STEVE EMBER: When he was nine years old, he performed a trapeze act on a swing high above the audience. He was “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.” Then he read about a famous French magician named Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. It changed his life. Erich took Houdin’s last name, changed the pronunciation and added and “i” at the end. He then began learning magic tricks, and called himself Harry Houdini. He took his act to many places in New York State. For a while, he worked in a traveling circus.

BARBARA KLEIN: At first, Houdini performed regular magic tricks, using cards, coins, and other objects that he would make disappear. But the audience seemed to like it best when Houdini performed an escape. He soon became famous for being able to free himself from danger.

Most of the time, his wrists would be held together by handcuffs. Sometimes chains would be wrapped around his body and locked. At other times, he wore a straightjacket, like the kind used in mental hospitals to restrain patients. He once escaped from a straightjacket while hanging high in the air, upside down, from a crane.

Houdini escaped from milk cans. He escaped from the strongest jails in the United States. No one ever found a pair of handcuffs that would hold him.

STEVE EMBER: But Houdini’s most famous escape was called “The Chinese Water Torture.” First, his feet were locked together. Then he was lowered, upside down, into a glass box filled with water. A curtain was placed in front of the box so the audience could not see how the trick was done.