While Houdini alleged Lea personally assaulted him, Lea coolly denied involvement in the altercation. He was grabbed by the throat and thrown into an alleyway outside.

Mr Lea, the theatre manager, had Houdini forcibly removed from the auditorium. With the show about to begin, Houdini called out 'fraud' and, brandishing a pair of handcuffs, yelled 'I have a pair of handcuffs you can't get out of!' Houdini, accompanied by his wife and mother-in-law, went to the theatre disguised as an old man, with talced hair, a moustache glued to his upper lip and carrying a walking stick. The stunts Hilbert performed were so similar to those of Houdini that they shared a nickname in the Welsh press: 'The Handcuff King'. The story follows that in April 1905 Houdini went to a nearby Cardiff theatre, the Empire, to see Hilbert, a local escape artist and music hall performer. By all accounts his courtroom audience was less receptive than the music hall crowds he was accustomed to. In 1905, during a run at the Newport Lyceum, he instigated court proceedings claiming to be the victim of an assault. Houdini amazed audiences in towns and cities across the country, but the magician's appearances in Newport were notable for his clashes with the authorities. Newspaper advertisements list performers including Vandinoff, 'the lightening painter in oils' Nelson 'with and without a piano' Jackson and, perhaps most impressively, Mr Bowmeester who 'plays a pathetic sketch which includes a dozen parts, eight or nine of which are sustained by himself.' Whether Bowmeester's performance surpassed the giddy heights of Billy French and his 'wooden shoe dancing' can only be left to speculation. His programme would also include a company of popular vaudeville acts.

Houdini the handcuff king