LOCAL historian Steve Chapples has been unravelling the tale of Harry Houdini's tightest escape from chains - the evening he performed in Blackburn.

HARRY HOUDINI had been escaping from all manner of prison vans, cells, strait jackets, chains, handcuffs and padlocks for 14 years, when he brought his act to the new Palace Theatre in Blackburn one October day in 1902.

Having performed at the theatre - which stood by the bus station - at 7pm and 9pm, 28-year-old Harry was about to entertain a further 2,500 spectators at 10pm.

A local man, 24-year-old William Hope Hodgson, owner of the Blackburn School of Physical Culture, builder, judo expert and former merchant marine, came forward to take up Houdini's £25 challenge that he could escape from any European or American police regulation handcuffs.

Harry did not like what he saw. Hodgson had brought with him six pairs of heavy irons with clanking chains and swinging padlocks plus handcuffs the like of which Harry had not seen before.

This night Hodgson and his burly assistant were determined they would be going home with the £25, which had been entrusted to the editor of the Blackburn Daily Star.

The pair first fixed a pair of irons over one of Houdini's upper arms and then pinioned his elbow close to his sides.

Next they did the same thing to his other arm and padlocked both his arms behind his back. Normally Houdini would flex the muscles in his wrists and once relaxed he had some leeway, but Hodgson applied the cuffs so tightly, they almost cut off his circulation.

Houdini was usually free of his fetters in minutes, but on this occasion he begged the audience to be patient.

After more than half an hour Houdini complained that his arms had become drained of blood and were numb and asked that the irons be unlocked for a minute to allow his circulation to be restored.

Hodgson growled: "This is a contest not a love match. If you are beaten, give in!"

A Dr Bradley examined the escapologist, whose arms were blue, and declared the chaining was tantamount to cruelty.

To great applause Houdini said he would continue with the contest, but complained that all the locks had been tampered with and Hodgson was advised to leave the theatre for his own safety.

At 11.50 Houdini staggered out of the cabinet. His shirt was torn from shoulder to cuff and he seemed semi-conscious. He received a 15 minute standing ovation.

Next day he showed his swollen, blue arms to a local newspaper reporter. Chunks of flesh had been torn out of his arms in his desperate desire to escape.

Dr Bradley believed that had he not escaped when he did his arms might have been paralysed.

He was back in Blackburn two months later and this time a man called Wilson brought a pair of tampered cuffs, but Houdini escaped from them after only 10 minutes.

When the audience booed, Houdini wrapped them round the rail by the footlights and it took Wilson 20 minutes to release them using three sets of keys.

Houdini described Blackburn as a wretched, hoodlum town, whose gallery was the worst he had worked, but these experiences established him as the greatest escapologist of all time and the highest paid performer in the world.

l A 592-page biography "The Secret Life Of Houdini" by Kalush and Sloman was published by Atria Books in 2006 priced £20.