To spare Matt from having to undertake an intensive escapism course, we’re going to be doing some misdirection to support the illusion of Houdini’s skills. To assist with this, here are some images of Houdini’s more “strong-man” pre- and post-escape poses.
Sidenote, during my doctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill, I had the privilege to take a class with Professor John Kasson, a historian and American Studies scholar. At the time I studied with him, he’d just published a new book Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, which examines Houdini’s popularity within the context of a newly permissible public display of the male body. Here’s a series of audio interviews with Professor Kasson about his book.
