Several minutes would go by. Houdini’s helpers on stage acted as if something were wrong. The audience feared that the Great Houdini was drowning. They would yell: “Pull him out. Lift him up. He is dying!”

BARBARA KLEIN: But, of course, he was not dying. Finally, the curtain would drop. Houdini would be standing next to the box, free and unharmed.

Audiences around the world loved this trick so much, Houdini performed it for the rest of his career.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: During Houdini’s lifetime, some people thought it was possible to talk with or somehow communicate with dead people. Houdini hoped this were true. He had loved his mother very much. After she died, he tried to talk with her spirit. But after years of trying, he realized that he was wasting his time. He decided that no one could talk with the dead.

Magician Harry Houdini was also well known for his card tricks.

BARBARA KLEIN: But many other people thought Houdini was wrong. They held meetings, or séances, to try to communicate with the “other world.” Usually, people would sit around a table in a darkened room and hold hands. They would close their eyes. The leader of the group, called a medium, would speak out and ask a spirit to come into the room. Sometimes they asked the spirit to speak to them, or to make some kind of sound. Often, the medium would charge money in order to try to contact the spirits.