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Houdini's Final Show in Detroit Haunts the City 100 Years Later

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Entertainment Desk

In Short: On October 31, 1926, Harry Houdini died in Detroit, and his spirit continues to haunt the city a century later.

Harry Houdini, the legendary magician, died in Detroit on October 31, 1926, after performing his final show at the Garrick Theatre. Despite being advised by his doctor to cancel his shows and rest in Montreal, Houdini traveled to Detroit to fulfill his contract.

Houdini performed in Detroit 19 times between 1894 and 1926, reflecting the arc of his career from an unknown performer to a superstar. His final show, a '3 Shows In One' revue, was held at the Garrick Theatre on October 24, 1926.

In 1906, Houdini jumped from Detroit's Belle Isle Bridge into the frigid Detroit River, handcuffed and bound, showcasing his death-defying feats. He continued to push the boundaries of his performances, even as his health declined.

Houdini was under financial pressure to fulfill his contract in Detroit, according to Jeremy Dimick, a curator at the Detroit Historical Museum. He refused to cancel the series of shows already scheduled.

Bess Houdini, his wife, always stood in the wings during his shows, ready to help if he couldn't get out. In a 2004 interview with NPR, Mrs. Young, Bess's assistant, revealed this secret code.

Houdini's final performance was marked by a series of events that led to his death. He was punched in the stomach by a student, J. Gordon Whitehead, during a lecture in Montreal, which may have contributed to his health issues.

Despite the punches, Houdini continued with the show in Detroit. A surgeon later told Yale University Press that no causal link had been found between the trauma and his appendicitis, suggesting it was a coincidence.

Houdini's legacy continues to influence generations of magicians and people around the world, especially in Detroit. Magician Eric Bedard of Windsor noted that Houdini set the bar for magic.

The American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan, houses a milk can from Houdini's workshop, which has been used in several séances. John Sherwood, a curator, said, 'That is the Houdini milk can.'

Houdini's death has inspired numerous myths and stories. One widespread myth, created by a 1953 film, portrayed Houdini as unable to escape the water torture cell in time to save his own life.

Houdini's impact on Detroit is still felt today. The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum is bringing back the Harry Houdini Séance, acknowledging the city's connection to Houdini's legacy.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• On Oct. 22, 1926, Harry Houdini, the greatest showman of his era, was resting on a divan in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal when he was visited by three university students who had attended his lecture earlier in the week.
• On October, 24, Houdini performed his "3 Shows In One" revue at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, located at 1120 Griswold, right at the intersection of Lafayette and Michigan Avenue.
• It reported he actually was "tied by a lifeline 113 feet long, handcuffed … Houdini … leapt from the draw span of the Belle Isle Bridge at one o’clock this afternoon, freed himself while underwater, then swam to a waiting lifeboat, passed over the unlocked and open cuffs and clambered aboard."
• He had been exposing them as frauds just before his death.
• "He had a life insurance [policy] of $25,000," Dreyer said.
• "There’s plenty of room for speculation, for conspiracy theories, and so it continues," Houdini historian and biographer John Cox told Fox News Digital.
• He changed his name to “Harry Houdini” when he launched his magical career and quickly became the biggest vaudeville star in the country.
• We finally had a couple more Michiganders in recent years: John Sturk—who was born in Detroit, raised in Plymouth, and graduated from Michigan State —served as the SAM president from 2023-24.
• Houdini was 52 years old when he did his final performance, and according to a review in the Detroit News, the show at the Garrick was broken up into three acts.
• Houdini came dangerously close to death in 1915 while performing a trick in which he was bound and buried beneath six feet of soil.
• On Halloween 1926, Harry Houdini died in Detroit at 52.
• The bizarre chain of events that led to Houdini’s demise began on 11 October 1926.

What's still developing

• Sometimes the buildings housed a local newspaper, ensuring free publicity for Houdini's upcoming stage shows.
• 31, 1926, and his spirit still haunts the Motor City.
• As his fame grew, and a series of other magicians began copying his escapes, Houdini ramped up the stakes, stacking one increasingly death-defying feat on top of another.
• "And to think those boys didn't give him a chance to get himself protected."
• "Houdini was laid out here by the Hamilton Funeral Home, in this room here," Hammond said on a tour in 2004.
• "Some say, 'I'm not going back to the kitchen because I might see Houdini,'" she said.
• "I always watched because it was very exciting!"
• He earned his reputation by freeing himself from traps that seemed impossible for a mere mortal to survive.But Houdini couldn't escape the ultimate fate waiting for him in Detroit on Oct.
• “I used to work on cruise ships and stage shows, and if you ever said to anybody in the audience, ‘Name a magician,’ nobody said (David) Copperfield, nobody said David Blaine. People yelled out, ‘Harry Houdini,’ because he set the bar for magic,” said magician Eric Bedard, of Windsor.
• “It turned out that all of his shows in Detroit, he performed in Detroit 19 times between 1894 and 1926, kind of reflect in miniature the whole arc of his career from when he was at the bottom of bills and nobody knew who he was, all the way through this kind of superstardom he achieved in the 1920s,” Dimick said.
• Jeremy Dimick, director of collections and curatorial at the Detroit Historical Society, said he became fascinated with Houdini as a kid after seeing the 1953 biopic starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
• Magician Christopher Bogucki, aka The Big Icky, shows his collection of Harry Houdini memorabilia Oct. 14 at the Wunderground Magic Shop he manages in Clawson.

Sources

• Aish.comlink
• C & G Newspaperslink
• FOX 2 Detroitlink
• Fox Newslink
• Fox32Chicagolink
• Hungarian Conservativelink
• Michigan Enjoyerlink
• NPRlink
• News9link
• Peoplelink
• Petaluma Argus-Courierlink
• Pjmedialink
• Warpbeatlink
• East Bay Timeslink
• WarpBeat — background on Houdini's Final Show Haunts Detroit 100 Years Later link
• WarpBeat — background on Harry Houdini's Final Detroit Show Haunts the City 100 Years Later link
• MotorCityAyesha — video link