October 31

Harry Houdini (52), Hungarian-American illusionist and escapologist, died. Over the course of a 25-year career Houdini proved that he could escape from anything—from handcuffs and straitjackets to locked mailbags, riveted boilers and sealed crates. But he was much more than an international celebrity. A dedicated professional, he was president of the Society of American Magicians from 1917 until his death, during which time it became the biggest society ever in the history of magic. He was also the scourge of bogus spiritualists, exposing dozens of them by attending séances in disguise, accompanied by a policeman and a reporter, which in turn brought about his famous spat with his one-time friend Arthur Conan Doyle, who insisted that Houdini was a powerful spiritualist medium who was using his gift to sabotage those of other mediums. He made a number of visits to Ireland. In January 1909, whilst appearing in Belfast’s Hippodrome Theatre, the directors of Harland and Wolff had him encased in a large sealed chest made from the same wood they were using to build their latest liner, the ill-fated Titanic. Lowered into the chilly waters of Donegal Quay, he slipped out in a few minutes, leaving the chest intact. Yet he didn’t rule out the possibility of communicating with the departed. Before his death, he and his wife Bess agreed that, if possible, he would communicate from the afterlife with the message ‘Rosabelle believe’, Rosabelle being their favourite song. She duly held annual Hallowe’en séances after his death but without success. In 1936, after the annual event in Chicago’s quaintly named Knickerbocker Hotel, she gave up. ‘Ten years is long enough to wait for any man’, she declared.