Word: houdini
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...world's greatest escape artist, of course, was Harry Houdini. He died 51 years ago today--on Halloween in 1926. It was only fitting that the Mysteriarch, as he was known, chose All Hallows Eve to escape from this life: dying on this day was Houdini's last publicity stunt, and one of his best. Always exit with a flourish, as the show biz types...
...fact, one might almost expect Houdini's specter to pop up somewhere on Halloween, among the trick or treaters. For certainly, Houdini was not a man who could easily be forgotten. No jail cell could hold him, no locks or chains could confine him. Houdini released himself thousands of times from every known physical restraint, often purposely putting his life in danger to dramatize the escapes. He was certainly no slouch: why escapes from a strait jacket standing upright when you can do it hanging by your ankles from a flagpole, 100 feet above a New York street, with thousands...
...course, escaping was Houdini's business. The publicity stunts and the spectacular escapes he performed were designed to keep his name before the public, and to keep the vaudeville audiences flocking to see him. And the tactics worked: Houdini set attendance records wherever he played, and attracted constant public attention. His name even became a word, coined by Funk and Wagnall's dictionary in 1920: "Houdinize: to release or extricate oneself from, as by wriggling...
Milbourne Christopher, a recognized experton Houdini, points out that the key to the Escape King's success was challenge: "His reputation was always on the line." Locksmiths, jailers and packing-box makers all came to test his powers, convinced that they had a lock or a crate that could hold him. He defeated them all, but there was always the possibility that he might fail...
...Houdini's success was based on more than defiance of the establishment; he seemd to defy fate itself. In 1916, for instance, Houdini narrowly escaped from a box buried six ft. underground. (Once free, he had to dig his way to the surface.) Another of his death-defying tricks was the Chinese Water Torture Cell: padlocked by the ankles in a glass-fronted water tank, Houdini hung upside down, but would make his escape within harrowing minutes. (He did not die doing this stunt, despite the efforts of Hollywood producers to make people think...