Houdini's secret out

It's the magic trick which made Harry Houdini famous and spawned a thousand imitations.

Handcuffed inside a sack and locked in a trunk, the Hungarian escapologist switches places with an assistant on the outside in the blink of an eye.

For more than 100 years, the technique has been among the most closely guarded secrets in the magic world.

But yesterday, a museum let his socalled Metamorphosis trick out of the bag - leaving magicians and illusionists around the world fuming.

Famous illusionists such as David Copperfield and many other practitioners have contacted the Outagamie Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin, to protest at its A.K.A. Houdini show.

They say their code of ethics bans revealing secrets to the public. 'This is a very, very passionate thing that magicians feel about and what the museum is doing is wrong,' said magician Ronald 'Rondini' Lindberg.

Museum bosses in Appleton, where Houdini spent some of his childhood, insist the exhibit has not revealed anything not already available in books and on the Internet. They also say people would appreciate magic more by knowing the secrets. But, just in case, a sign warns: 'Those who do not want to know how Houdini performed his magic should avoid this area.'

The exhibition - set to run for ten years - includes 38 artefacts and 190 documents. There is a straitjacket and a jail cell from which visitors can try to escape, plus Houdini items such as handcuffs and lock picks.

Museum curator Kim Louagie said that, before the exhibit opened, she had received more than 200 e-mails and phone calls of complaint.

But she had also received support from museum members and others. 'What we're doing here increases the value of magic rather than making it something cheap,' she said.

Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss in 1874, in Budapest. His family moved to Appleton when he was four, when his father became the town rabbi.

He embarked on a career in magic and later focused on escapes.

He died of peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix in Detroit in 1926.