Bernardi

Bernardi
Born	Bernhard Eskilsen 1902
Died	April 22, 1946
Nationality	Swedish

Bernardi (1902-1946) was a Swedish escape artist who started preforming after Houdini's death. His wife "Miss Hilden" (Hildegard Neureiter) worked as an assistant and also perform escapes.

Biography

In 1927, he began working under the name of Bernardi at an amusement park in Stockholm doing a combination contortion-escape act.

In the spring of 1929, Bernardi bought a lion, which he worked into the act by making it serve as an apparent threat as he was thrown, fully bound, into its cage. But he eventually lost everything in a fire.

He then started working as the mysterious "Mr. Bosco, the Man with the Mask" doing an escape act while masked.

In 1942, during the war, he developed a "living sculpture" presentation and toured Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. By 1944, after the war, Bernardi was back to doing escapes, performing for a circus in Denmark.

Bernardi died during publicity stunt for the opening of the new show season at Ronne, Denmark in which he was thrown into a river while shackled inside a sack that was set on fire. The coroner discovered that he had pre-existing heart problem. His stunt aggravated the condition, producing a clot, which traveled to his brain and killed him.

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