So, how did the art of escapology, as we know it, begin?

The inspiration of every escapologist in the (western) world today can be traced back to Harry Houdini as it was Houdini who first performed the kind of escaping we know today. This is why I like to call Houdini the father of modern escapology. But Houdini was most definitely not the first person to escape - so, by searching for the things which influenced Houdini, we should be able to find how the art of escapology started.

Obviously, people have been escaping forever – from being captured and tied up by an enemy in war, to planning daring jailbreaks to evade justice. Little evidence remains of the entertainers who first experimented with the concept of escaping on stage, but what we do know comes from the notes of Houdini himself:

I do not claim to have conceived and originated the simple handcuff trick. Every novice in this line knows that it has been done for many years, or so far back, as the lawyers say, “that memory runneth not to the contrary”.

French historians of the stage show that as far back as early 1700, La Tude performed it. Pinetti did chain releases in 1780, and other modern magicians have had it in their programs since 1825. The Sr. Bologna, instructor of John Henry Anderson (The Great Wizard of the North), made a small trick out of it. Anderson placed it among his repertoire the second time he came to America in 1861 and when exposing the Davenport brothers, he made quite a feature of it. In fact, I have an old monthly of 1870 in which a handcuff trick is explained in an article exposing spirit mediums.

Dr. Redmond, who, I hear, is still very much alive in England, made quite a reputation as a rope expert and handcuff manipulator in 1872-3, and I have several interesting bills of his performances.

However, it is safe to say that Houdini uncovered the information about these performers in the later stages of his career when he became obsessed with research. So what was it that initially inspired Houdini to come up with the notion of adding escapes to his magic act?

Well, the answer lies in spiritualism.

In 1848, the Fox sisters discovered a ‘ghost’ in their house…

As the story goes, the house in Hydesville, New York, that the Fox family was staying in was plagued by strange noises that Mrs. Fox, Margarett and Catharine's mother, attributed to a ghost. The girls discovered that if they clapped, the unknown entity would respond with rapping sounds; soon, a complicated rapping system was developed; they had raps for "yes," "no," and each letter of the alphabet. Through this means of communication the spirit identified itself as a man murdered by a former resident of the house, and, as proof, claimed his body was buried in the basement. An excavation of the basement floor by the Fox family later turned up human teeth, hair, and some bones.

The press loved the story, and thus modern spiritualism was born. The Fox sisters produced a stage show which went on tour and as the audiences flocked to see them so other ‘mediums’ sprung up all over the country and eventually, overseas (reaching England just 4 years later). It wasn’t long before some bright spark realised they could make more money by giving a private performance or ‘reading’ and supposedly get in touch with someone’s deceased relatives/friends. Thus the séance was born and objects started materialising, and bells would ring.

But obviously, there were sceptics, who believed that all the manifestations were just clever tricks. Indeed - they were. But this was no set back to the mediums, who combated the cynicism by allowing themselves to be bound with rope…But they would insist on being bound in a way (unknown to the ‘sitters’ or audience) which would enable them to get one hand free, so they could make their manifestations, and then slip the hand back into the rope to give the impression of still being securely bound.

Similarly, techniques for escaping from handcuffs were also developed. The point of manifestations while wearing handcuffs was a little dubious as, to end, the performers would always show that the ‘spirits’ had unlocked the cuffs. If the performer had his hands free, then that explains the banging drums and ringing bells. Nevertheless, the number of people visiting mediums continued to rise.

At the same time, the Davenport brothers (Ira and William), inspired by the success of the Fox sisters, had taken their show to the stage…

They were able to produce sounds from musical instruments which were hung near them in a darkened room, while they were tied up with heavy ropes. In their later, more elaborate display the brothers were tied hand and foot at opposite ends of a giant box, with doors. When the doors were shut, bells were heard to ring, musical instruments inside the box were played and 'spirit hands' appeared at an opening in one of the doors.

However, the Davenport brothers never claimed that these manifestations were caused by spirits, taking escaping a step closer to the form we know today. However, nor did they claim otherwise. In a letter which he wrote to Houdini, long after the Davenports had ceased performing, in 1909, Ira Davenport sat on the fence:

We never in public affirmed our belief in spiritualism, that we regarded as no business of the public, nor did we offer our entertainment as the results of sleight of hand, nor on the other hand as spiritualism, we let our friends and foes settle that as best they could between themselves.

Nevertheless, back in the late nineteenth century, a young Hungarian magician, inspired by these happenings, saw the potential of the escapes as stand-alone entertainment and decided to feature them in his magic act. While he would rather have performed just the magic tricks, he realised the escapes would make him stand out from so many other magicians at the time. This magician was, of course, Harry Houdini, and it was a manager called Martin Beck who advised him to drop the magic and just perform the escapes. And to contrive a date, in my opinion, it was on March 14th 1899 that modern escapology was born…it was the day Beck telegrammed Houdini to say he had a contract on the Vaudeville circuit, performing his stand-alone escape act. Houdini preserved the telegram and later wrote across the bottom, ‘This wire changed my whole Life’s journey.’

And so, I hope I have answered the question I posed to myself at the beginning of this short article: how did the art of escapology, as we know it today, begin?