In 1923, the famous magician was hanged with a straitjacket around his neck outside the Vancouver Sun
Harry Houdini, a famous magician from all over the world, came to Vancouver 100 years ago to do a daring trick: he freed himself from a straitjacket while hanging upside down in front of thousands of people.
On March 1, 1923, he did his signature act in front of the former Vancouver Sun building on Pender Street. This act usually took him between five and ten minutes.
The escape, which he had also done in other big cities, was meant to draw attention to his show at the city’s Orpheum Theatre, which was the predecessor to the building that still has the same name.
“Houdini was more than just a magician and an escape artist. He may have been the first superhero. And people couldn’t get enough of him. John Pellatt, a magic historian who lives in Vancouver and wrote about the visit for a series of articles on the website Canada’s Magic, said this:
“He would be the best at social media if he were alive today. “This guy knew how to get his name out there.”
Master of Escape joins the Vancouver vaudeville circui
In the early 1900s, Houdini was a well-known performer who was known for his escape skills. He went on a vaudeville tour through Europe, the United States, and Canada. Vaudeville was a popular form of live entertainment that included comedy, music, and stunts.
Not only did Houdini perform in the city, but so did Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, and comedian Jack Benny. Benny opened for Houdini on the violin before switching to comedy and having a long career on radio and television.
John Atkin, a civic historian, said that at the time, Vancouver was a busy center for vaudeville. Trains from the middle of the United States went through British Columbia on their way to Seattle. He thinks that there were around 20,000 seats in the city for live vaudeville theater, which was a big draw.
“You had everybody here.”
Houdini was born in Budapest in 1874. He started his career in the 1890s and became famous when he started performing all over Europe in the 1900s. By 1923, he was one of the most famous people on the planet.
During his three-day visit in 1923, from February 28 to March 3, Houdini put on seven afternoon and evening shows at the old Orpheum Theatre at 796 Granville St., where the Pacific Centre mall is now.
Pellatt’s research shows that Houdini’s big trick at these theater shows was called the “water torture cell.” He was locked upside down in a glass cabinet full of water, and he had to hold his breath for more than three minutes while he escaped. A reviewer in The Province said that it was “undoubtedly one of the best performances of the season.”
But the majority of people saw him perform while he was hanging upside down in front of the Vancouver Sun.
“A cheer started up and grew into a roar.
In the week before Houdini’s public show, the Sun ran a series of articles promoting the trick, which it called “unique” even though it was a regular part of the magician’s act.
The paper said that two Vancouver police detectives had promised to put Houdini in a “burglar-proof” escape jacket and pay anyone who could figure out how he got out.
As Houdini was being hung upside down, between 5,000 and 10,000 people came to see if he could get away.
The paper said he “furiously struggled” for 3 minutes and 29 seconds, and when he showed he was free, “a cheer rose and grew into a roar.”
Even though he was just putting on a show, Houdini said that the crowd was “the best outdoor crowd I have ever seen.”
Houdini’s final year
Pellatt says that the visit was part of a trip through several Canadian cities from east to west. A few days before, the same thing had happened in Winnipeg with the magician.
When he did his show in Vancouver, he was 49 years old. He died only three years later when his appendix burst.
Pellatt said that his work still has an effect.
“He was trying to tell us that there are different ways to get out of your own daily limits.” “I think it was a lot like how people’s lives are every day.”
“I think people then and now still need heroes like that to look up to and maybe try to be like.”
