It was basically a stationary carnival freak show. Magic of this era featured irresistible images of demons, devils, witches, floating skulls and boiling cauldrons, and Howard’s younger brother Harry was inspired to create a dime museum on South State Street featuring all the mysterious and wondrous images from magic’s realm. Thurston stood in front of the attraction and shouted to passersby promising a show with savage, untamed, wild natives performing exotic dances. After ten minutes, he walked past the reporters waving his arms, a Chicago legend was born, and the rest of the world demanded their own performances by Houdini.Īlso at the 1893 World’s Fair was Howard Thurston, who worked as a barker for the African Dahomey Village. After summoning the media, Houdini stripped completely naked and was searched before he entered. In 1898, Houdini announced that he would escape from both handcuffs (and a Chicago jail). He continued to work in Chicago, sometimes working as many as twenty shows a day, perfecting what would become his signature move - the escape. After the World’s Fair, Houdini was in demand. Playing off the public’s fascination with the “other,” Houdini dazzled crowds who loved their “exotic” magic show. What the small-town kid saw was a wealth of other nationalities and cultures, including Chinese, Turkish, African, and Asian.
In 1893, an eighteen-year-old from Appleton, Wisconsin, named Harry Houdini arrived at the Chicago World’s Fair to perform. McManus-Young Collection, Library of Congress. Just after the Chicago World’s Fair, Houdini toured as the “King of Cards”īefore he gained fame as an escape artist.
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