He went on to become the most famous escape artist of his day, captivating massive audiences by escaping during stage performances from the glass Chinese Water Torture Cell while suspended upside down and confined by a straightjacket. Richards crowing achievement has been to build a virtually exact working replica of Houdinis Chinese Water Torture Cell. After a stint as a circus performer in the 1890s he become a magician and changed his name as a tribute to the French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. The cell, made of wood and glass, was barely large. Harry Houdini, who was born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest in 1874, immigrated with his family to rural Appleton, Wisconsin when he was a child. In 1911, Harry Houdini invented a device known as the Chinese water torture cell, which he used in his act. We integrate historic posters, broadsides, photographs, film and Houdini’s magic apparatus with contemporary pieces,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, the curator of the exhibit at the Manhattan museum. “The show is an interdisciplinary exhibition. Houdini performed his incredible illusion for audiences of all sizes from the years of 1912 to 1926, sometimes performing the trick multiple times in a single day. The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini.

“Houdini: Art and Magic,” which opens on Friday at The Jewish Museum, will feature a recreation of the Chinese Water Torture Cell, which Houdini used to enthrall huge audiences with his daring, death-defying escapes.

Houdini chinese water torture cell