We recently played a theatre in Indiana where there was board covering a large hole in the stage floor. We asked the techs what is was from and why it was never replaced and I was shocked at the answer. Apparantly in the early 1920's the hole was cut in the floor prior to Houdini's performance there! It was amazing to stand there onstage and stare at a piece of magic history. Does anybody know what illusion Houdini would have needed to cut in a hole in the stage for?

How big was the hole?

J

Hm. As Jay says...if it was a pretty big hole, yeah.
Though it's been discussed in numerous books, probably shouldn't say much right out here in the open 'n' stuff.
-Philip

It was about 4'x4'

This message has remember me a funny story.
When I started magic I had a master that was an apprentice of Bustelli a fomous italian touring magician during the 1920-1950.
This was one of his lesson:
When you need a trapdoor on the stage don't ask if you can saw the floor. Nobody will say you yes. Simply do it. You will repair it before leave and nobody will say you no.
It is very difficoult to practice today...but this lesson is still true sometimes.
This is why many italian old thatre have strange repair on the stage floor.LOL
Alberto Giorgi

Hi Bill,

I performed in a theater in Northampton, MA with Todd Robbins and Michael Paul for an event last February and there was a similar hole or trap cut into the stage. The people at the theater there also said it was put in for Houdini when he was touring.

Sincerely,
David

I believe Houdini always cut a trap in the stage so he could drain the water from his Torture Cell via a tarp under the stage which usually ran out into the alley.

My grandmother saw him perform the WTC in 1915 and she was told this by some worker at the theatre.

Richard

Might he have also used such a trap when performing his "Walking thru a Brick Wall" Illusion?

andrew

I don't think he would have come out on the other side of the wall if that was the case. To do so he'd have to levitate 12' up from the basement

Anyone care to pull up a review of his shows from that time period? I'm sure it will shine some light on what he was performing at the time. This really isn't difficult to decipher with the right resources.

J

Look up his 1926 Magic show. Girl to Orange Tree is one possibility.

The old stagehands for Thurston would drop a trunk and damage the floor. Thurston would assure the stage manager his carpenter could fix it. And he did with the trap installed. Later when Blackstone played theaters, he often followed Thurston's route as the necessary hole were there for the Levi. Blackstone Jr. pointed them out to me in St. Louis in the American Theater.

Richard

Stairs?

Walking Through a Brickwall was my first thought too.

Mine, too.
We probably shouldn't say more though, should we?

-Philip

Houdini's "Walking through a brick wall" used a wall built atop a canvas tarp to "eliminate the possibility of trap doors." Of course it didn't eliminate the possibility of a trap door, rather it solved the problem you describe above. Walter Gibson's description of the illusion explains it all. BTW, Gibson's books, and the secrets of Houdini's illusions, are available in every public library (and most school libraries) in the United States.

Exactly.

It is cool to hear stories like this. Shows that our magic industry from the beginning artist do pass on from generation to generation.

Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Best,

Walking through a brick wall.

Bill, The Grand Opera House in Oshkosh has a trap door that Houdini Had built also. Michael

Traps in stages, left by those who came before, just go to prove we all travel the same road...

John and I have been working the stage in the Tivoli Music Hall at the Worlds of Fun park for 15 years. That stage has 3 recovered traps cut in it. They were put in by Mark Wilson when he did "The Haunted Theatre" there in 1985. Just a few weeks ago, while taping a TV show in LA, I met Steven Dick, the magic cordinator for the TV show. We got talking and as it turns out he worked the show for Mark Wilson and was the man who cut those traps in the Tivoli stage.

The world does not get any smaller than that.

Ms.M