Harry Houdini Died

Norma Lyon, who sculptured butter at fairs, dies at 81

Norma Lyon, 81, a self-described dairy farmer's wife and mother of nine who achieved fame well beyond the Midwest as the "butter-cow lady" of the Iowa State Fair, sculpturing tons of butter each year into life-size figures of cows, famous people and, once, a diorama of the Last Supper, died of a stroke on June 26 in Marshalltown, Iowa. Her sculptures reached a vast audience, partly because she also worked at state fairs throughout rural America and partly because the idea of a butter sculptor from Iowa was irresistible to TV people in the big city and shows like Today and The Tonight Show.

George C. Ballas Sr., 85, a Houston entrepreneur best known for inventing the Weed Eater, died of natural causes on June 25. What is more generally known as the weed whacker has reshaped the landscaping industry and delighted amateur gardeners.

Margaret Tyzack, 79, a stalwart British actress who won myriad awards for her stage performances, including a Tony, but who was best known in the United States for her roles in the public television series The Forsyte Saga and I, Claudius, died on June 25 in London.

Sidney H. Radner, 91, an amateur magician and newly minted Yale grad in 1941 when he became the unlikely steward of a trove of Harry Houdini artifacts, building it into one of the world's largest Houdini collections, died of cancer on June 26 in Holyoke, Mass. He is credited in the world of magicians and magic collectors with having preserved some of the most important of Houdini's props.

Randall Dale Adams, 61, a former death row inmate who gained freedom after flaws in his conviction for the murder of a Dallas police officer were exposed in the critically acclaimed documentary The Thin Blue Line in 1988, died of a brain tumor on Oct. 30 in Washington Court House, Ohio. His death did not become widely known until it was reported by the Dallas Morning News on June 24. The film uncovered suppressed evidence and perjured testimony.

Legend: Harry Houdini | Cursed Objects

Ehrich Weiss, the Budapest-born son of an immigrant family, ran away from home at 12 to join the circus. Not the least bit interested in becoming a rabbi like his father, he wanted to be an entertainer.

Immigrating to the U.S. in 1878 with his family, Houdini's father fared poorly as a rabbi in Appleton, Wis., and the family moved several times as Rabbi Weiss sought work. The Weiss family landed in New York in 1887, where teenage Ehrich took on various jobs, including uniformed messenger boy and a necktie cutter. It was at the necktie factory that Ehrich, by then 17, and a fellow employee formed a magic act, calling themselves the Brothers Houdini.

Just a few years later, the partner was gone and newly named Harry Houdini went on to meet and marry fellow performer Bess Rahner. The newlyweds, now known as the Houdinis, traveled America launching, among other things, Houdini's famous metamorphosis act: Houdini would be bound and locked into a trunk, then escape to be onstage as the trunk was opened and Bess was found inside.

Although Weiss was already an accomplished trapeze artist in a neighborhood circus, he soon turned around and headed back home. But it was only a matter of time before the whole world knew who he was. Reinventing himself as Harry Houdini, the rabbi's son became a celebrity as an escape artist, and, by the time of his death in 1926 — on Halloween — a legend.

In 1901, Houdini introduced his own original act, the Milk Can Escape. In this act, Houdini would be handcuffed and sealed inside an over-sized milk can filled with water and make his escape behind a curtain. As part of the effect, Houdini would invite members of the audience to hold their breath along with him while he was inside the can. Advertised with dramatic posters that proclaimed "Failure Means A Drowning Death", the escape proved to be a sensation.

In 1912, the vast number of imitators prompted Houdini to replace his Milk Can act with the Chinese Water Torture Cell. In this escape, Houdini's feet would be locked in stocks, and he would be lowered upside down into a tank filled with water. The mahogany and metal cell featured a glass front, through which audiences could clearly see Houdini. The stocks would be locked to the top of the cell, and a curtain would conceal his escape. In the earliest version of the Torture Cell, a metal cage was lowered into the cell, and Houdini was enclosed inside that. While making the escape more difficult (the cage prevented Houdini from turning), the cage bars also offered protection should the front glass break. The original cell was built in England, where Houdini first performed the escape for an audience of one person as part of a one-act play he called "Houdini Upside Down". This was so he could copyright the effect and have grounds to sue imitators (which he did). While the escape was advertised as "The Chinese Water Torture Cell" or "The Water Torture Cell", Houdini always referred to it as "the Upside Down" or "USD". The first public performance of the USD was at the Circus Busch in Berlin, on September 21, 1912. Houdini continued to perform the escape until his death in 1926.

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