The journey took it from Long Wharf to the Keith's stage entrance on Mason street. On the day of the challenge, "several thousand people" lined the streets of Boston to watch as the "What is it?" was carried through the streets. From the existing photo, it does appear to resemble a turtle more than a whale or octopus. But Patrick Culliton in Houdini The Key says it was actually a giant leatherback turtle. For the purposes of their screenplay, Rivele and Wilkienson decided it was a narwhale. Houdini called it a "mongrel breed of whale and octopus." Ken Silverman in Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss suggests that it could have been an elephant seal. What exactly the "What is it?' was is still a mystery today. One called it a "turtle-tortoise-fish or whatever it is." Soon the press simply dubbed it the "What is it?" The press claimed it weighed 1500 pounds and was "estimated to be about 500 years old." Papers struggled to describe it. The carcass had either washed up on shore or was caught by local fisherman, depending on the newspaper account. The "freak sea monster" was news in New England even before Houdini became involved.
It remains one of Houdini's most famous and bizarre challenges. Houdini did indeed escape from the belly of a beached sea creature at Boston's B.F. What makes it even better is this is all based on fact. "Liberated, commanding, radiating primal power. The audience watches, mesmerized, as the beast suddenly breaks open with a sucking ripping sound and THE GREAT HOUDINI emerges from within, covered in viscera and holding chains. Its belly is convulsing, as if it's about to give birth. Hippodrome Theater, Boston: The beached creature - a narwhale - is now center stage, flanked by men with axes.
The frightened woman asks, "What is it?" As they step closer, the creature suddenly rolls over, its jaws opening with a death rattle. It spills out onto the sand beside the startled couple where it lays unmoving in the moonlight. Suddenly, a large wave heaves the creature onto the beach. At the breakwater's edge, they kiss - oblivious to the fact that something large and bulbous is racing towards them, its dorsal fin slicing through the surf. A young couple steals away from the party and walks down to the beach, holding hands. Had that movie ever been made, it would have started like this:Ĭape Cod, Halloween 1924: We are at a masked ball at a Cape Cod mansion. The film was to be directed by Paul Verhoeven (later Ang Lee) from a screenplay by Stephen Rivele and Christoper Wilkinson. In the late 1990s Columbia Pictures planned to make a big-budget Houdini movie starring Tom Cruise.
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