Straitjacket Escape

The Straitjacket Escape is the act of getting out from a fully laced straitjacket without external assistance. The concept of presenting such an escape as a form of entertainment was created by Houdini in 1896. His brother Hardeen also performed it.

Houdini started doing the escape from behind a curtain, so the audience did not see the actual method by which he escaped, but he decided later that he got a better reaction when doing it in full view of the audience.

Houdini performed his first "Suspended Straitjacket Escape", hanging forty-five feet off the ground from Minneapolis Eventing Tribune office building, on September 29, 1915.

Other performers to include this routine were Harry Jansen, Dunninger, and James Randi. Mardoni in the 1930s did it from an airplane in flight.