Today most people know it as The Water Torture Cell.īut this has now sparked a lively discussion at the Genii forum. I understood the point, and even though the escape was billed as 'The Chinese Water Torture Cell' for much of the 14 years Houdini performed it, it was originally just The Water Torture Cell and Houdini himself called it the Upside Down or USD. 'Let's celebrate the showmanship etc and leave off the misplaced racist stuff, please,' read the message in part. The reason was that in my headline and in the article I had used the full name of the escape, The Chinese Water Torture Cell. Some of his most famous acts include escaping from the belly of a deceased whale, swallowing 100 needles and pulling them back out his mouth, escaping from murderer's row, where he switched prisoners around in their cells and escaping from a weighted box in New York's East River, according to Parcast.This morning I awoke to find a message at the Genii forum from a reader who had taken offense to my article about the 100 year history of the Water Torture Cell.

He attempted and succeeded in hundreds of dangerous routines that have set a nearly unachievable standard for magicians today. While many call Houdini a magician, he preferred to call himself a performer. The illusionist performed on October 24, despite being told by a doctor he could have appendicitis and was hospitalized immediately after the show.

That night, Houdini began to speak of stomach cramps. He was sitting on a couch because of his broken ankle when five blows were delivered to his abdomen. He finished the show with a broken ankle.Īt a show in Montreal on October 22 1926, he agreed to be punched in the gut multiple times when a student asked if he could resist the pain. During a show on October 11, 1926, Houdini was hit by a piece of equipment while being restrained in his Chinese Water Torture Cell. It's believed his death may have been sparked by a series of events beginning on October 11, 1926, The History Channel claimed.

Houdini's death may not have been so sudden, though the illness that plagued him hit quickly. It noted he was a man who 'so often had seemed to thousands to be cheating the very jaws of death.' An obituary published in the New York Times spoke for America in the wording of Houdini's death-defying greatness. When Houdini died, the country was shocked. Magician Harry Houdini's gravesite is pictured 23 March, 2007, in the Queens borough of New York.

Harry houdini water torture cell