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When he came to a town he'd ask how many tickets had been sold and if it wasn't a full house, Houdini would get into a straitjacket and hang over a bridge to draw a big audience anxious to see him wriggle out within minutes, or lock himself into a crate dumped into a river. What made Houdini a superstar was his astute understanding of what crowds wanted to see and his brilliance at promotion. Initially, he called himself the King of Cards but was mostly a failure as a straight-up magician and considered giving up the profession, Posnanski said, until he concentrated on escape tricks. Houdini ran away from home in Milwaukee at the age of 12 and returned two years later, before moving with his father to New York, which would be his home for the rest of his life.