George Hardeen’s father didn’t tell his son about his magical lineage until he was about 10. Hardeen’s grandfather Theo Hardeen was Houdini’s younger brother and an illusionist in his own right. For that, Hardeen interviewed John McLaughlin, former acting director of the CIA and a lifelong magician and Houdini fan. It also touches on other questions, such as whether Houdini could have been recruited to be a spy. “George is really the one, as the everyman, asking the questions we all are wondering: How Houdini did these things.”

“I think, in many ways, the show is George’s journey,” Channell said. The production company approached Hardeen about a year ago. But there was a ton of engineering behind what he was doing,” Channell said. “Everybody thinks of him as an escape artist, illusionist and magician. Wyatt Channell, a Science Channel executive producer, said Houdini knew how to create a persona and hold people’s interest but the program tries to look at him from a different perspective. So, we pondered it and came up with our own methodology so that Lee could perform the trick,” Hardeen said. “No one knows how Houdini did the tricks. A stunt builder constructs the props, and Terbosic re-enacts the stunts. The Hungarian-born illusionist, who came to the United States as a child and grew up in Appleton, generated headlines in the early 1900s for escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets and even a milk can.Įach of the four episodes focuses on a different stunt, including being buried alive and the water torture cell, in which Houdini was lowered upside down into a water tank with his feet locked in stocks. 6, follows Hardeen as he and escape artist Lee Terbosic explore the engineering behind some of Houdini’s most legendary feats. “Houdini’s Last Secrets,” which begins airing Jan. “They know more about Houdini than I will ever be able to.” These guys live Houdini all the time,” Hardeen said. “We spoke to many collectors and historians. PHOENIX - Growing up, George Hardeen never thought too much about being related to the most famous magician of all time, whose name is synonymous with great escape.īut at 66, the Arizona man is delving into the history of his great-uncle Harry Houdini in a journey at the heart of a new series on the Science Channel.

The magic of houdini