The act was performed at the Hippodrome. The size of the theater made the cabinet with which this illusion was performed, appear much smaller than its actual size. Also, theater's shape made it difficult for most people to look through the Elephant Cabinet. The downstairs spectators formed a semicircle, balcony patrons had their view of the top of the cabinet cut off, and patrons sitting in front saw a slightly oblong cabinet which was set toward the audience, so that its curtained front end was toward one wing of the stage and the back, was toward the other wing.
When Houdini spread the "front" curtains and opened the "back" doors they were "faced" toward opposite wings. Jennie then strolled on stage, had her sugar with Houdini by the footlights and was moved from there to the front of the cabinet, which she entered. The curtains were then drawn shut at Houdini's order, and the two doors were closed at the back. After this, the front was then slowly but steadily turned straight toward the audience. Filled with 5 tons of elephant, the illusion required twelve men to turn the cabinet, which took up seven or eight minutes. During this time, all Houdini did was open the front curtains. He didn't have to open the back doors. Each half of the back door had an oval cutout in the edge, so that when closed, they showed a circular opening in the center. The audience saw through the cabinet and out the hole in the back. Apparently the elephant had vanished; otherwise there would have been no unobstructed view.
Where did the elephant go? It never left the cabinet. Houdini was simply working in a hugely oversized cabinet on the world's largest stage. While the cabinet was being slowly swung frontward by the stage crew, the trainer, who had gone into the cabinet with the elephant, was moving the elephant to one side. There, a black interior curtain was pulled into place, matching the inside of the cabinet and hiding the elephant. When the front end curtains were drawn apart, the audience saw an empty cabinet; nothing could be seen except the circular opening at the back of the cabinet. The light coming in from the opening in the back gave the interior a perspective that minimized the darkness. The front curtain was widely bunched at the side where the elephant was hidden.
He made it disappear in New York in 1918.
he made an elephant disappear
If you separate magic tricks from escapology, then Houdini's most impressive trick was the disappearing elephant trick. Here an elephant was walked on to the stage and into a box; the box was rotated then opened. The elephant and keeper were gone. The trick is all the more impressive if you know that under the stage was a swimming pool so there were no trap doors. It's generally thought that Houdini did the trick with a slanted mirror inside the box. This method is still used today to make the Statue of Liberty (or the like) disappear.
The title of Jim Steinmeyer's book "Hiding The Elephant" is referring to one of Houdini's more public failures. It was a show in New York's Hippodrome. A huge arena. Houdini wanted to present a similarly huge trick, and decided to make an elephant disappear. However, the trick apparently wasn't very fooling, and the headline the next day read "Houdini Hides Elephant". As for failing to escape, for most of his career he had an open challenge to his audiences to provide any sort of restraint and he would free himself. There are a few stories on record of him failing that challenge, usually involving a rather unique or custom built restraint.
When he makes a coin disappear
Harry Houdini made an elephant disapear and escaped from closed heavy boxes
Harry did lots of tricks, but some of his most famous tricks were, making an elephant disappear, and of course the Chinese torture cell. sadly he died doing this trick
If you separate magic tricks from escapology, then Houdini's most impressive trick was the disappearing elephant trick. Here an elephant was walked on to the stage and into a box; the box was rotated then opened. The elephant and keeper were gone. The trick is all the more impressive if you know that under the stage was a swimming pool so there were no trap doors. It's generally thought that Houdini did the trick with a slanted mirror inside the box. This method is still used today to make the Statue of Liberty (or the like) disappear.
Harry Houdini made an elephant disapear and escaped from closed heavy boxes
There was a swimming pool beneath the stage, Houdini obscured the animal with a curtain and they opened the hatch, moved the elephant into the pool and closed the hatch, then opene d the curtain and "Presto!" the elephant was gone.
Instead of killing or yelling at people he just made them disappear.
Only one, if it was Harry Houdini and then he would have changed it into an elephant.