It’s really possible make an elephant disappear? The answer of course is “No“, even if the big one illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926, pseudonym of Erik Weisz) managed to convince the audience of the oppositeHippodrome Theatre of New York the January 7, 1918. On that occasion he let an elephant inside one big box and, a few seconds after closing the curtains, the animal”disappeared“, leaving the public stunned. But how was it possible?
Attention: at the moment there is no certain answersince we don’t have any footage or official statement from the author regarding the trick. What we can do is give an explanation based on the theories formulated by other illusionists over the following decades.
When Houdini made an elephant disappear: the preparation of the illusionist number
As the location for this great magic trick, as anticipated, theHippodrome Theatre in New York, one of the largest stages of the time. This choice it was not accidental: such a large environment made more complex to understand the actual dimensions of the “box” which would have been used to make the animal disappear. According to what Houdini announced during the number, in fact, this measured 2.4 meters tallbut it is very likely that in reality its dimensions were much larger and were deliberately given incorrectly. As we will see, this detail will be fundamental to understanding the trick behind the illusion.
On the evening of the show, the January 7, 1918on the stage of the theater the magician Houdini first showed the audience the big box which would shortly thereafter welcome theelephant Jennie: on the front they were present two large tentson the back two doors with a circular opening and below the base of the wheels to rotate and move it.
Before seating the elephant, the curtains and back doors were opened, so that the public could see with their own eyes that the strange box inside was completely empty.
At this point the elephant was brought in: the back doors were closed, the curtains were drawn, and… twelve sturdy assistants they began to rotate the box 180 degrees on itself, that is, turning the back towards the public. The rotation operation took approx 7-8 minutes and anyone would have expected to see the elephant appear from the opening of the door openings but… poof! The animal had disappeared, and even when opening curtains and doors there seemed to be no trace of the pachyderm!
The technical explanation of Houdini’s trick
At the beginning we mentioned the fact that the box probably had larger size compared to those declared by the illusionist: this is precisely the key to understanding the trick. In fact, during the rotation the elephant was made to sit by the trainer on the edge of the box which, being much larger than those announced, had space to accommodate it. It is unclear whether the animal was hidden by an additional black curtain present inside the cage or whether it has been hidden by the same front awningsbut one thing is certain: the public of the time was left speechless – also given the seating arrangement which prevented a complete view of the inside of the cage. Imagine that the trick was so successful that it was performed again in this same theater for a long time 19 weeks straight.
