The heart-pounding getaways usually involved a healthy dose of trickery and sleight-of-hand, but they were also fraught with genuine risk. The Hungarian-born escape artist jumped off bridges while handcuffed and wearing leg irons, slithered out of sealed milk cans filled with water, and devised a “Chinese Water Torture Cell” in which he was submerged and suspended upside down by his ankles. 6, 2002.For over 30 years, Harry Houdini dazzled audiences with his bravura stunts and superhuman endurance.

This poster, one of only a handful known, was displayed in the Cincinnati Art Museum from Octo– Jan. Even so, the dramatic nature of the escape and the fact that the secret behind Houdini’s escape from it remained shrouded in mystery for decades after his death contributed to its popularity. The effect was mythologized in the 1953 Paramount biopic of Houdini, featuring Tony Curtis in the title role, as the cause of the great magician’s death, but nothing could be further from the truth. Houdini featured the “upside down,” as it was commonly referred to, for years, and challenged audiences to prove he could somehow obtain air in the cell while submerged. Houdini escaped unharmed at every performance. Though his assistants stood at the ready with fire axes to break the glass were an accident to occur, these heroic measures were never required. Houdini extricated himself from the locked cell after many nerve-wracking minutes had elapsed, after the audience had been instructed to hold its breath along with the magician while he remained submerged. In performance, the magician freed himself from a sturdy tank made of glass, metal, and hardwood, filled with water and outfitted with a set of ankle stocks at its top. This poster is a decidedly dramatic and artistic depiction of the underwater escape Houdini debuted in 1911. Strong fold lines prominent, chipping and wear evident not examined out of frame. Close-up inverted bust portrait of Houdini submerged in the water tank escape device that helped secure his reputation as a great escape artist.

Houdini Upside Down in the Water Torture Cell.

Harry houdini water tank escape