To escape from the torture cell, he had to hold his breath for more than three minutes. To make the challenge even more difficult, the cabinet had a cage in it, which made Houdini unable to turn around. With his feet locked in stocks, he was submerged into a glass cabinet full of water. As part of the act, first he was suspended by his feet upside down. He first performed the act in 1912, but it was such a crowd-pleaser that he kept performing it until his death in 1926. Houdini’s most famous and daring act was known as the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Just seconds after the box submerged, he would emerge from under the water, free of all the shackles, to the great amazement of the thousands of people who would watch the act. During a typical performance, he would be chained and locked in a box that was dropped into deep water. His death-defying acts included extricating from shackles, ropes, and handcuffs. In the 1900s he gradually became known across America for his sensational escape acts. In 1894 he married to Wilhelmina Rahner, who was his stage assistant throughout his career under the pseudonym Beatrice. At a very early age, Houdini started to perform in circuses, first as a trapeze artist. He was born in Budapest on 24 March 1874 as Erik Weisz, son of a rabbi who soon after Houdini’s birth emigrated to the United States with his family. Harry Houdini (1874, Budapest – 1926, Detroit) was an American magician and illusionist of Hungarian origin.
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