Houdini was such a hit in Fort Worth he played Cowtown again in 1924, this time, sadly, as the guest of the Ku Klux Klan. Then it was off to perform in Dallas, where he issued the same challenge to the Dallas Police Department, which he also won.
And of course, he won that challenge, too. store to seal him up in one of their packing boxes so well that he couldn’t escape in less than five minutes. That same day he issued a challenge to the packing department of Washer Bros. Lowered to the ground, he smiled and bowed and invited the crowd to come see him at the Majestic. Of course, the Great Houdini did it and in less than five minutes. 13, before a crowd of 4,000 raucous spectators, Police Chief Cullen Bailey and Detective Tom Blanton put Houdini in a straitjacket and handcuffs then other officers hoisted him upside down 50 feet over the pavement. The newspaper gleefully promoted the event as “the skill of the Fort Worth police department matched against the skill of a man who has escaped from everything in the world!” On Thursday afternoon, Jan.
To make things more interesting, Houdini would not only be trussed up but also suspended from the roof of the Star-Telegram building at Throckmorton and Eighth. It was his first appearance in Texas.įort Worth police were no different. That brought him to Fort Worth in 1916, a town of roughly 105,000. Houdini was not as handsome as Tony Curtis who later played him in a movie biopic, but he had a jaunty, daredevil air that was the next best thing to matinee-idol looks - and an adoring fan base that turned out to watch him work his special brand of magic.īy 1916, however, Houdini’s career was going downhill, and he was reduced to touring smaller towns in the heartland where the locals weren’t as jaded as big-city audiences. The self-styled magician and escape artist toured the country putting on spectacular demonstrations of his ability to escape from the seemingly inescapable: padlocked chains, handcuffs, straitjackets, bank vaults, and prison cells. Harry Houdini (1874-1926) was the stage name of Ehrich Weiss, arguably the world’s greatest showman in the early 20th century.
Harry Houdini made two appearances in Fort Worth, one in 1916 and again in 1924.
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