Hardeen likes to say, Houdini, a Hungarian, who moved to the U.S. Hardeen said that because of the show, he has learned a lot about Houdini, more than even his father had told him, because of collectors and others who know more about Houdini than Hardeen would ever know. Hardeen said when Houdini died at age 52, he looked pretty old because of those stresses. He took great care of himself, because he had to.” He had to hold his breath for long periods of time. “The metal from the handcuffs eating into his skin. “He had to train himself, his body, like a prize fighter because of the stresses he was putting on himself,” Hardeen said. He ran 10 miles a day and went to the local YMCA to work out. ![]() Houdini rolled coins on his fingers to keep his fingers nimble. It was only later in life that he became an … escapologist.”Įscape artist Harry Houdini is shown in chains in this photo circa 1899. In his early career he was known as the King of Cards, he would do card tricks. “He was like a kid who would take the radios apart to figure out how things worked,” Hardeen said. One answer is that whenever Houdini was handcuffed, after he escaped, he would take the handcuffs and he would take them apart. The question still remains, how did Houdini escape from all the tricks that he attempted? Houdini’s secrets can’t be revealed because only Houdini knows what they are.” We had to figure it out ourselves, how could our magician escape. “We didn’t have that, that was destroyed in the fire, it didn’t exist. “There is where the secret is, of course,” Hardeen said. Hardeen said it was built like a piece of fine furniture and nobody except his assistants got to see or handle the stocks where his feet went. He had his water torture cell built to his specifications in England. “We know this for certain, Houdini’s stuff was far, far more elaborate. “We are looking at his apparatus and redesigning it ourselves,” Hardeen said. Hardeen stresses that everyone involved in the show did not know how Houdini actually escaped from his illusions. The show’s producers, Hardeen, Terbosic and Wolf had to reinvent some of the tricks themselves and make sure they worked and that Terbosic could escape from them. “Houdini did buried alive one time in California and he almost died,” Hardeen said. “Because it was so dangerous and actually killed one of Houdini’s friends…,” Hardeens said. There is also the bullet catch and some history on the controversy of whether Houdini actually performed the trick. “Sometimes it would take him hours, with fainting in the audience,” Hardeen said. He would be hanging from stocks that would sit on top of the cell and they would be padlocked. He would hang upside down, lowered into a tank of water. Some of the tricks that the show will look at are the water torture cell, which Hardeen said Houdini called the upside down. Throughout the years, despite being contacted often, Hardeen generally has not answered all the phone calls and inquiries about Houdini, but now, he finds he is having fun. “Somehow Houdini’s name and the legend have remained alive throughout time,” Hardeen said. Hardeen said that Houdini fascinates people and most people know who he is even though he died on Halloween in 1926. ![]() The public, at that point, didn’t even realize they were brothers.” To the public they were competing magicians. ![]() What is not reported in the TV show is that they competed against each other cooperatively. “They were partners, ever since they were kids, until Houdini until he got married and then his wife became his partner,” Hardeen said. George Hardeen, who works on the Navajo Nation near Page, Arizona recently revealed he is the great nephew of Harry Houdini.
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