Houdini Defies Death

Summary

HISTORY This Week: "Houdini Defies Death"

Podcast: HISTORY This Week
Air Date: January 19, 2026
Host: Sally Helm
Featured Guest: Joe Posnanski, sports writer & Houdini biographer

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the pivotal moment in 1908 when the legendary magician Harry Houdini, whose career seemed to be fading, reinvented himself and stunned the public with a dangerous new trick: the milk can escape. Through narrative storytelling and an interview with Joe Posnanski, the episode traces Houdini’s journey from Erik Weiss, an immigrant boy fascinated by magic, to global sensation — and probes why Houdini’s name still resonates as the epitome of escape.
Main theme: How Houdini’s personal history, relentless ambition, and calculated risk transformed not only his own career but the world of magic.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins: From Erik Weiss to Harry Houdini

• Houdini was born Erik Weiss in Budapest, Hungary in 1874 and immigrated to Wisconsin at age four ([05:17]).
  • Quote: “Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874.” — Sally Helm ([05:27])
  • He fabricated aspects of his biography, claiming for many years to be born in Appleton, Wisconsin to fit the all-American image ([05:52]).
• After reading the autobiography of French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, Erik adopted the stage name “Houdini” and started performing as part of the “Houdini Brothers” ([07:20]).
  • Quote: “They called themselves the Houdini brothers... just added an I to the end of it.” — Joe Posnanski ([07:20])

2. Struggling Years and Personal Motivation

• Early performances with his brother and later with his wife Bess caused financial strain.
• Houdini’s father’s death at a young age deeply influenced him, driving a relentless self-sufficiency:
  • Quote: “Houdini was very much 'I will provide.' His father... would always... 'the Lord will provide.'” — Joe Posnanski ([11:32])

3. From Run-of-the-Mill Magician to Escape Artist

• The escape act “Metamorphosis” (with Bess) brought a new dimension but didn’t initially lead to financial success ([12:43]).
• In 1899, on the verge of quitting magic, theater owner Martin Beck saw Houdini’s handcuff escape and encouraged him to focus solely on escape artistry ([13:57–14:54]).
  • Quote: “The handcuffs thing is where your future is. If you could turn this into an escape act, people will really get into that.” — Martin Beck (via Joe Posnanski, [14:31])

4. Breakthrough: Fame through Spectacle and Stunt

• Rapid rise on the vaudeville circuit; he crafted publicity stunts and feuds to stoke public interest ([15:02–15:50]).
  • Example: The invented “professor” rivalry to generate buzz ([15:26]).
• Took his new persona to Europe, earning global fame by escaping police manacles in front of authorities and selling out theaters ([16:02–16:20]).

5. Legendary Escapes and the Pursuit of Wonder

• The famous 1904 London Daily Mirror challenge: Houdini took nearly an hour to escape from “unbreakable” handcuffs, captivating thousands ([17:12–20:09]).
  • Quote: “The thing I love about that story... we still don’t know how he did it.” — Joe Posnanski ([19:35])
• “He’d escaped from every imaginable trap... a football, a mailbag, an envelope...” — Sally Helm ([20:20])
• The public gradually grew numb to repeated escapes, prompting Houdini’s need to up the ante ([20:34–20:56]).

6. Defying Death: The Birth of Death-Defying Magic

• By 1908, with career momentum waning, Houdini debuted the “milk can escape” in St. Louis. He would be locked, submerged, and try to escape before running out of air ([23:18]).
  • Quote: “He essentially told the audience, if this goes wrong, this might be the last time I perform.” — Joe Posnanski ([23:45])
  • Audience members were invited to hold their breath in solidarity, building shared tension ([24:04]).
  • After almost three minutes, Houdini burst from the can alive to an “absolutely titanic reaction” ([25:29]).
• Realization: Death must feel imminent for the audience to feel awe and “wonder.”
  • Quote: “This was the moment that he fully began to understand what the role of death needed to be in his act.” — Joe Posnanski ([25:46])

7. Evolving the Death Defying Spectacle

• Milk can escape became the blueprint for ever-more-dangerous acts, culminating in the Chinese Water Torture Cell (1912) ([26:25]).
  • Archival audio of Houdini introducing the new trick ([26:37]).
  • Houdini was suspended upside-down, visible in a glass case full of water ([26:51]).
• Obsession with death intensified after the death of his beloved mother in 1913; he became preoccupied with mortality ([27:21–27:56]).

8. Final Act: Houdini’s Actual Death and Legacy

• Contrary to popular myth, Houdini did not die on stage but of peritonitis following a punch to the abdomen and untreated appendicitis in 1926 ([28:28–29:32]).
  • Quote: “His fatal flaw, his insistence on believing that he's invincible and... to continue... even when his own life is at risk.” — Joe Posnanski ([29:12])
• Houdini’s death on Halloween, combined with his lifelong fascination and rituals around death, cemented his myth ([29:32–30:01]).
• Enduring fascination: Houdini became synonymous with escape, fulfilling a powerful psychological need for freedom, especially during turbulent times ([30:10–30:38]).
  • Quote: “To see this little man step on the stage and escape from handcuffs, it carried a power. And I think it still does.” — Joe Posnanski ([30:10])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Houdini was a real person, but he was also an invented character.” — Sally Helm ([04:45])
• “[Escape] was a difficult time… the idea of escaping was extremely powerful.” — Joe Posnanski ([30:10])
• “And you know what? I think a little part of it is the name, too. That name, Houdini, is a good name.” — Joe Posnanski ([30:47])

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Timeline of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:04–03:54 | Setting the stage: Houdini’s waning popularity in 1908 | | 03:54–07:33 | Houdini's early life: creating a legend | | 10:27–12:43 | Death of Houdini’s father and the beginnings of the “Houdinis” (with Bess) | | 13:32–15:02 | Martin Beck's advice and the escape artist transformation | | 16:02–20:09 | European exploits and the Daily Mirror handcuff challenge | | 23:18–25:40 | The milk can escape: Houdini’s death-defying reinvention | | 26:25–27:21 | The Chinese Water Torture Cell and obsession with death | | 28:28–29:32 | The real story behind Houdini’s death | | 30:01–30:47 | Houdini’s unbeatable legacy and cultural resonance |

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Tone & Style

The tone is energetic and curious, blending suspenseful retelling of Houdini’s stunts with personal insights into his psychology and legacy. The episode combines storytelling, expert interview, and sound design to immerse listeners in history’s most famous escape.

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Summary

This episode traces Harry Houdini’s extraordinary reinvention in 1908—an act of desperation that led to his most iconic escape and redefined stage magic forever. By examining both Houdini’s myth-making and mortal limitations, the podcast reveals why his legacy of wonder, defiance, and the dream of escape still captivates audiences today.

Transcript

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[Richard Deitch]

The History Channel Original Podcast.

[Sally Helm]

History this week, January 25, 1908 I'm Sally Helm. All month there have been ads running in St. Louis Newspapers about a magician who's come to town. Quote the Handcuff King has left a trail of astonishments around the world. No manacles or cells can hold him. Kings and potentates have honored him in all the world. There is no act like his. The Handcuff King is none other than Harry Houdini, and he is indeed one of the best in the world. Everyone knows that he can escape from handcuffs, from crates and boxes. He once escaped from a giant football. Everyone knows it. And so it turns out, they don't really need to come see it. The famous Harry Houdini has been in St. Louis for about two weeks, and he hasn't been filling seats at the Columbia Theater. He hasn't been bringing in big money at the box office. Harry Houdini, it seems, is becoming old news. One night, the theater manager calls him into the office and says, look, Houdini, you've gotta turn this thing around. You need to be bringing in the crowds here. You're supposed to be the best. Houdini is stung. He writes this all down in his diary. Later I told him, I hope you are wrong. We shall see. The following week, Houdini spices up his newspaper ad. He is now the international Jailbreaker and the Handcuff King. And he also promises something else. Quote this last week, new challenges and unheard of escapes from all manner of manacles and enclosures. It sounds like some Advertising mumbo jumbo. But actually, Houdini is planning something. A new trick. On January 25, a Saturday, the audience members file into the Columbia Theater and sit down in their red upholstered seats. And this time, they're not just going to watch Harry Houdini escape from handcuffs. They're going to watch him escape from death itself. Today, how did Eric Weiss become Harry Houdini, a man whose name is now synonymous with magic and escape? And when his career was fading, how did Houdini embrace death to bring it back to life? Joe Posnansky is primarily a sports writer. So why did he end up writing a book about Harry Houdini?

[Richard Deitch]

That's a good question. I was thinking about this idea that's really, for me, a sports idea, which is this question of wonder and what it is that sparks wonder in us.

[Sally Helm]

He says the great athletes of the past definitely sparked that. Wonderful.

[Richard Deitch]

But I don't know if that wonder is still there. We're too cynical or too busy or maybe too intelligent about these subjects. We know too much. I don't know.

[Sally Helm]

So he was thinking about what does still spark wonder or who, and he started thinking about Harry Houdini. Houdini definitely sparked wonder in his own time.

[Richard Deitch]

And even today, when somebody does something extraordinary, we talk about it being like Houdini.

[Ben Dickstein]

And.

[Richard Deitch]

And I was fascinated by this question. Why is it that Harry Houdini has lasted?

[Sally Helm]

Harry Houdini was a real person, but he was also an invented character.

[Richard Deitch]

He wasn't born Harry Houdini. He was born Eric Weiss.

[Sally Helm]

And he didn't just change his name over the course of his life. He also wrote his own story, became whatever he wanted to be.

[Richard Deitch]

So at different times in his life, he. He changed when he was born. He changed where he was born. He changed what his childhood looked like.

[Sally Helm]

Which led to some confusion that lasts even to this day. Like, where was Harry Houdini born?

[Richard Deitch]

Harry Houdini was born in. He was not born in the United States.

[Sally Helm]

He was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. But even an esteemed Harry Houdini biographer like Joe Posnansky can be forgiven for stumbling over this question, because for many.

[Richard Deitch]

Many, many years, none of this was known. Most people would have told you Harry Houdini was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, and that he grew up in this sort of Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer kind of.

[Sally Helm]

Life, because that was an illusion created by Houdini himself, and many people believed it. It took an entire committee at the Society of American Magicians to nail down the documentation in the 1970s and figure out that Houdini was really born in Budapest. And even still, lots of people think he was born in Appleton. He did spend several years there as a child. The young Eric Weiss immigrated to Wisconsin with his family when he was four years old. His father was a rabbi, but he later lost his job. And so the Weiss family moved to New York City's Upper east side. It wasn't a particularly Jewish neighborhood, and Eric's father struggled to find work. He would pace up and down the room in their apartment, muttering over and over, the Lord will provide. As he got older, Eric started to show some interest in magic. Simple coin tricks and card tricks. And then he got his hands on a the Autobiography of Robert Udon. H O U D I N. He was then the most famous magician in history. Reading his story, Eric realizes that magic could be more than a passing interest. At the time, he's working at a necktie factory as an assistant necktie cutter. One of his co workers shares his interest in magic, and the two of them decide to start their own act.

[Richard Deitch]

And they called themselves the Houdini brothers because they thought Robert Houdin pronounced his last name Houdin. And they just added an I to the end of it. And that's how they wandered into one of the great names in the history of show business.

[Sally Helm]

Eric Weiss is now Harry Houdini. You could call it his first great escape.

[Ben Dickstein]

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[Richard Deitch]

Hey, this is Richard Deitch, the host of the Sports Media podcast. If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the sports media podcast has you covered. I've been turning down interviews all week. Koda Kapi reached out. Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said no. I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility.

[Ben Dickstein]

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Sally Helm]

So the brothers Houdini begin their performances. Card tricks, disappearing handkerchiefs, reappearing flowers. And then tragedy strikes. Houdini's father dies after a failed operation. Rabbi Weiss is young and poor and Houdini doesn't want to end up that way himself. He's 18 at the time and he decides to really double down on his career.

[Richard Deitch]

I don't want to psychoanalyze Houdini because I certainly don't have the ability to do it. But it is striking how different his life was from his father's life. Like his father was someone who he was very much head in the clouds. Houdini was an action guy and his father, you know, really struggled, never could really find a job. Houdini never stopped working. His father would always the thing with him was this notion, the Lord will provide. I mean, he was deeply religious in that way. And that is exactly the opposite of the way Houdini carried on. Houdini was very much I will provide.

[Sally Helm]

In the summer of 1894, Harry meets Bess Raynor, a singer and dancer performing in the show the Floral Sisters.

[Richard Deitch]

They got married very young and they got married very quickly.

[Sally Helm]

And soon the brothers Houdini gave way to a new act, the Houdinis. Bess and Harry performed together. And this period is when Harry adds his first escape act to the show, a trick called Metamorphosis. It went like this.

[Richard Deitch]

Harry Houdini would tell the audience, okay, I've got this trunk here, and now I'm going to go into this trunk. And they would tie him up and they would put chains on him.

[Sally Helm]

Importantly, as he went into the Metamorphosis trunk, he'd grab a jacket from someone in the audience and put it on. Then he'd get locked in.

[Richard Deitch]

And then Bess, she would look to the audience and she would say, okay, watch quickly for the effect. And she would count to three while clapping. One, two. And then she would pull up a curtain and then go, three. But it would be Harry who was saying three. And then there would be Harry Houdini. Then they would go into the trunk and open it up, and it would be Bess in there wearing the jacket of the person in the crowd.

[Sally Helm]

Bess somehow instantly got into this locked trunk and into that jacket. The trick was impressive, but for the Houdinis, it didn't translate into financial success.

[Richard Deitch]

There was never enough money. They would go from dime store museums, which were just these off, off, off off Broadway type of theaters. He's performing Metamorphosis on some days, he's performing it 20 or 25 times a day.

[Sally Helm]

This continues for nearly five years. And over that time, Houdini adds a few more escape tricks to the act, like getting out of handcuffs. But he's basically a standard issue magician, and that's not paying the bills. By 1899, Harry is ready to quit.

[Richard Deitch]

Bess wanted him to quit, and he's so ready to quit that he actually puts out a little magic pamphlet where he is offering to sell everything, all of his secrets. He's going to get out of magic and might have if anybody had been willing to pay him a dime for what he knew. But nobody was. So Harry Houdini couldn't even sell the secrets that would later make him, you know, one of the most famous people in the world.

[Sally Helm]

Harry and Bess are pretty sure that their magic careers are coming to an end. But they still have some shows booked, including a run in St. Paul, Minnesota. One night, a prominent theater owner named Martin Beck comes out to see the show. And when he sees Harry do the get out of handcuffs trick, he's intrigued. When he comes back the next night, he brings three pairs of handcuffs and challenges Houdini to break out of them. Houdini gets out of all three. So Beck invites the Houdinis to dinner.

[Richard Deitch]

According to Bess and Harry Martin, Beck was unsparing in his criticism of the act. He says, you, magic is not great. You know, it's fine. It's just. It's run of the mill. But this handcuffs thing you do, that's pretty good. The handcuffs thing is where your future is. If you could turn this into an escape act, people will really get into that.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini takes this to heart. It helps that Beck books the Houdinis on the vaudeville circuit for the first time in their careers.

[Richard Deitch]

And really, almost instantly, Houdini becomes a thing. Because now that Houdini was performing in front of real vaudeville audiences, he was able to get pressed. Nobody got pressed the way Houdini did one of the cool things and ridiculous things he did in San Francisco. He essentially invented a feud with a person who may or may not have existed.

[Sally Helm]

This person, the professor, was supposedly calling Houdini a fraud, talking smack about his handcuff trick in newspapers across the country.

[Richard Deitch]

And Houdini responded like, how dare you, you know, do this? And created this feud. And eventually, you know, the professor had to apologize. I mean, it was like this. It's like a worldwide wrestling thing, you know, where he just created this whole story.

[Sally Helm]

But just about a year after he becomes a celebrity in the U.S. houdini decides it's not enough.

[Richard Deitch]

He throws it all away so he can go to Europe and become a bigger star.

[Sally Helm]

In Europe, no one knows who Harry Houdini is. By this point, he has fully embraced his role as an escape artist. But the audiences in Europe are like, what exactly is an escape artist?

[Richard Deitch]

Nobody knew what this was. What is this guy even doing?

[Sally Helm]

So Houdini had to drum up publicity, which, of course, he was great at. He made some news when he claimed to have broken out of handcuffs at London's famous Scotland Yard. The story is believable enough that promoters book him on the biggest stages in London and soon on the entire continent. Houdini travels around Europe, selling out theaters and breaking out of boom police stations in most major European cities. In Berlin, he escapes from a series of handcuffs in front of 300 police officers in under six minutes, completely naked. In Russia, he's said to have performed for royalty and to have broken out of a Russian traveling jail. One of his most famous ever escapes took place during this period in London in 1904.

[Richard Deitch]

So the story goes, a writer for the Daily Mirror went to his boss and said, you know what we should do? We should find handcuffs that Houdini cannot escape from.

[Sally Helm]

The editor says, sure. And so this writer, Will Bennett, finds a pair of unbreakable handcuffs. A blacksmith in Birmingham has spent five years perfecting them.

[Richard Deitch]

These handcuffs are the kind where they're unpickable, because in order to unlock them, you have to turn this long key, very long key, into the lock, and then you have to turn and twist more than one way back and forth several times before they will unlock. So it's not possible to pick them.

[Sally Helm]

This writer puts the challenge to Houdini. Try and get out of these handcuffs. Houdini agrees, and thousands of people come out to the London Hippodrome to watch the attempted escape.

[Richard Deitch]

They put the handcuffs on Houdini, and Houdini says, I cannot promise you, but I will do my best to escape from these.

[Sally Helm]

Then he goes behind a tent on the stage. He always performed his stage escapes behind a tent. He called it his ghost house.

[Richard Deitch]

And the band is playing, and everybody's just staring at this tent.

[Sally Helm]

This was the state of Entertainment in 1904.

[Richard Deitch]

Then he comes out, and the crowd goes crazy, but the handcuffs are still on him. And he says, I needed some light, so I just wanted to come out and get some light.

[Sally Helm]

He goes back into the tent for a second time.

[Richard Deitch]

A while later, he comes back out, and everybody goes crazy. The handcuffs are still on him. And he says, I need some water and a pillow.

[Sally Helm]

He gets the water, gets the pillow, goes back into the tent for a while.

[Richard Deitch]

He comes out a third time. This is 45 minutes into. The actual handcuffs are still on him. And he says, I'm very hot. Can you take these handcuffs off for a minute so I can take off my jacket? And the Daily Mirror reporter says, I'm sorry, Mr. Houdini, I cannot take off the handcuffs. You will see how they unlock. If you admit defeat, then I will take them off. But otherwise, I have to ask you to keep performing.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini says, fine.

[Richard Deitch]

And he somehow reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pocket knife with his mouth.

[Sally Helm]

Then he uses his own knife to shred his own jacket. He cuts it right off.

[Richard Deitch]

And everybody in the audience is going crazy, just going absolutely crazy. And then he goes back into the tent. And 15 minutes later, he comes out and he's free. It's this legendary thing, the thing I love about that story. Hundred and what, fourteen, sixteen years later, we still don't know how he did it. And people have studied it. Magicians have made their theories. Probably some of them have come close, or maybe Even gotten it, we don't know. But we really still don't know how he did it.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini returns to the US from touring in Europe in 1905, and he is now this renowned escape artist. Over the next several years, he's escaped.

[Richard Deitch]

From every imaginable trap that any human could conceive, right? He'd escape from a football. He'd escape from a mailbag. He'd escape from an envelope. He'd escaped from glass boxes and wooden boxes and metal boxes.

[Sally Helm]

But eventually, people get used to the idea that Houdini can escape from anything. So they stop paying as much attention. The thrill is gone.

[Richard Deitch]

And Houdini, he was super sensitive to the idea of becoming old news, that he would become, you know, Harry Houdini. Remember him?

[Sally Helm]

By 1908, ticket sales are flagging and Houdini has to raise the stakes. He wants to escape from something that even the great Harry Houdini shouldn't be able to escape from on the stage. He's going to defy death itself.

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[Sally Helm]

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[Sally Helm]

Today on January 25, 1908, at the Columbia Theater in St. Louis, Houdini adds a new trick to revive his sputtering career. It's called the milk can escape. The milk can is essentially a large metal container and it's filled to the brim with water. Houdini brings it out on stage.

[Richard Deitch]

He essentially told the audience, if this goes wrong, this might be the last time I perform.

[Sally Helm]

He's going to climb into the water filled can and then try to escape before he runs out of air. To demonstrate how hard this is going to be, he invites the audience to join him in a challenge.

[Richard Deitch]

Hold your breath with me. Let's hold our breath for a minute.

[Sally Helm]

They take a collective deep breath.

[Richard Deitch]

And of course, as time went on, you would hear everybody in the audience gasping as they couldn't hold their breath any longer.

[Sally Helm]

Then Houdini climbs into the camp. Water sloshes over the sides.

[Richard Deitch]

And then they pour more water on.

[Sally Helm]

Top of him just to make sure the can is completely full.

[Richard Deitch]

All of this is so visually beautiful, you know, or haunting, whatever the case may be.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini's assistants place a lid on the milk can, lock it and cover it with chains.

[Richard Deitch]

And then it goes behind a curtain. And then people are just waiting.

[Sally Helm]

90 seconds pass. No Houdini. Most people in the room know from holding their breath that they couldn't make it this long. Houdini's assistant, Franz Kukel, walks onto the stage with a fire axe. He puts his ear to the curtain, listening for signs of life.

[Richard Deitch]

At this point, people are. They're sure that he's dead.

[Sally Helm]

Two minutes go by, then three. Franz Kugel raises his ax, ready to bring up the curtain and break open the milk can when Houdini emerges soaking wet.

[Richard Deitch]

And the reaction was titanic. Just an absolutely titanic reaction. You would have people in the audience crying. You'd have people in the audience hugging each other.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini knows that this kind of escape is his future.

[Richard Deitch]

This was the moment that he fully began to understand what the role of death needed to be in his act. I think he'd always been fascinated, haunted by death, maybe because he lost his father when he was young, but this was very much A turning point for.

[Sally Helm]

Him, escaping from death becomes a regular part of Houdini's act.

[Richard Deitch]

Historians of magic revolution would tell you that Houdini did not really invent any of this. But what they would all, I think concede is that Houdini took it to a different level. He had to go to the next thing he had to do. More, more, more.

[Sally Helm]

In 1912, the milk can routine evolves into the Chinese water torture cell illusion. The only known audio that exists of Houdini is actually of him introducing this trick.

[Richard Deitch]

Ladies. Ladies and gentlemen, I take great pleasure in introducing my latest invention, the water tortoiselle.

[Sally Helm]

Houdini would be suspended upside down in a glass case filled with water. So the danger is visible and the audience knows you're not going to watch.

[Richard Deitch]

Somebody die right in front of your eyes. Not going to happen. He's performed it hundreds and hundreds of other times, but it doesn't matter. That feeling of seeing someone in the water, no breathing, trying desperately to escape. It's such a powerful image.

[Sally Helm]

In 1913, as Houdini is becoming obsessed with escaping death. His beloved mother dies of a stroke. When Houdini hears the news, he's so upset that he passes out. And in the following years, he becomes fascinated by death in a new way.

[Richard Deitch]

He would start wandering cemeteries. He would read the stories of the people on their tombstones, and he would write diary entries that were very ghoulish almost. Death became a huge part of his thinking in his life.

[Sally Helm]

Over time, he adds more death defying tricks. He gets out of a sealed crate submerged in a body of water. In 1915, he attempts to bury himself alive, but that proves too risky, even for him. And then finally, in 1926, death comes for Houdini himself. Lots of people think that Houdini died during a trick because that's how it happens in a famous Houdini movie. But actually, it was off stage, and.

[Richard Deitch]

He was in his dressing room when a couple of college kids came to interview him.

[Sally Helm]

And one of them is like, I hear you think you can take a punch from anybody. Houdini had issued this famous challenge, but on this day, he said, yeah, I.

[Richard Deitch]

Don'T want to do that now. The guy kept insisting, and finally Houdini says, okay. And he starts to get up. And while he's getting up, before he has a chance to really clench his muscles, the guy punches him several times in the stomach until Houdini finally says, enough. And from what anybody can tell, the conversation kind of went on from there. It wasn't like Houdini was mad or anything like that.

[Sally Helm]

And in the following days, he keeps working, even though the pain is getting worse and worse.

[Richard Deitch]

His fatal flaw, his insistence on believing that he's invincible and his insistence on continuing to go long after it makes any sense to continue to work, continue to perform. He needs the stage. He needs the audience. He needs to be Houdini, even when his own life is at risk.

[Sally Helm]

When Houdini does finally go to the hospital, he learns that he has severe appendicitis, possibly brought on or made worse by the punch he received days earlier. And this time, there is no escape. He dies a few days later of an infection on Halloween. Almost immediately, people begin to immortalize him.

[Richard Deitch]

There have always been people who are so fascinated by him that they continue.

[Sally Helm]

Telling his story because he tapped into something that we all care about.

[Richard Deitch]

He sort of discovered how fascinated we are by escape. It was a difficult time in the United States. In Europe, war was going on, and the idea of escaping was extremely powerful. And, you know, to see this little man step on the stage and escape from handcuffs, it carried a power. And I think it still does. I think the idea of escaping is still very, you know, much in our minds.

[Sally Helm]

That's why Houdini has stuck around and why when we think of magic and we think of escape, we still think of him.

[Richard Deitch]

And you know what? I think a little part of it is the name, too. That name, Houdini, is a good name.

[Sally Helm]

Thanks for listening to History this week. For more moments throughout history that are also worth watching, check your local TV listings to find out what's on the History Channel today. This episode was produced by Ben Dickstein. History this Week is also produced by McKamey, Lynn, Julie McGruder, and me, Sally Helm. Our editor and sound designer is Dan Rosado, and our researcher is Emma Fredericks. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz and Ted Butler. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review History this Week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we will see you next week.