As a young boy I remember watching the Tony Curtis movie HOUDINI with a mixture of terror and amazement as Houdini attempted to escape from a packing crate being lowered into a hole in the frozen Detroit River. The chain broke and the box plummeted to the bottom of the river. Houdini escaped, but he couldn't surface due to the ice. He had to skim along the under-suface of the ice to find air pockets to breath.
Tony Curtis, as Houdini, trapped under the ice covered Detroit River.
That movie was foundational for my love of magic, Houdini, and showmanship, but I wanted nothing to do with underwater escapes... they terrified me. But that was when I was 6. Fast-forward 10 years. At age 16, I attempted my first of six underwater escapes.
The year was 1978. The location was my home town's local swimming hole, the Batavia Quarry, an old limestone quarry turned into a park district pool. The manager just happened to be my 8th grade math teacher and athletic coach. I told him I knew how to escape from a box underwater like Houdini did. Rather than him dismissing me a crazy, he said, "Let's try it!"
A local wood shop pounded together a wooden crate and we began practicing with the lifeguards (who all happened to be high school buddies) early mornings before the pool opened.
On the day of the escape, about 1500 people showed up to watch. The town sheriff handcuffed me behind my back, I was placed in the wooden crate (which had 300 pounds of bricks inside to weigh it down), the lid was nailed shut, chains were locked around the crate, and the high school football team pushed the crate into the deep end of the pool.
After 2 long minutes of waiting, finally, I surfaced, free of the cuffs, and the box was still in tact.
