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Back to Podcast EpisodesHarry Houdini, The World’s First Entertainment Superstar (Part One)
Few personalities have achieved the worldwide fame and popularity of Harry Houdini. Successful in several different media ranging from vaudeville to motion pictures, this performer was also an astute businessman who incorporated both groundbreaking copyright implementation and sensational publicity to establish himself as the first 20th century entertainment superstar.
To garner publicity, Houdini now started to promote himself by slipping handcuffs in police stations after a meticulous search by detectives. In San Francisco, he stripped down to a veritable loin cloth to illustrate that he could not possibly be concealing a key or lock pick. Then police restrained him with at least ten of their own pairs off handcuffs, even going so far as fastening ankle shackles to the wrists with an additional set of cuffs. Houdini was then lifted up and placed in a nearby closet, emerging minutes later with each set of handcuffs removed and now attached together, the magician still practically naked. Publicity photos of Houdini’s scantily clad muscular frame, draped with all nature of restraints became commonplace. Because he could not perform in such a risqué costume, Houdini instead added the wardrobe obstacle of a straitjacket strapped over and under the numerous locks, cuffs and metal restraints he typically employed. This became another of the performer’s trademark routines.
Although Houdini himself provided intense drama for his audience, he personally experienced one of the most dramatic moments of his own life when his mother, Cecelia, died on July 17, 1913. Although all such mother-son relationships are typically close, Houdini had an especially strong maternal bond. Having become a worldwide success, the rock that his family and especially his mother relied upon and an attentive son who lived up to his vow to his dying father, Harry Houdini’s interaction with his mother was a typically Old World relationship. Unlike his behavior with non-family members, which was egotistical, controlling and financially ruthless, Houdini even described himself as a Mama’s Boy and it is has been speculated that his entire career and especially his death defying stunts were nothing more than an attempt to arouse approval, attention but most importantly Cecelia’s concern.