"The narrative is so clear it could not have been missed in his day." "These feats were stunts they were also imbued with great symbolism of escape from political and social and religious oppression," Rapaport says.
Rapaport says people at the time would have seen the subtext of a Jewish immigrant from Budapest, the son of a rabbi, struggling to get free. The Houdini exhibit features posters from every stage of his career, each one more and more dramatic: Houdini surrounded by the forces of evil Houdini being handcuffed by a menacing policeman Houdini being choked by a robot Houdini being held underwater by a giant, green monster. Houdini used posters that carried themes of freedom from oppression to promote his acts throughout the world. "If you are a teenager, you want self-liberation above all, and there's Houdini as the perfect shining example of the all-American self-liberator." " is this physical and mental superguy this ultracool James Bond guy that you can strip stark naked and throw into a jail cell and he can get out," he says.
Teller says each generation, from Houdini's to today's, has discovered that there's something elemental about the great magician. "He is the perfect teen idol," says Teller, one half of the comic-magic duo Penn and Teller. There once was a man who could escape from anything … The answer to that question, at least in part, lies in the nature of Houdini's legend, which was so simple that kids are still passing it around the playground. After all, how many popular performers can you name from 1902? Yet more than 80 years after his death, Houdini is still referred to as the greatest magician who ever lived.Ī new exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York, called Houdini: Arts and Magic, looks at the visual legacy of Harry Houdini and how his fame managed to survive.
Harry Houdini was known for escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets and water tanks, but his greatest trick was escaping from the dustbin of history. Born Ehrich Weiss, Harry Houdini, a rabbi's son, emigrated from Budapest to Appleton, Wis., in 1878.Ĭourtesy of The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution
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