"What do you consider the greatest stunt you have done for the screen?"
I asked, when I had recovered my breath.
"Another incident in the same picture," answered Houdini. "I stood in
the archway of a prison, thus----" Here he took up a crouching position
in the corner of the room, and enacted the whole thing for my benefit.
"A heavily loaded lorry, going at twenty-two or four miles an hour
rolled by me. I threw myself on the ground, completely rolling over
between the fast revolving fore and hind wheels, over and over, till I
caught the transmission bar, and hung there for very dear life! Thus
was I carried to the aid of the heroine. Though my words may not convey
very much, this was my greatest stunt. It allowed for no rehearsals--I
said to the camera-man, 'Get this now or never!' And had I made the
slightest false move I should have been crippled for life, if not
killed."
In spite of the risks he has taken before the camera, Houdini has a
profound love and admiration for the "movies."
"I think the film profession is the greatest," he told me "and that the
moving picture is the most wonderful thing in the world. One reason
why I love the screen is because it has use for the derelicts of life,
and gives employment to the old as well as the young. I entered the
profession myself because I knew I should eventually be losing my
strength, and before that happened I wanted to perpetuate my feats, and
by so doing everyone, in all parts of the world, can see them. Pictures
have increased my drawing power two-hundredfold."
Houdini, as related at the commencement of this chat, had one of his
greatest compliments paid him by critics of his film work, but before I
left him he confessed that what he considers the very greatest tribute
ever made to his unique achievements is recorded in a dictionary! Turn
to Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary, and there you will find it:
"HOU'DI-NI. 1, hu'di-ni;
2, hu'di-ni, HARRY (4-6, 1874). American mystericist,
wizard, and expert in extrication and self-release
HOU'DI-NIZE vt. To release or extricate oneself from
(confinement, bonds, or the like), as by wriggling out."
So, taking Houdini all in all, I may consider the fact that this
wonder-man, this "expert in extrication," made no effort to escape from
at least one thing this interview!