In April 1909 Houdini performed his manacled dive into the Seine River from the Paris Morgue, which stood on the Quai de l’Archeveche behind Notre Dame. The morgue, built in 1864, had until just recently been a tourist attraction in its own right, pulling in up to 40,000 people a day, including many Britons on the Thomas Cook tour of the city keen to gawk at the unidentified cadavers displayed in the hope that someone might recognise them. A 1907 civic decree finally put a stop to the morbid spectacle.

While in Paris that year, Houdini was booked at the Olympia Theatre for two and a half months, and lived at 32 rue Bellefond. He also visited the Theatre Robert-Houdin on Boulevard des Italiens, and in Blois placed a wreath on the grave of the famous prestidigitator on who name he’d based his own. Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) had been an enormous influence on generations of stage magicians. His 200-seat theatre was once run by Georges Melies, remembered for his pioneering science-fiction movies.