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Handcuffs, Shackles and a Straitjacket on Display at New Houdini Exhibit

By Della Hasselle | October 29, 2010 7:35am

By Della Hasselle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER EAST SIDE — The first major art museum exhibit dedicated to Harry Houdini opens at the Upper East Side Jewish Museum Friday, just in time for the Halloween anniversary of the legendary magician's death.

"Houdini: Art and Magic" shows two private diaries never before seen by the public along with handcuffs, shackles and a straitjacket that belonged to the immigrant Jewish magician, who was born in Budapest and moved to New York City at the age of 13.

The objects offer a peek into the extraordinary life of Ehrich Weiss, the escape artist who eventually became known as Harry Houdini.

The magician's evolution is chronicled from his birth in 1874 to his sudden death in 1926. Props, photographs and video show Houdini performing his underwater box escape in New York's East River, various straitjacket escapes and how in 1918 he made a 10,000-pound elephant disappear in New York's bygone Hippodrome Theater.

"Europe's Eclipsing Sensation," 1906. U.S. Sign Board Co.
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Courtesy of the Jewish Museum

Houdini's two diaries reveal the religious oppression Houdini felt as an immigrant Jew married to Bess Rahner, a German Catholic dancer from Coney Island, curator Brooke Kamin Rapaport said. Rapaport added that Houdini's awe-inspiring escape acts made him an inspiration for his immigrant peers.

"Freedom from political, racial or religious oppression was an aspiration to the late 19th and early 20th century immigrant populations of America's cities such as New York," she said.

The exhibit also shows how Houdini's influence extended to the art world. Video, photographs and installations allude to the magician's theatrical performance style and Art-Nouveau influence.

Contemporary artist Matthew Barney's art film "Cremaster 2," in which he cast author and intellectual Norman Mailer to portray Houdini, will be screened as part of the exhibit, and the show also includes other contemporary art inspired by Houdini.

"Houdini appeals to contemporary artists because of his raw physicality, his role as a daring performer whose body was his most significant prop, and because of his choice of common objects as stage apparatus," Rapaport said.

The exhibit reveals secrets of Houdini's life. But the magician's death, including rumors that he faked his demise, remains a mystery.

"Houdini: Art and Magic" will be at the Jewish Museum from Oct. 29 through Mar. 27, 2011.