Escapology

In 1893, Houdini met Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner, an eighteen-year-old aspiring dancer and singer. Although Bess was a devout Catholic, she and Houdini married in 1894, and they formed an act called The Houdinis. Their happy marriage and partnership lasted until his death. In 1895, Houdini began experimenting with escapology, particularly handcuff and prison escapes in local police stations. The turning point came in 1899, when tycoon Martin Beck was so impressed by the handcuff act that he booked The Houdinis for his Orpheum vaudeville circuit. In 1900, the Houdinis traveled to Europe, where Harry became a celebrated international star. A highlight was his escape from handcuffs and other restraints at Scotland Yard. His theater engagements throughout Europe were always sold out. He challenged local police in each city, and always escaped their constraints and prison cells. In 1904, at the London Hippodrome, Houdini performed his famous mirror escape from cuffs with nesting locks that were impossible to pick. It had taken a locksmith five years to make the special handcuffs. Houdini became known as the King of Handcuffs, and he established escapology by itself as a total act. In 1906, he made the highly publicized escape from the prison cell once occupied by Charles Guiteau, President James A. Garfield's assassin. In Rochester, New York, in 1907, Houdini performed his first manacled bridge jump. In 1908, he performed the famous oversize milk can escape, in which he…