![]() ![]() Over the years great names have appeared here, including wild west showman Buffalo Bill, Harry Houdini the magician, silver-tongued orator William Jennings Bryan, and Comanche war chief Quanah Parker. In 1937 the Pan American Exposition used the grounds. The fair suspended operations for two years in order to permit the Central Exposition of the Texas Centennial Celebration to be held here in 1936. ![]() Since 1904 the fair grounds have been owned by the city, which maintains them as a public park except during the annual two-week fair. Gaston and other pioneer business and civic leaders of Dallas. It was begun as a private, nonprofit corporation for civic purposes by Capt. Founded in 1886, the State Fair of Texas now ranks as the most largely attended State Fair in the U.S. DbPedia Wikidata Wikipedia Commemorated on 5 plaques He was also a keen aviator and aimed to become the first man to fly a powered aircraft in Australia. Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. ![]() He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as "Harry 'Handcuff' Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. His wife waited for a communiqué from the spirit world but it never came she declared the experiment a failure shortly before her death in 1943.Harry Houdini (/huːˈdiːni/, born Erik Weisz Ma– October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. Then, on Halloween 1926, Houdini himself passed on at the age of 52. Several of these friends died, but Houdini never received a sign from them. At the same time, he was deeply interested in spiritualism and made a pact with his wife and friends that the first to die was to try and communicate with the world of reality from the spirit world. ![]() In his later years, Houdini campaigned against mediums, mind readers, fakirs, and others who claimed supernatural talents but depended on tricks. Other acts featured Houdini being hung from a skyscraper in a straitjacket, or bound and buried-without a coffin-under six feet of dirt. In another, he was heavily bound and then suspended upside down in a glass-walled water tank. In a favorite act, he was bound and then locked in an ironbound chest that was dropped into a water tank or thrown off a boat. In 1908, Houdini began performing more dangerous and dramatic escapes. ![]()
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