On this day in 1922, Harry and Bess Houdini celebrated their anniversary by hosting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, Lady Doyle, at a Broadway performance of Raymond Hitchcock’s new revue, Pin Wheel. The fast-talking gravel-voiced Hitchcock introduced his celebrities, and the audience called for Houdini to do something. The magician bounded onto the stage; we would now say that Houdini was, “loaded for bear.” He reached in his pocket and withdrew several packets of sewing needles and a spool of thread.
Hitchcock had the curtain opened and the show stopped. The cast came onstage from their dressing rooms so they could watch Houdini’s impromptu performance. He performed his trademark Needle Trick, apparently swallowing needles and then mysteriously threading them on a length of white cotton thread.
According to a newspaper report the next day, the applause was so great, Pin Wheel so effectively upended, that the stage manager cut the following numbers and moved to the finale of the performance.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The East Indian Needle Trick
In his own time, Houdini was as identified with his "East Indian Needle Trick" (or just the Needles) as he was with his iconic escapes. While the Needle trick did not originate with Houdini (it goes back to 1813), by all accounts Houdini's dramatic and very physical performance of the effect was second to none.