The Mirror handcuffs here made by a Birmingham blacksmith with a lock he spent five years perfecting and believed “no mortal man” could pick.Ī string of London’s leading locksmiths had inspected the solid steel shackles and agreed they had never seen such a wonderful or fiendish mechanism.Īt first Houdini tried to duck the challenge, claiming he only attempted to escape from regulation police cuffs. “It was his second or third time over here and this was a big gig at a new theatre in the middle of town.” TV magician and Houdini expert Paul Zenon said: “At this time he was a new boy on the scene and he was at the peak of his publicity. It set the scene for a momentous showdown, which is celebrated by a new plaque unveiled this week at the Hippodrome. He was eventually persuaded to return for a matinee show five days later, where he would pit his wits against the best of British craftsmanship which had produced the sturdy shackles. But Houdini took one look at the lock and refused three times to take up the challenge. He presented the star with a pair of steel cuffs. Dozens had come forward, each handing him shackles that the self-styled “Handcuff King” slipped out of with astonishing ease.īut then came the Mirror reporter’s turn.

It was March 1904 and Houdini had issued his customary invitation for challenges to spectators at a packed Hippodrome Theatre in London’s West End. As the king of escapology there were not many situations Harry Houdini could not wriggle out of.īut at the height of his fame, the legendary showman was stumped by a challenge from the Daily Mirror – to free himself from a pair of handcuffs with a supposedly unpickable lock.

Escape from houdini