In Announcing Decision, Performs Trick of Freezing a Man in Block of Ice

Mrs. Harry Houdini, widow of the famous magician, yesterday announced her intention of taking up his work in vaudeville. She made the announcement the occasion of demonstrating the trick of freezing a man in a cake of ice.

Before an invited audience of newspapermen and others assembled in a vacant store at 420 West Fifty-third Street, an Indian with the name Waka Tanka, said to be Sioux for “Mystery Man,” was exhibited in a casting of ice formed around him by the application of solidified carbon dioxide gas. It was explained that the freezing process had taken twenty-six minutes. The man remained in the ice some fifteen minutes more, and then a hole was chopped in the ice to expose his face. The ice was real, but there are other things about the trick that will be put up to the audience to figure out for themselves.

Mrs.Houdini said that she planned to combine the trick with legerdemain from her husband’s repertory, including an escape from handcuffs or a strait-jacket. When her husband was alive she assisted him in his stage work under an assumed name. Her forthcoming appearance will be her first in the role of magician.

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