Anyone remember escape artist Chris Chalen? What became of him? He made a name for himself back in the 70s early 80s. He also had a TV special, and sued the late Dick Clark, over an escape stunt performed by the late Steve Baker. Just curious if anyone has any further info?

Hi Red Von, Only last week I was trying to find out more about Chris Chalen on ther net. The last I had heard anything was when Joe Fox LA USA AKA Moxahalla here at the cafe, had said that thought Chris was the brother of another TV drama actor of that time. This would have been back in the late 1990's. I inquired more but Joe didn't want to say. The trail went cold.

Hi Ian, Chris has become a bit of a mystery. I was able to find a few newspaper articles from the 70s. And I remember watching his TV special back in the day (still looking for that footage). Hopefully it surfaces at some point. His legal issues with Dick Clark started over a water tank escape performed by the late Steve Baker on Clark's "Live" Wednesday show. Clark offered a $100,000 to anyone that could escape Baker's water tank. Chalen called Clark (and Baker) on the challenge and things went from there.

Rudi Steffish who wrote a book on escape artists, titled "a dance with Houdini (?) did allege that CC had died of a drug overdose. I have the TV special on VHS but have never seen it offered on modern watchable format. Most linked to the story have died since, Clark, Baker, Rudi and likely Chris.

Yeah, it certainly doesn't help when most of the people in know have past. I never heard anything about the drug overdose. I'll need to dig a little deeper on that. I believe he was from California. Aside from his TV special, Chris appeared (performed) on several talk shows and has a small part as an escape artist in the film Stunt Rock. Any chance you can convert the VHS to DVD format?

And I know his wife's name was Sue and he had a daughter named Shala.

I personally don't have the tech to covert the VHS and due to the demise of my business by my US distributors in 2011, I don't have the funds.

Hi Ian, That is certainly understandable. And a very unfortunate outcome with your US distributors ... and with several others that contributed to the demise of your business, is my understanding. Utterly shameful and a tremendous loss to the escape community!

I just found out that Chris did indeed pass away. I located a friend of his that worked on his TV special-The World's Greatest Escape Artist. He also used the last name Shayland during the later part of his career. It was Chalen during the mid to late 70s.