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Even Houdini couldn't match magic man's great escape

Stuart Greer
19/ 3/2008

SADDLEWORTH’S answer to Houdini, David De-Val, forged a reputation as a top magician and escapologist in a career spanning four decades.

This week 25 years ago, David was preparing to attempt an escape from Dick Turpin’s cell at York Castle, a feat his idol Harry Houdini had refused to try in 1909. Our man managed the feat, one of hundreds of escapes he performed up and down the land.

David is perhaps best known in the magic world as the man who discovered the secret of Houdini’s test condition cell escape, performed by Houdini in the early 1900s and recreated – often from the same cells – by David in the early 1980s.

It was a secret Houdini took to his grave, and one which took David many years of research to uncover and re-construct.

He finally published the secret for magicians and escapologists in his book "Cell Escape - the real secret" in 2000, two years before his death from cancer in 2002.

Born in Oldham as David Littler, his mum and dad ran a jewellers shop in Greenacres. Inspired by a next door neighbour who used to perform magic tricks, David decided to give the art a go himself.

He began performing at local carnivals and in the Oldham clubs before joining Oldham’s answer to the Magic Circle – the Oldham Magi.

While magic was a hobby, David worked as a mechanic in the local mills and later as a production manager for a pharmaceutical company.

His first trick was to escape from a wooden cotton package and he later performed in public where he was buried for two hours in an air-tight coffin. After he was made redundant, he took a chance and turned professional where he became a celebrated cabaret magician, perfoming in front of Princess Margaret, as well as becoming a world-class escape artist, manufacturer of magicians props and, late in his life, an author and mentor to young magicians.

He married three times, had two daughters, Ann and Rebecca, and a granddaughter Sally-Jo, 16.

Ann, 45, from High Crompton, said she grew up surrounded by magic.

"Dad lived and breathed magic," she said. "He would hide away in his workshop and urge us to come and look at his latest props, but we were so used to it we used to tell him to wait while we finished watching Coronation Street.

"He was a larger than life chap. Whereas other dads would pick up there kids from school in black trousers and a white shirt, dad would wear a brightly-coloured shirt. In a way he never stopped performing."

David’s tricks weren’t always successful. In 1984 his televised attempt to free himself from three sets of handcuffs, two padlocks and a combination lock while travelling on a Blackpool roller coaster failed.

Ann said: "Sometimes things didn’t go to plan, but dad always said ‘there’s nothing as good as bad publicity - it lasts longer’."

Last October, in tribute to David’s attempt 23 years previously, escape artist David Straitjacket, from Manchester, escaped from three sets of handcuffs, two padlocks and a combination lock in three circuits of the Infusion roller coaster in Blackpool, while Ann, Sally-Jo, and the locksmith who originally challenged David watched.

In the news, 25 years ago ...

• AN OLDHAM College student secured a part in Coronation Street. Tony Marshall, from Hathershaw, was due to take the role of Roy Balentine, an assistant to mechanic Les Fairclough. Tony was a second year theatre studies student at the college and this was his first TV part.
• RESIDENTS complained to police about gangs of rampaging glue sniffers on their estate.The Crete Street estate had become a favourite haunt for 15 and 16-year-olds who sniffed glue and became abusive and aggressive under the influence.
• DANCER Alison Worsley secured a starring role in the West End musical Bugsy Malone.The 13-year-old from Failsworth had previous auditions for The Sound of Music and Annie but was told she was too old. Alison was the winner at the Greater Manchester Ballet Championship, the North West England Ballet Championships, and second in the Great Britain Championships.
• POLICE appealed for the help of nosy neighbours to solve crimes.Figures showed there had been 3,700 burglaries in the borough over a year, an increase of 20 per cent. However, crime prevention officer Sgt Brian Fishlock suggested nosy neighbours and their curtain twitching could be useful by recognising people acting suspiciously.
• NEIGHBOURS protested against a developers plans to build houses on Royton Cemetery. A petition of 2,850 signatures was presented to Oldham Council in a bid to save land off Oozewood Road.
• STUDENT nurse Michael White used his experience as an engineer to build a special pram for a disabled child.The 24-year-old designed transport for a toddler with a hip displacement he met on the children’s ward at Royal Oldham Hospital. Michael became a nurse after four years as an apprentice in the motor industry.
• OLDHAM Council revealed it had put up 15 homeless families in bed and breakfast accommodation in the last municipal year.