Harry Houdini’s most famous trick was the Water Torture Cell. An original poster publicizing it made $95,000 at Potter & Potter Auctions in February 2017. Photo courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions and LiveAuctioneers
NEW YORK — From Cardini and the Great Blackstone to David Blaine and Criss Angel, skilled magicians and illusionists have dazzled audiences for more than a century, performing simple sleight-of-hand and tricks as well as daring and elaborate illusions. The great Harry Houdini was famous for extracting himself after being hung upside down in his Water Torture Cell, a feat no other magician dared tackle during his lifetime; and in 1983, before a live audience and millions on television, David Copperfield appeared to make the Statue of Liberty, which stands over 300 feet tall, vanish into thin air.
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