While the roles were not specifically handed out, there was a puzzle designed for each character.Īfter a lengthy introduction to the history and backstory of the room, we were led into a heavily decorated and dimly lit wooden room. Our team was collectively cast as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Charlie Chaplin, John Philip Sousa, Buffalo Bill Cody, Helen Keller, and Luther Burbank – famous attendees of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco. The room is now open to the public – can you and your friends escape Houdini’s mystery room in 80 minutes?” “Harry Houdini built the world’s first escape room in the Palace of Fine Arts 100 years ago as a challenge to 8 brilliant innovators.
Price: $410 per time slot Story & setting Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in San Francisco.ĭuration: 80 minutes (with the opportunity for additional time) Bell concluded that there was not enough evidence to connect Whitehead to any kind of criminal plot, but others have argued that he was an enemy agent who stalked Houdini during the magician’s time in Montreal.The Great Houdini Escape Room is one of the best games in San Francisco. In the 2005 book “The Man Who Killed Houdini,” author Don Bell floated a theory that Whitehead may have been in league with the Spiritualists, some of whom had previously threatened to kill Houdini or have him beaten up. Gordon Whitehead, the McGill student who supposedly delivered the potentially fatal gut punches in Houdini’s Montreal dressing room. “If someone were hell-bent on poisoning Houdini, it wouldn’t have been very difficult,” they conclude.Ĭonsiderable debate has also focused on J. “If one were to suspect Houdini a victim of foul play,” they write, “then the section of organized crime that was composed of fraudulent spirit mediums must be considered likely suspects.” Kalush and Sloman argue that the Spiritualists had a history of poisoning their enemies, and they note that no autopsy was ever performed to confirm that Houdini’s death was actually caused by appendicitis.
He proceeded to struggle through his routine before collapsing immediately after the final curtain.Ĭould Houdini’s meddling have gotten him killed? In their 2006 biography The Secret Life of Houdini, authors William Kalush and Larry Sloman contend that the magician’s death may have been a carefully planned assassination by members of the Spiritualist community. A doctor suspected appendicitis and instructed Houdini to go to a hospital, but the performer insisted on taking the stage for his opening night show at the Garrick Theater. The magician developed severe abdominal pain, cold sweats and fatigue, and his temperature rose to 104 degrees. His condition only worsened the next day, when he boarded an overnight train to Detroit for a new run of performances. Houdini brushed off the incident at the time, but that same evening, he began to complain of discomfort and stomach cramps. Houdini was still reclined on the couch and had no time to prepare for the punches, which appeared to leave him in considerable pain. According to witness Sam Smilovitz, when Houdini said the rumors were true, Whitehead abruptly delivered “four or five terribly forcible, deliberate, well-directed blows” to his stomach. Gordon Whitehead arrived and asked Houdini if it was true that he could resist hard punches to his abdomen-a claim the magician had supposedly made in public. The magician’s sore ankle was still bothering him, so he plopped down on a couch while the group chatted. Just a few days later on October 22, he invited some McGill students to visit him in his dressing room at the Princess Theater. Against doctors’ orders, Houdini continued his tour and traveled to Montreal, where he gave a lecture at McGill University.