Jewish Museum Milwaukee Explores Houdini's Cream City Roots in 'Escape From Milwaukee'

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Photo courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee

Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini runs through Jan. 5, 2020 at Jewish Museum Milwaukee. (1360 N. Prospect Ave.)

Along with Albert Einstein, Harry Houdini (1874-1926) is one of the rare celebrities from a century ago who still enjoys universal recognition. Like Einstein, Houdini’s name conjures a particular idea; in Houdini’s case, the escape artist: the man who could be confined by nothing except, ultimately, the grave.

While his childhood in Appleton, Wis., is generally known, the importance of Milwaukee in his life is less familiar. One of the objectives of the current exhibition at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee is to explore the performer’s Cream City ties.

“Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini” includes the sort of locks and handcuffs he picked and the containers he slipped out of, posters and photographs from his performances, excerpts from his silent movies and documentary film footage of his feats. There is even an escape room to challenge museumgoers. Hovering over it all is a turn-of-the-20th-century engraving: a vintage aerial view of Milwaukee but modified to mark the spots where Erik Weisz—the boy who became Houdini—lived and learned. Among the points of note is a performance, at age 12, on the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge.

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Photo courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee

Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini runs through Jan. 5, 2020 at Jewish Museum Milwaukee. (1360 N. Prospect Ave.)

“Milwaukee is where he developed as a magician and acrobat. He was a prize-winning pugilist here,” says Molly Dubin, the Jewish Museum’s curator. “His family fell on hard times in Milwaukee,” she continues. After his father, a rabbi, was unable to find a congregation in the city, the boy who became Houdini shined shoes and delivered groceries and newspapers. According to lore that may or may not be true, he learned some of his lock-picking skills at Milwaukee’s Master Lock company.

And there was Schlitz. The Milwaukee brewer invited Houdini to escape from a giant metal can filled with beer. “It took him longer than usual,” says Elle Gettinger, the museum’s education director. “He absorbed the fumes through his skin. One lady in the audience fainted before he finally got out; she was so anxious.”

Speaking of Houdini’s biography, a slippery chronicle of illusion and uncertainty, Gettinger says, “He created a persona. There was Harry Houdini, born in Appleton. And there was the person, Erik Weisz, born in Budapest, Hungary. They didn’t even share the same birthday.” Houdini resolutely disclaimed any occult powers and maintained that his accomplishments, including escapes from straightjackets while under water and apparently dematerializing, were accomplished through agility and mental focus. And yet, he wrapped his life in mystery and shadow.

Houdini emerged from medicine shows, carnivals and vaudeville; his contemporaries from those stages are long forgotten—even the movie stars of his age have faded—but Houdini remains fixed in the public imagination. “He was the ultimate self-promoter, using every medium available—film, newspapers, radio,” Dubin says, finding an explanation for his enduring memory. But he wasn’t alone in seizing the opportunity afforded by the mass media of his time, and most other names from the headlines of a century ago draw blank stares nowadays.

Perhaps more important than Houdini’s astute use of the media was the social and psychological implications of his escape act. “He became a metaphor for liberation, for breaking out,” Dubin continues. His popularity spanned all social classes, but his emergence out of nowhere suggested an affinity with the endless possibilities promised by America.

“He was a marquee name, but he made himself available to the masses,” Gettinger says. “In 1916, he gave a free performance in Milwaukee for the city’s newsboys because he had once been a newsboy here.”

“He wanted to give back,” Dubin says. Gettinger adds that among the documents on display in the exhibit is a receipt from the Hebrew Relief Society, which gave Houdini’s family coal to heat their home and $3 when they fell into poverty. “The Milwaukee Jewish Museum is always concerned with immigration issues,” Gettinger explains, adding that this document provides a counter-argument to recently announced policies by the Trump administration. “Here is an example of an immigrant family that received assistance during hard times and went on to do just fine.”

Houdini challenged his audiences, boasting that he could free himself from any lock and absorb any blow. While on tour in Montréal, Canada, he was sucker-punched in his dressing room by a fan and, although in great pain, went on stage and performed. The blow to his abdomen may have ruptured his appendix. He died two days later on Halloween.

His death on that day carries a whiff of irony, given his determination to debunk fake “spiritualists” who claimed the power to contact the dead, coupled with his own expressed desire to communicate with loved ones from beyond the grave. Since Houdini’s death, séances have been conducted on Halloween in the hope that he might—even momentarily—escape the endless confinement of death. As part of its programming, the museum will conduct “Linking Houdini: A Halloween Séance,” 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 31.

Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini runs through Jan. 5 at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 1360 N. Prospect Ave. For more information, visit jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.