Speaker 1: Unsolved mysteries.
Speaker 2: Perfect how indifferent to persons who may still be living.
Speaker 2: Character names in some of these unsolved mysteries have been changed.
Speaker 2: In several of these unsolved mysteries, the police have been
Speaker 2: faced with the problem of a murderer who could gain
Speaker 2: access to a room locked and bolted on the inside,
Speaker 2: and then his crime committed leave that same room locked
Speaker 2: and bolted behind him. There was one man to whom
Speaker 2: these phenomena presented no problem. Harry Houdini, the master magician
Speaker 2: of all time, and tonight's unsolved mystery is his famous
Speaker 2: challenge to.
Speaker 3: Death using.
Speaker 4: Computatostat.
Speaker 2: The scene is the Outskirts of Liverpool, England, at the
Speaker 2: home of mister Henderson.
Speaker 1: A group of.
Speaker 2: Guests are assembled to meet mister Harry Houdini, and among
Speaker 2: the guests is a Scotland Yard Detective inspector who has
Speaker 2: been working on England's latest unsolved crime.
Speaker 1: The guests have finished dinner.
Speaker 2: The men are in the smoking room enjoying cigars and
Speaker 2: coffee as their hostess, Missus Henderson, precedes the ladies into
Speaker 2: the smoking room.
Speaker 1: But I know you gentlemen haven't finished your coffee. But
Speaker 1: the rest of us are really awfully anxious to hear
Speaker 1: mister Houdini delighted.
Speaker 2: Of course this idea of the inspector was in the
Speaker 2: middle of telling us about the Scotland yards.
Speaker 1: Lacest oh by all means that too, well, the thing
Speaker 1: is really baffling.
Speaker 5: Here we find a house, doors all bolted and locked,
Speaker 5: windows barred, and everything tight. The note hasn't been picked
Speaker 5: up off the front porch for three days that this investigate. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we'd break open the door, find an elderly woman lying
Speaker 5: before the heart, dead, murdered neil for two set on
Speaker 5: the table, and eight witnesses who swear that no one
Speaker 5: entered or left that house with or without the old woman.
Speaker 2: But are your witnesses reliable? How can you be certain
Speaker 2: that no one entered?
Speaker 5: You don't know the old ladies neighbors, they see everything.
Speaker 5: I suppose though, that you, mister Houdini, don't see anything
Speaker 5: difficult about the locked and bolted doors. Since you're in
Speaker 5: the habit of getting out of our priests.
Speaker 1: Handcuffs now, jail, cell.
Speaker 6: I am not quite as bad as you make me
Speaker 6: out to be.
Speaker 1: After all, I make no secret of the fact.
Speaker 6: That I get out of.
Speaker 2: Handcuffs themselves and locked safes and all the rest of
Speaker 2: it by trickery and sleight of hand.
Speaker 1: But couldn't a murderer who murdered the old woman had
Speaker 1: done the same thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, used the same dot trickly to get out
Speaker 2: of the room and house.
Speaker 5: But what mister Houdini means is that the equipment he
Speaker 5: uses is all specially prepared. But I saw mister Houdini
Speaker 5: myself locked in a steel vault on the stage, and
Speaker 5: it wasn't a fat vault because the manufacturers were there
Speaker 5: and testified that it was a genuine seat.
Speaker 2: And yet you got out of.
Speaker 1: That, Misrudini.
Speaker 2: But it was trickery just the same. You see, the
Speaker 2: safe had to be brought on to the stage before
Speaker 2: the performance started, well before the curtain went up. I
Speaker 2: had removed the strong steel springs and substituted Greek soft
Speaker 2: springs in their place, and so opening the safe was simple.
Speaker 2: I replaced the original steel springs, of course, before the
Speaker 2: safe was returned to the manufacturers. Simple, very yes, inspector,
Speaker 2: that trick is simplicity itself. And yet there are people
Speaker 2: who insist that you must be a spirituist capable of
Speaker 2: who shall we say, disembodying yourself. These people who make
Speaker 2: these claims are fake spiritualists. They're just furious at me
Speaker 2: because I exposed their trickery. But yes, but what I
Speaker 2: have determined to do a trick one in which I
Speaker 2: shall not use a trick box or a trick lope,
Speaker 2: and I shall do it underwater. Listen, I shall be
Speaker 2: placed in an ordinary packing case. It may be examined
Speaker 2: by experts while it is being manufactured, so that there
Speaker 2: can be no trickering. Then, when I am placed inside,
Speaker 2: the lid consisting of three pieces, will be nailed in place.
Speaker 1: Yes, we follow.
Speaker 6: Then the box or the.
Speaker 2: Case will be roped, lifted on a tackle to the
Speaker 2: deck of a togboat, moved out to the middle of
Speaker 2: the harbor, and lower it into the water. Great great way, Oh,
Speaker 2: I can see if remove in one to two minutes
Speaker 2: and eight seconds, the.
Speaker 5: Box will be raised to the surface, and the world
Speaker 5: will have lost the greatest medicine of the aid.
Speaker 1: You, mister Houdini, will.
Speaker 2: Be drown No, sir, I I shall be seated on
Speaker 2: the lid of the steel nailed.
Speaker 6: Und rope box.
Speaker 1: You'll be drowned.
Speaker 6: I shall not be drowned.
Speaker 2: And if I am, it will prove what I never
Speaker 2: mind fat at present.
Speaker 6: Tomorrow, Yes, tomorrow for noon.
Speaker 1: What do you mean tomorrow, saw noon?
Speaker 2: I shall do thisonal trick tomorrow for noon at the
Speaker 2: docks in the.
Speaker 6: Mouth of the Murder River. I shall call it.
Speaker 1: Let me see, ah ah, I have it.
Speaker 6: Harry Houdini in the Challenge to Death.
Speaker 2: Not only was Harry Houdini the master of magicians, but
Speaker 2: also he was a master showman.
Speaker 1: The morning's papers.
Speaker 2: Carried the story of his challenge to death. The police
Speaker 2: tried to interfere on the ground that he was endangering
Speaker 2: his life, but arrangements went ahead, and at five minutes
Speaker 2: to twelve on the crowded in noisy waterfront, the tug
Speaker 2: boat Elsie whistled that she was ready for her part
Speaker 2: of the experiment.
Speaker 6: The tug's already, mister, and everything is ready here.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're already.
Speaker 2: Then then I suppose i'd better get inside of the box.
Speaker 2: Oh I wish you wouldn't, mister Hudia.
Speaker 6: I'm afraid. No, but no, no, no, do not be afraid.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just as afraid, mister.
Speaker 6: Now now, now, now, I am.
Speaker 2: Depending on you to see that everything is done properly.
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini stepped into the wooden picking case.
Speaker 2: Two burley carpenters stepped forward, placed the three planked lid
Speaker 2: in place, and nailed the lid down.
Speaker 1: With every blow of the hammer, those of the waiting
Speaker 1: crowd feel their hearts beat faster. A stout one inch
Speaker 1: rope is tied about the packing case. The hook of
Speaker 1: the hoisting.
Speaker 2: Lion is slipped about the rope and got a signal.
Speaker 2: The derek hoists the packing case and its human cargo
Speaker 2: over the edge of the dock.
Speaker 6: Oh, I called it fear.
Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep all night. Thirty seconds. Time seems to
Speaker 1: be standing still. He must have been done long enough
Speaker 1: to get house. He hasn't had time to do anything yet.
Speaker 1: One minute. I think we've got to hoist the packing case.
Speaker 2: Yes, we should never have let him do this. Yes,
Speaker 2: you can't do that.
Speaker 1: I have my owners, mister Houdini. You can't let him
Speaker 1: down after all in the stirments.
Speaker 2: Are they going to hoist him up now?
Speaker 1: No? Not yet? One minutes and thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is awful.
Speaker 1: It's like a telling an execution.
Speaker 2: Yes, only worse if the packing case should slip off
Speaker 2: the hook and go to the bottom. Yes, oh, I
Speaker 2: haven't followed that.
Speaker 1: And if it's already done that and landed up.
Speaker 6: That dog.
Speaker 2: Two minutes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ict.
Speaker 7: Away the dripping cases hoisted out of the water, and
Speaker 7: there seated on the lid holding to the rope is
Speaker 7: Harry Houdini.
Speaker 2: The tugboat moves to the wharf. The packing case is
Speaker 2: examined and found nailed in place. Once again, Harry Houdini
Speaker 2: has been successful. In just a moment, you will hear
Speaker 2: the solution to the mystery of Harry Houdini's trick, the
Speaker 2: challenge to death, Ladies and gentlemen. Inasmuch as any solution
Speaker 2: must have necessity based opposition, liberties of time, place and
Speaker 2: character have been taken in.
Speaker 1: The solution for what you have been waiting.
Speaker 2: The scene is once again mister Henderson's home in Liverpool, England.
Speaker 2: Mister Harry Houdini is explaining his most famous and spectacular trick.
Speaker 1: The challenge is to death.
Speaker 2: Well, of course, mister Rudini, we all saw the trick performed,
Speaker 2: but even now it still seems impossible. As the inspector
Speaker 2: said yesterday, once a thing is explained. It is simplicity
Speaker 2: get sent. You see, I know much from study that
Speaker 2: the audience reaction is of two widely different qualities.
Speaker 1: How has that, mister Houdeney to begin with?
Speaker 2: When the trick, any trick, is commenced, the attention is
Speaker 2: all directed toward the article employed. The box is examined
Speaker 2: to see that it is genuine, the hope to see
Speaker 2: that it is strong, and the nails to see that.
Speaker 6: They are real.
Speaker 2: But ah, and here is the great point. When the
Speaker 2: trick has succeeded, the audience has eyes only for the
Speaker 2: performer of the trick.
Speaker 1: Not even then, I still don't see.
Speaker 2: I am explaining to you now the process of thought
Speaker 2: that precedes the working out of the details, knowing that
Speaker 2: the audience will watch me once the trick is over,
Speaker 2: I in turn know that if I re moved myself
Speaker 2: from the vicility of the packing case while it is
Speaker 2: being brought ashore, no one will pay the slightest attention
Speaker 2: to it. They are all too busy seeing that I
Speaker 2: personally am not up to any more tricks. They ignore
Speaker 2: my assistants who are guarding.
Speaker 6: The packing case.
Speaker 2: Let esn't explain how you got out? Getting out of
Speaker 2: the case. That was easy. It was getting the lid
Speaker 2: back ready for inspection that was the chief worry.
Speaker 6: You see.
Speaker 2: When I stepped into the packing case, I carried with
Speaker 2: me a very small, but very powerful pair of nail cutters,
Speaker 2: thin enough to slip between the lid and the case.
Speaker 2: And as soon as the nails were driven home by
Speaker 2: the carpenters, I cut them between the lid and the box.
Speaker 2: As soon as the packing case was submerged, I slipped
Speaker 2: the three boards of the lid to one side and
Speaker 2: clambered out. Then I replaced the three boards and sat
Speaker 2: on them to hold them securely in place. When the
Speaker 2: box was hoisted to the deck of the tug boat,
Speaker 2: I left my assistance to removed the cut nails and
Speaker 2: replaced them with the same type of nails. All this
Speaker 2: they did hidden behind the canvas covering on the ship's rail,
Speaker 2: while the.
Speaker 6: Crowd was watching me at the stern of the boat.
Speaker 2: And if you got out as easily and as quickly
Speaker 2: as that, why did you keep us in suspense?
Speaker 6: My friend? For that very reason.
Speaker 2: To keep you in suspense, else there would be no
Speaker 2: reason for my calling the trick that challenged to death.
Speaker 2: You said, something yesterday that if you were drowned, it
Speaker 2: would prove something I did. It would have proved for
Speaker 2: all time that I was not a spiritualist using my
Speaker 2: astral body to perform disappearance tricks.
Speaker 4: Temple at.
Speaker 8: My time just a spect.
Speaker 9: Compete at the Stas
Speaker 4: Had sent a still b