#2 - Handcuffs and first seriously broken rule

To find handcuffs, I went to the History Museum downtown, which has absorbed the Houdini Museum (he lived in Appleton for a few years as a child) and has an extensive exhibit upstairs. I knew there would be handcuffs there, in fact I remembered looking at a display that showed how he tapped the screws of the connectors between the cuffs and used that to release them during his escape acts.

But before I even got to the front desk to pay the entrance fee, I was confronted with a large, prominent sign that said something along the lines of "No photography of any kind anywhere in the whole building. Please check all cameras at the front desk."

Okay. I didn't check my cameras, either the still one or the video one, but I decided the least conspicuous thing would be to use my phone. I could always pretend I was sending a text or something.

Naturally, since it was a rainy afternoon (including some strong thunderstorms and
even marble-sized hail), every parent in town had brought every child in town to see the Houdini exhibit, so it was tricky to maneuver into a spot where no one was looking. Why wasn't the object a 1960's Barbie Dream Home, a Slinky, or Catholic vestments, all of which were in the 60's exhibit downstairs which was completely deserted and quiet? Also, I wasn't sure the commands to take a photo on my phone so had to duck into a small room that showed the wrist straps with metal holders that Houdini used to levitate tables in fake spiritualist seances, and turn off the keypad beeps, and get the menu all cued up to take a photo with one click, so I could do it quickly and surreptitiously when the opportunity arose. I finally slunk into a corner and got one shot when the Mom and kids beside me were distracted, then repaired downstairs. But when I went to the Ladies Room to check my work, the photo was all black. I knew I had to try again.

First I lurked around the gift shop, which was completely empty and hidden from the kid who was manning the front desk, and got this shot of a book about handcuffs, which I thought would do in a pinch.



Then I headed back upstairs and tried again. There was a perfect, secluded spot with lots of handcuffs and no kids, but a guy who looked even more suspicious than me was lurking there, and when I passed back around after about five minutes I heard lots of jingling and saw that he had locked himself in a pair of the handcuffs and was trying to escape from them, with lots of apparent struggling and little success. So I walked on, to a big display in the front room. The father and son who had spend ages in front of it finally moved on and I had my chance. Raised my camera but somehow was only getting images that were all black, or flashes of white light. Was there not enough light in the room? But why had the bookshop book photo turned out so well? Then realized that, doh, I had my hand over the camera lens. While I was doing this I was attending to the camera and not my surroundings and could very easily have been found out. But once I was getting an image on the screen I quickly pointed, quickly clicked, quickly went back down the stairs.



Taking these photos was so prohibited that if the History Museum ever finds this blog, I will be banned for life for sure. First real rule broken in pursuit of the hunt.