother, I know you like her, but I'm taking 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:24.019 her. Harry didn't care. He was a force of nature. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:26.779 He swooped in, charmed her, and they got married 00:07:26.779 --> 00:07:29.899 in 1894. And she didn't just become his wife, 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.399 she became his partner. She replaced Dash in 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:34.709 the act. For the rest of his life, she was the 00:07:34.709 --> 00:07:36.689 one handing him the keys, checking the locks, 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:38.790 and standing by the curtain. She was the only 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:41.449 person he truly trusted. The only one. So they 00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.069 are grinding away, doing magic. And here is a 00:07:44.069 --> 00:07:46.610 detail that I found surprising. The sources imply 00:07:46.610 --> 00:07:48.889 he wasn't actually a very good magician. That 00:07:48.889 --> 00:07:51.269 is the dirty little secret of the Houdini myth. 00:07:51.899 --> 00:07:54.720 If you talk to magic historians, the consensus 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:57.399 is that Houdini was a mediocre, sleight of hand 00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:00.379 artist at best. Really? Yeah. He built himself 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:03.279 as the king of cards, but he lacked the finesse. 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.639 He was heavy handed. If you watched him do a 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:07.800 card trick up close, you might catch him. He 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:09.839 didn't have that soft touch that the masters 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.779 have. So how do you go from being a clumsy card 00:08:12.779 --> 00:08:16.899 magician to a legend? You need a manager who 00:08:16.899 --> 00:08:21.139 sees what you can't see. Enter Martin Beck. St. 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:24.560 Paul, Minnesota, 1899. This is the pivot point 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:27.259 of his entire life. Beck watches the act. He 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:29.519 sees the bad card tricks. He sees the energy. 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:32.179 And he gives Houdini the most important feedback 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:34.460 he ever received. Which was? He basically says, 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:36.580 Eric, the card tricks. They're painful. Stop 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:38.980 doing them. But that thing at the end, when you 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:41.360 get out of the old handcuffs, do that. Only that. 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:43.740 Focus on the escape. Become the handcuff king. 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:46.519 Beck books him on the Orpheum Circuit, which 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:48.970 was the big leagues of vaudeville. And suddenly 00:08:48.970 --> 00:08:51.470 Houdini isn't a magician anymore. He's an escape 00:08:51.470 --> 00:08:53.990 artist. He found his lane. And this leads to 00:08:53.990 --> 00:08:57.250 the European tour in 1900, where the legend really 00:08:57.250 --> 00:09:00.750 solidifies. But what strikes me here is his marketing 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:03.070 strategy. He doesn't just put up posters and 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:05.269 hope people come. He goes to war with the local 00:09:05.269 --> 00:09:07.750 police. It was brilliant. It was viral marketing 00:09:07.750 --> 00:09:11.070 before the Internet. In every city, London, Berlin, 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:13.850 Moscow, he would walk into the central police 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:16.809 station, find the chief and say, lock me up. 00:09:17.129 --> 00:09:19.470 Use your best cuffs. Strip search me so you know 00:09:19.470 --> 00:09:22.250 I have no keys. It's so aggressive. You're daring 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:25.210 the police to fail. It's confrontational. He 00:09:25.210 --> 00:09:27.330 went to Scotland Yard and baffled a superintendent 00:09:27.330 --> 00:09:29.549 named William Melville. He managed to escape 00:09:29.549 --> 00:09:32.809 their handcuffs so quickly and so cleanly that 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:35.419 the buzz was instantaneous. He got booked at 00:09:35.419 --> 00:09:37.480 the Alhambra Theater for six months straight. 00:09:37.659 --> 00:09:40.379 And his salary? It jumped to $300 a week. And 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.480 just to contextualize that for you listening, 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:46.539 $300 a week in 1900 is enormous money. In today's 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:49.500 purchasing power, that is over $11 ,000 a week. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:52.360 He went from starvation wages in a dime museum 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.480 to wealthy in a matter of months. But the stunt 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:57.899 that really captures my imagination is the Russian 00:09:57.899 --> 00:10:01.600 one, the Siberian transport van. This is Houdini 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.409 understanding the power of narrative. He's in 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:06.870 Russia, and he challenges the secret police. 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:10.789 They lock him in a Siberian transport van. What 00:10:10.789 --> 00:10:13.769 even is that? It's a zinc -lined steel box on 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:16.889 wheels used to transport prisoners to the gulags. 00:10:17.470 --> 00:10:19.850 It was a symbol of despair. It's a terrifying 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:23.190 object. And to raise the stakes, Houdini claimed 00:10:23.190 --> 00:10:25.649 that the key to the van was kept at the destination 00:10:25.649 --> 00:10:28.629 in Siberia. So if he didn't get out, he wasn't 00:10:28.629 --> 00:10:31.149 just stuck in a box. He was effectively being 00:10:31.149 --> 00:10:33.759 deported to Siberia. He created a scenario where 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.120 failure meant exile. He turned a magic trick 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:38.519 into a life or death thriller. Exactly. It took 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:40.759 him about an hour, but he got out. The Russians 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:43.480 were furious, the public went wild, and his fame 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:45.659 just exploded. He was doing things that seemed 00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:47.960 impossible. However, you can't challenge the 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:49.779 police constantly without eventually annoying 00:10:49.779 --> 00:10:52.200 a cop. And that happened in Cologne, Germany. 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:55.039 This story feels like a movie scene. The Cologne 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:57.240 lawsuit. This is a crucial anecdote because it 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:00.100 shows how litigious Houdini was. A police officer 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:03.240 named Werner Graf wrote an article accusing Houdini 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:10.000 of bribery. He said, Which, to be fair, is a 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:11.919 reasonable suspicion for a police officer to 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:14.720 have. It is. But Houdini couldn't let it stand. 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:19.120 He sued Graf for slander. The trial was a sensation. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:23.200 The judge was skeptical. He wanted proof. So 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:25.220 Houdini turned the courtroom into a theater. 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:27.919 What did he do? He asked the judge to verify 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:30.139 the lock on the court's own safe. He's going 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.740 to break into the judge's safe in the middle 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:35.639 of the trial. During a recess, he managed to 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:38.679 open the judge's safe. When the trial resumed, 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.940 he revealed he had cracked it. How? Did he have 00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:44.100 dynamite? He later claimed the judge had simply 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.120 forgotten to lock it properly and he just seized 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:48.899 the moment. But in court, it looked like magic. 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:51.950 He opened the safe. Showing he could bypass their 00:11:51.950 --> 00:11:54.850 security, he won the case. Graff had to publicly 00:11:54.850 --> 00:11:57.789 apologize and pay costs. It's such a power move. 00:11:57.870 --> 00:11:59.870 He's not just performing, he's humiliating authority 00:11:59.870 --> 00:12:02.289 figures. And that resonated so deeply with the 00:12:02.289 --> 00:12:04.750 audience. Think about the era. 1900s Europe. 00:12:04.970 --> 00:12:07.490 Imperial empire, strict class structures, powerful 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:10.509 police states. And here is this short Jewish 00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:13.110 immigrant kid from Wisconsin who lets the police 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:15.029 chain him up, strip him naked, and search him. 00:12:15.129 --> 00:12:18.149 And he still beats them. He represented freedom. 00:12:18.849 --> 00:12:21.830 He represented the idea that no chain can hold 00:12:21.830 --> 00:12:24.350 a man who wants to be free. That's a great insight. 00:12:24.490 --> 00:12:27.029 He was an avatar for the underdog. But as his 00:12:27.029 --> 00:12:28.889 fame grew, the challenges had to get harder. 00:12:29.190 --> 00:12:31.370 And that brings us to the Mirror Challenge in 00:12:31.370 --> 00:12:34.509 1904. The Daily Mirror newspaper in London. They 00:12:34.509 --> 00:12:36.470 weren't fans. They wanted to break him. So they 00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:38.350 commissioned a locksmith to spend five years 00:12:38.350 --> 00:12:41.190 building a pair of handcuffs specifically designed 00:12:41.190 --> 00:12:44.710 to stump Houdini. Five years of R &D for a pair 00:12:44.710 --> 00:12:46.990 of cuffs. That is dedication to hating someone. 00:12:47.289 --> 00:12:49.850 Allegedly. Yeah. They were a monstrosity. Brahma 00:12:49.850 --> 00:12:53.409 locks, nested mechanisms. 4 ,000 people packed 00:12:53.409 --> 00:12:55.309 the London Hippodrome to watch this showdown. 00:12:55.470 --> 00:12:57.210 And this was not a quick trick. This wasn't, 00:12:57.210 --> 00:12:59.190 bam, I'm out. The sources say it lasted over 00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:02.129 an hour. An hour and 10 minutes. Imagine sitting 00:13:02.129 --> 00:13:04.409 in a theater watching a man struggle with cuffs 00:13:04.409 --> 00:13:06.789 for an hour. It wasn't entertainment. It was 00:13:06.789 --> 00:13:09.429 an ordeal. Houdini was sweating profusely. He 00:13:09.429 --> 00:13:11.990 was groaning. And at one point, he asked them 00:13:11.990 --> 00:13:14.649 to unlock the cuffs just so he could take off 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:17.029 his coat because he was overheating. And they 00:13:17.029 --> 00:13:19.690 said no. They said no. They said no. They thought 00:13:19.690 --> 00:13:21.629 he wanted to look at the key or the mechanism. 00:13:21.970 --> 00:13:25.990 So Houdini improvises. He takes a penknife from 00:13:25.990 --> 00:13:29.429 his pocket, holds it in his teeth, and cuts his 00:13:29.429 --> 00:13:32.629 coat off his body, ribbon by ribbon. That is 00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:35.190 absolute rock star behavior. That is punk rock. 00:13:35.450 --> 00:13:38.049 The crowd went insane. Then about an hour in, 00:13:38.149 --> 00:13:40.789 Bess comes on stage. She gives him a kiss. The 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:43.029 famous kiss. Critics called it the kiss of life 00:13:43.029 --> 00:13:45.960 or the kiss of death. The rumor was that she 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:48.960 passed him a key in her mouth. Is that plausible? 00:13:49.379 --> 00:13:50.919 Well, the source notes that the key for these 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:53.659 specific cuffs was six inches long. Okay, try 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:55.460 hiding a six -inch key in your mouth while kissing 00:13:55.460 --> 00:13:58.159 someone. That seems difficult. And dangerous. 00:13:58.419 --> 00:14:00.580 Highly unlikely. But it adds to the mystery. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.440 Ten minutes later, he emerges free. He's crying. 00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:05.759 He's holding up the cuffs. It was the hardest 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:07.919 escape of his career. He was physically broken 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:10.220 by it. But this creates a problem, doesn't it? 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:12.340 If you are the best in the world at handcuffs, 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:14.940 eventually handcuffs get boring. The audience 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:17.360 gets used to it. Oh, he's out again. Cool. Exactly. 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.860 The market gets saturated. By 1905, every two 00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:24.379 -bit vaudeville show had a handcuffed king. Houdini 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:26.940 realized he was becoming a commodity. He needed 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:29.279 to change the game. He needed to introduce the 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.220 genuine threat of death. He needed stakes that 00:14:32.220 --> 00:14:35.840 went beyond, will he get out, to, will he survive? 00:14:36.539 --> 00:14:40.320 This is the shift from escape artist to stuntman. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:43.659 Correct. In 1908, he debuts The Milk Can Escape. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.019 The poster literally said, failure means a drowning 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:48.879 death. He's not fighting the police anymore. 00:14:49.019 --> 00:14:50.940 He's fighting biology. And he would invite the 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:52.899 audience to hold their breath along with him 00:14:52.899 --> 00:14:55.220 while he was submerged in the can. Which is brilliant 00:14:55.220 --> 00:14:57.659 psychology. Because most people start panicking 00:14:57.659 --> 00:15:00.059 after, what, 45 seconds? Exactly. You're sitting 00:15:00.059 --> 00:15:02.539 in your comfortable velvet seat, gasping for 00:15:02.539 --> 00:15:05.440 air, realizing how hard it is. Meanwhile, he's 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.139 been underwater for two minutes, locked in a 00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:10.179 metal can, inside a wooden chest. He turned the 00:15:10.179 --> 00:15:12.019 audience's empathy into physical discomfort. 00:15:12.299 --> 00:15:14.970 He made them feel this. Suffocation. And he keeps 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:17.309 escalating. We get the Chinese water torture 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.230 cell. The upside down. It's the most iconic image 00:15:20.230 --> 00:15:22.929 of Houdini. His feet are locked in stocks and 00:15:22.929 --> 00:15:25.850 he is lowered headfirst into a tank of water. 00:15:26.070 --> 00:15:29.490 Why headfirst? Disorientation. It rushes blood 00:15:29.490 --> 00:15:32.029 to the head. And critically, the front was glass. 00:15:32.610 --> 00:15:35.919 In the milk can, he was hidden. In the water 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:37.419 torture cell, you could see him floating there. 00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:39.279 You could watch his hair moving in the water. 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:42.059 It made the drowning threat visible. But he didn't 00:15:42.059 --> 00:15:44.259 just stay on stage. He took it to the streets. 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:47.759 The suspended straitjacket escape. I was surprised 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:49.820 to learn this was actually his brother Hardeen's 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:52.320 idea. Hardeen was often the brains behind the 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.779 scenes. Houdini used to do the straitjacket escape 00:15:54.779 --> 00:15:57.580 behind a curtain. Hardeen said no. Do it in plain 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.019 sight and hang upside down from a crane. It's 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.279 such a simple tweak, but it changes everything. 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:04.899 He would hang 100 feet in the air, dangling from 00:16:04.899 --> 00:16:06.559 newspaper buildings or cranes while they were 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:08.539 building the New York subway. It would literally 00:16:08.539 --> 00:16:11.539 stop traffic. Tens of thousands of people craning 00:16:11.539 --> 00:16:14.220 their necks. It was free entertainment, but it 00:16:14.220 --> 00:16:16.259 built his legend. Now, I want to get technical 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:18.779 for a second. How do you get out of a straitjacket 00:16:18.779 --> 00:16:20.379 while hanging upside down? Is there a trick? 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:22.840 There is a method. And it's grueling. It's not 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.539 magic. It's physiology. When they are strapping 00:16:25.539 --> 00:16:27.519 you in, you have to keep your muscles tense. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:30.419 You expand your chest and shoulders. Make yourself 00:16:30.419 --> 00:16:32.559 as huge as possible. So you're infleading yourself. 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:35.960 Right. Then once you're in the air, you exhale 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:38.840 fully and relax your muscles. That creates about 00:16:38.840 --> 00:16:41.980 two or three inches of slack in the canvas. Then 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:43.779 it's just a matter of dislocating your shoulder 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:46.220 or wiggling your arm over your head. It requires 00:16:46.220 --> 00:16:49.419 immense upper body strength and pain tolerance. 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:53.080 So when he finished these stunts, he wasn't faking 00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:55.279 the exhaustion. Oh no, he was battered. He was 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:58.200 often covered in bruises. It was a workout. He 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:00.399 was an athlete as much as a magician. But there 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:04.400 was one stunt that truly terrified him. The buried 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.900 alive concept. This is where the fear becomes 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:11.359 real. 1915, Santa Ana, California. He decided 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:13.500 to try being buried in a six -foot pit without 00:17:13.500 --> 00:17:16.380 a casket. Just dirt shoveled directly onto his 00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:19.119 body. No casket. Just dirt. That sounds like 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:21.779 a terrible idea. It was a horrific idea. The 00:17:21.779 --> 00:17:24.339 weight of the earth is incredibly heavy. As soon 00:17:24.339 --> 00:17:27.180 as they covered him, the dirt crushed him. He 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:29.140 couldn't breathe. He tried to dig his way up, 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:31.900 but the dirt kept filling in. He panicked. He 00:17:31.900 --> 00:17:34.160 actually panicked. The great Houdini. He did. 00:17:34.509 --> 00:17:36.930 He lost control. His hand broke the surface and 00:17:36.930 --> 00:17:38.750 his assistants had to drag him out unconscious. 00:17:39.430 --> 00:17:41.750 He later wrote that the fear of the weight of 00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:44.109 that earth stayed with him forever. It was the 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:47.650 one time nature truly beat him. And yet, because 00:17:47.650 --> 00:17:50.650 he is Houdini, he goes back to it later. Years 00:17:50.650 --> 00:17:54.230 later, in 1926. But this time, it was for an 00:17:54.230 --> 00:17:56.690 intellectual point. There was an Egyptian mystic 00:17:56.690 --> 00:17:59.309 named Raman Bey who claimed he could survive 00:17:59.309 --> 00:18:02.150 in a sealed casket underwater using supernatural 00:18:02.150 --> 00:18:04.769 powers. Houdini couldn't stand that. That had 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.130 hated it. He said, it's not magic, it's breath 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:09.930 control. So Houdini stayed in a sealed casket 00:18:09.930 --> 00:18:12.289 underwater for 90 minutes just to prove that 00:18:12.289 --> 00:18:14.190 a normal man could do it if he remained calm 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:16.869 and regulated his oxygen consumption. I will 00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:18.990 nearly die just to prove you aren't a wizard. 00:18:19.269 --> 00:18:21.390 That was his mindset. He was obsessive about 00:18:21.390 --> 00:18:24.309 truth in his own way. This segues perfectly into 00:18:24.309 --> 00:18:26.599 the next phase of his life. We've covered the 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:28.779 magician and the stuntman, but he also wanted 00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:30.779 to be a modern Renaissance man. He wanted to 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:33.119 conquer the air and the scream. The aviation 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.920 chapter is fascinating because it's so often 00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:39.240 forgotten. In 1909, aviation is brand new. It's 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:42.680 dangerous. Houdini buys a French Voisin biplane 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.740 for $5 ,000. That is a fortune in 1909. He hires 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:49.279 a mechanic. paints his name on the side, and 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:50.940 decides he's going to be the first person to 00:18:50.940 --> 00:18:53.799 fly a powered aircraft in Australia. Why Australia? 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:55.900 It was an open record. Nobody had done it yet. 00:18:56.059 --> 00:18:59.539 There was a race to be the first. In 1910, at 00:18:59.539 --> 00:19:01.779 Digger's Rest in Victoria, he pulled it off. 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:04.740 He completed three successful flights. We have 00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:07.119 the trophy signatures verifying it. So technically, 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:09.779 Harry Houdini is an aviation pioneer. He is, 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:11.740 but typical Houdini. Once he got the record, 00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:13.859 he lost interest. He essentially said, OK, I 00:19:13.859 --> 00:19:16.059 conquered the sky, put the plane in storage, 00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:18.019 and never flew again. He treated it like a stunt. 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:22.039 Done that. Next. Exactly. Then he pivoted to 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:25.240 movies. He made these serials, The Master Mystery, 00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:28.000 The Grim Game. He started his own production 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:30.380 company, the Houdini Picture Corporation. We 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:32.539 don't really talk about Houdini the movie star 00:19:32.539 --> 00:19:34.720 today. We don't watch his films. Because honestly, 00:19:34.859 --> 00:19:37.319 he wasn't very good. He was stiff on camera. 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:39.519 The movies made money initially because of his 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:44.019 name. But the novelty wore off. He quit in 1923, 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:48.670 citing... Meager profits. He realized he couldn't 00:19:48.670 --> 00:19:50.430 control the movie business the way he controlled 00:19:50.430 --> 00:19:53.490 the stage. But there is one story from his film 00:19:53.490 --> 00:19:56.569 career that I love. The plane crash in The Grimm 00:19:56.569 --> 00:19:59.970 Game. Pure marketing genius. During the filming, 00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:02.269 two planes actually collided in midair. It was 00:20:02.269 --> 00:20:04.549 a complete accident. A stuntman was dangling 00:20:04.549 --> 00:20:06.809 from one of them. Miraculously, no one died, 00:20:06.869 --> 00:20:08.670 but it looked spectacular. I knew Dini wasn't 00:20:08.670 --> 00:20:10.250 even in the plane, right? He was on the ground 00:20:10.250 --> 00:20:13.529 watching. But the footage was gold. So Houdini's 00:20:13.529 --> 00:20:16.029 marketing machine immediately spun it. The poster 00:20:16.029 --> 00:20:18.730 screamed, see Houdini risk his life in a midair 00:20:18.730 --> 00:20:21.309 collision? He claimed it was him. He stole the 00:20:21.309 --> 00:20:23.569 stuntman's valor. He appropriated the tragedy 00:20:23.569 --> 00:20:26.250 for ticket sales. It shows his ruthlessness when 00:20:26.250 --> 00:20:28.789 it came to his brand. Truth was flexible if it 00:20:28.789 --> 00:20:31.930 sold tickets. So by the 1920s, the movie career 00:20:31.930 --> 00:20:34.269 is fading. He's getting older. He can't hang 00:20:34.269 --> 00:20:37.410 from skyscrapers forever. And this is where he 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:39.589 pivots to what I think is the most substantial 00:20:39.589 --> 00:20:42.980 work of his life. The Crusader. The skeptic. 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:45.619 The ghostbuster. You have to understand the context 00:20:45.619 --> 00:20:48.460 of the 1920s. Yeah. World War I had just slaughtered 00:20:48.460 --> 00:20:50.859 a generation of young men. The Spanish flu had 00:20:50.859 --> 00:20:53.440 killed millions more. The world was drowning 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:55.440 in grief. And where there is grief, there are 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:58.759 sharks. Exactly. Spiritualism was huge. Medians 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:00.359 were popping up everywhere claiming they could 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:02.640 talk to the dead. They were charging grieving 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:05.380 widows money to hear messages from their husbands. 00:21:05.700 --> 00:21:08.039 And Houdini took this personally. Very personally. 00:21:08.059 --> 00:21:09.940 We mentioned earlier that he was a mama's boy. 00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:12.700 That's an understatement. He worshipped his mother, 00:21:12.859 --> 00:21:16.339 Cecilia. When she died, he was shattered. He 00:21:16.339 --> 00:21:18.319 would go to the cemetery and lie face down on 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.460 her grave for hours. Wow. He desperately wanted 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:23.660 to believe he could talk to her. But every medium 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:26.400 he visited, he saw the tricks. He saw the wires. 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:29.460 He saw the sleight of hand. He saw the cold reading. 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:31.859 He realized they were using the same techniques 00:21:31.859 --> 00:21:34.359 he used in his magic act, but they were using 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:37.519 them to exploit vulnerable people. It enraged 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:40.299 him. He felt it was a moral crime. So how did 00:21:40.299 --> 00:21:43.200 he catch them? He went undercover. He'd wear 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:45.980 disguises, false beards, glasses, funny hats. 00:21:46.180 --> 00:21:48.440 He'd bring a reporter and a police officer into 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:51.420 the seance. This is a raid. Basically. He exposed 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:53.940 Marjorie, the famous Boston medium who was the 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:56.779 darling of the spiritualist movement. He exposed 00:21:56.779 --> 00:21:59.420 Joaquin Arcamacilla, a Spaniard who claimed he 00:21:59.420 --> 00:22:01.559 had x -ray eyes and could read through metal 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:04.779 boxes. Houdini showed exactly how he was peaking. 00:22:05.069 --> 00:22:08.009 But this crusade cost him a friendship. Not just 00:22:08.009 --> 00:22:10.650 any friendship. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This 00:22:10.650 --> 00:22:12.309 is the most baffling relationship in literary 00:22:12.309 --> 00:22:14.829 history. Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, 00:22:14.970 --> 00:22:17.390 the embodiment of logic and deduction. But in 00:22:17.390 --> 00:22:20.230 real life, Doyle was a devout spiritualist. He 00:22:20.230 --> 00:22:23.230 believed in fairies. He believed in ectoplasm. 00:22:23.250 --> 00:22:25.490 He believed the dead were speaking to us. And 00:22:25.490 --> 00:22:27.650 he believed in Houdini, but in the wrong way. 00:22:27.890 --> 00:22:31.730 This is the twist. Doyle refused to believe Houdini 00:22:31.730 --> 00:22:34.410 was just doing tricks. He told Houdini to his 00:22:34.410 --> 00:22:37.609 face, I know how you do it. You dematerialize 00:22:37.609 --> 00:22:40.150 your body. You have supernatural powers. So Houdini 00:22:40.150 --> 00:22:42.210 would say, look, Arthur, it's a trick lock. Here 00:22:42.210 --> 00:22:44.529 is the pick. And Doyle would say, no, you're 00:22:44.529 --> 00:22:47.690 a wizard, Harry. Essentially. Houdini would demonstrate 00:22:47.690 --> 00:22:50.190 the trick to prove it was fake. And Doyle would 00:22:50.190 --> 00:22:53.589 say, see, only a wizard could do that. That must 00:22:53.589 --> 00:22:55.809 have been maddening for Houdini. It destroyed 00:22:55.809 --> 00:22:58.049 their friendship. They fought a proxy war in 00:22:58.049 --> 00:23:00.640 the newspapers. Houdini tried to teach the word 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:03.980 logic and Doyle doubling down on magic. It was 00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:07.240 a tragedy of communication. But even in his skepticism, 00:23:07.420 --> 00:23:10.059 Houdini left a door open, the Rosabelle code. 00:23:10.339 --> 00:23:12.940 Yes. He wasn't a complete atheist about the afterlife. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:15.960 He was an agnostic who wanted proof. He and Bess 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:17.920 had a secret code based on their favorite song, 00:23:18.099 --> 00:23:20.380 Rosabelle. The phrase was, Rosabelle believe. 00:23:20.619 --> 00:23:23.279 The deal was, if one of us dies, try to send 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:26.380 that message. It was the ultimate test. A password 00:23:26.380 --> 00:23:28.920 encryption for the afterlives. If anyone could 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:31.319 escape the ultimate prison death, it was Houdini. 00:23:31.619 --> 00:23:33.579 If he was out there, he would send the code. 00:23:33.740 --> 00:23:37.000 And spoiler alert, he didn't. Bess held seances 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.220 every Halloween for 10 years. She sat with a 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:42.299 candle, waiting for the code. It never came. 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:44.980 On the 10th anniversary, she blew out the candle 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:47.779 and said, 10 years is long enough to wait for 00:23:47.779 --> 00:23:50.569 any man. That is heartbreaking, but we need to 00:23:50.569 --> 00:23:53.349 talk about how he died. Because for a guy who 00:23:53.349 --> 00:23:56.450 defied death for a living, drowning, burial heights, 00:23:56.750 --> 00:23:59.910 his death was shockingly mundane. It wasn't a 00:23:59.910 --> 00:24:02.329 stunt gone wrong. It wasn't the water torture 00:24:02.329 --> 00:24:05.829 cell. It was a punch. A simple punch. Let's set 00:24:05.829 --> 00:24:09.849 the scene. October 1926, Montreal. He's at the 00:24:09.849 --> 00:24:11.920 Princess Theatre. He's in his dressing room, 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.859 reclining on a couch because he had broken his 00:24:13.859 --> 00:24:15.859 ankle a few days earlier during a show. He was 00:24:15.859 --> 00:24:18.200 already hurt. He wasn't out 100%. He was run 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.740 down. He was 52 years old. Yeah. A student from 00:24:20.740 --> 00:24:22.880 McGill University named Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:25.900 comes in. He asks Houdini, is it true you can 00:24:25.900 --> 00:24:28.660 withstand any blow to the stomach? Houdini had 00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:31.240 bragged about this. He claimed to have iron abdominal 00:24:31.240 --> 00:24:34.779 muscles. He did. But usually, he prepared for 00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:37.839 it. He would stand up. brace his legs, and tighten 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:40.259 his core. Whitehead didn't give him the chance. 00:24:40.420 --> 00:24:43.180 Houdini was lying down. He casually said yes, 00:24:43.339 --> 00:24:46.140 and Whitehead immediately delivered several hammer 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:48.160 -like blows to his gut. Well, he was totally 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:51.839 relaxed. Completely defenseless. Houdini winced 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:54.920 and stopped him, but the damage was done. He 00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:56.980 was in agony immediately. Well, he didn't go 00:24:56.980 --> 00:25:00.059 to the hospital. No. He was stubborn. He traveled 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:02.740 to Detroit for the next show. He had a fever 00:25:02.740 --> 00:25:05.750 of 104 degrees. The doctors examined him and 00:25:05.750 --> 00:25:08.390 said, you have acute appendicitis and peritonitis. 00:25:08.490 --> 00:25:10.970 Your appendix has burst. You are being poisoned. 00:25:11.190 --> 00:25:13.049 If you don't have surgery now, you will die. 00:25:13.329 --> 00:25:15.450 And Houdini said, I'll do it after the show. 00:25:15.569 --> 00:25:17.950 The show must go on, even if it kills you. He 00:25:17.950 --> 00:25:20.250 went out on stage in Detroit. He was delirious. 00:25:20.309 --> 00:25:22.470 He reportedly passed out during the performance, 00:25:22.690 --> 00:25:25.490 was revived by his assistants, finished the show, 00:25:25.569 --> 00:25:28.150 and then collapsed for good. He was taken to 00:25:28.150 --> 00:25:30.049 the hospital, but the infection had spread too 00:25:30.049 --> 00:25:33.900 far. He died on Halloween. October 31st, 1926. 00:25:34.180 --> 00:25:36.420 Halloween. You couldn't script a better ending 00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:39.200 for a magician. It's almost too perfect. It cemented 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.599 the legend. But there is a medical debate here 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:44.839 that I want to clarify. Did the punch kill him? 00:25:45.180 --> 00:25:47.839 Or was he already dying? It's the million dollar 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:50.579 question. For decades, the story was that the 00:25:50.579 --> 00:25:53.299 punch ruptured his appendix. That's the dramatic 00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:55.880 version. But modern medical insight suggests 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:58.619 he likely had appendicitis before the punch. 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:01.740 So the punch was just a coincidence. A fatal 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:04.519 coincidence. The theory is that the pain from 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.660 the punch masked the pain of the appendicitis. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:10.059 He thought his stomach hurt because he got hit 00:26:10.059 --> 00:26:12.819 by a college kid, so he ignored it. If he had 00:26:12.819 --> 00:26:14.660 been punched, he might have realized, hey, this 00:26:14.660 --> 00:26:17.119 is a different kind of pain and got to the doctor 00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:19.279 sooner. So the punch didn't rupture the organ, 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:22.140 but it delayed the treatment. Exactly. However, 00:26:22.299 --> 00:26:24.700 legally, the insurance company paid out double 00:26:24.700 --> 00:26:27.259 indemnity for accidental death based on the punch 00:26:27.259 --> 00:26:29.980 theory. So financially, the punch was the official 00:26:29.980 --> 00:26:32.559 cause. Let's look at the aftermath. He's gone. 00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:34.539 What happens to the secrets? He was a collector. 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:38.140 He had a massive library of magic and occult 00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:40.180 books, which he left to the Library of Congress. 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:44.200 But the props, the handcuffs, the water cell, 00:26:44.299 --> 00:26:46.720 he left those to his brother Hardeen with specific 00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:49.259 instructions. Burn them. He wanted the legacy 00:26:49.259 --> 00:26:51.920 to end with him. He didn't want anyone else doing 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.960 his tricks. He wanted the secrets to die. Hardeen, 00:26:55.119 --> 00:26:57.539 thankfully for history, ignored him. Good move, 00:26:57.619 --> 00:27:00.480 Hardeen. He kept the props. He used them in his 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:03.799 own act, then sold them. The water torture cell 00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:06.599 frame survived a fire in a Niagara Falls museum 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:09.420 in 1995. You can still see pieces of his history 00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:12.039 today. And his grave is in Queens. Machpelah 00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:14.519 Cemetery. It's a pilgrimage site. The Society 00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:16.619 of American Magicians, which he was president 00:27:16.619 --> 00:27:19.059 of for years, still holds a broken wand ceremony 00:27:19.059 --> 00:27:22.130 there. But it's also a site of vandalism. The 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:24.009 bust on his grave has been stolen or smashed 00:27:24.009 --> 00:27:26.950 multiple times. Even in death, people want a 00:27:26.950 --> 00:27:28.829 piece of him. It speaks to the obsession. We 00:27:28.829 --> 00:27:31.130 just can't let him go. So when we step back and 00:27:31.130 --> 00:27:33.730 look at this entire arc, from the poverty in 00:27:33.730 --> 00:27:36.890 Appleton to the heights of global fame, the planes, 00:27:37.109 --> 00:27:39.410 the movies, the ghost busting, what is the through 00:27:39.410 --> 00:27:41.910 line? What connects Eric Weiss to the legend? 00:27:42.269 --> 00:27:44.730 I think it comes down to control. Houdini spent 00:27:44.730 --> 00:27:46.930 his entire life proving that he could control 00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:50.190 any situation. You lock him up, he gets out. 00:27:50.569 --> 00:27:54.009 You bury him, he rises. You try to fool him with 00:27:54.009 --> 00:27:57.549 ghosts, he exposes you. He built this armor of 00:27:57.549 --> 00:28:00.289 invincibility to protect that scared little immigrant 00:28:00.289 --> 00:28:02.930 kid inside who was afraid of being poor again. 00:28:03.190 --> 00:28:05.609 But the armor had a crack. That's a tragedy. 00:28:05.789 --> 00:28:08.230 He spent his life building defenses against impossible 00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:12.309 odds. Water cells, straitjackets, chains. But 00:28:12.309 --> 00:28:14.190 in the end, he was taken down by something simple. 00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:16.930 A cheap shot he didn't see coming and his own 00:28:16.930 --> 00:28:19.690 stubborn refusal to admit he was hurt. It leaves 00:28:19.690 --> 00:28:22.390 us with a provocative thought. Houdini made the 00:28:22.390 --> 00:28:25.130 world believe he could escape anything. But was 00:28:25.130 --> 00:28:27.230 his greatest illusion convincing himself that 00:28:27.230 --> 00:28:29.410 he was invincible? I think so. He believed his 00:28:29.410 --> 00:28:31.869 own press. And that is the one trap you can't 00:28:31.869 --> 00:28:33.990 escape. A fascinating look at the man behind 00:28:33.990 --> 00:28:35.910 the magic. Thanks for listening to this deep 00:28:35.910 --> 00:28:37.990 dive into Harry Houdini. We'll catch you on the 00:28:37.990 --> 00:28:38.309 next one.