Luckily, the metal frame survived and the cell was restored by illusion builder John Gaughan. The cell remained in the Radner basement until 1971 when it was put on display at The Houdini Magical Hall of Fame, which sadly later burned to the ground. RELATED: Neil Patrick Harris asks the Tanked team to recreate Houdini's Water Torture Cell Despite Houdini's instructions for it to be 'burned and destroyed' upon Hardeen's death, his brother gave the cell to Houdini collector Sidney Hollis Radner in the 1940s. No true measurements for the chamber itself exist, and the men had no access to Houdini's original prop.Īfter Houdini's death, the chamber was willed to his brother Theodore Hardeen (George's uncle). To understand just how he achieved the illusion, Hardeen, Terbosic and Wolf set about making their own water torture chamber, though this was not going to be a simple task. The team working to understand Houdini's illusions on Houdini's Last Secrets.

But of course, at the end of the two minutes, the magician would emerge miraculously from behind the curtain, dripping wet and panting, to the audience's amazement.

The illusion itself consists of three parts, as we are told in Houdini's Last Secrets: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks that bind his legs together in heavy wood and a solid steel lock next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace finally, he is lowered into a glass tank overflowing with water, and the chamber door is locked with steel locks to the top of the chamber.Īfter that, the chamber was then wheeled behind a screen, and an accompanying orchestra would play eerie music for two entire minutes while the audience waited for Houdini to drown. Houdini was famed for being able to escape any kind of binding.

Houdini magic tricks revealed