Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini about to escape (Wikipedia)

Harry Houdini; The master of magic. He’s known worldwide and is known as the king of handcuffs. His family was very poor. Harry said later, on the subject of his family’s wealth, ‘The less said on the subject the better.’ Did you know that he ran away from home when he was twelve and headed to Texas? There are many other interesting things about his life, so read on.

Harry Houdini's grave is visited by his wife and (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?varstg:9:./temp/~ammem_dYCU::displayType=1:m856sd=varshoud:m856sf=3c12441:@@@)

Ehrich Weiss sure is amazing. What? You’ve never heard of him? You know, the King of Handcuffs? Harry Houdini? In March 24, 1874, Ehrich was born in Budapest, Hungary. He traveled to the U.S. with his family, and settled in Appleton, WI. In 1891, Ehrich Weiss took the stage name of Harry Houdini, and on October 5, 1892, Rabbi Mayer Weiss died of cancer. On June 22, 1894 Harry Houdini married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, and they created a stage act called Metamorphosis, stunning people nationwide. At the turn of the century, Harry debuted as the “King of Handcuffs” in Europe. In 1910, Harry Houdini made the first successful plane flight on Australia, and was one of the first. (Airplanes were a fairly new idea back then) In 1926, Harry Houdini died from peritonitis on Halloween.

Harry Houdini (http://www.whosdatedwho.com/celebrities/people/dating/harry-houdini.htm)

Life wasn’t always easy for Harry Houdini. No, he had to endure many hardships on his walk to fame. His dad died of cancer when he was eighteen years old, and his mother died when he was 39. Harry Houdini also tried to be a circus man, but that didn’t work out too well for him. Believe it or not, Harry Houdini also tried to be a comedian, but that also didn’t work out too well. But besides all of those hardships, Harry Houdini was a person who makes major accomplishments look easy. When he was about nine years old, he performed Ehrich, Prince of Air in his backyard and did contortions and walked on a tightrope! Harry needed more than one and a half hours to break out of the Illustrated Mirror handcuffs, something that everyone loved. He created several new acts, including the Milk Jug escape and the suspended straitjacket escape. He wasn’t a con artist, he was an artist.

Harry and Bess by their wooden crate for metamorp (http://www.houdinitribute.com/img/metahhbess.jpg)

Harry Houdini was many things, and the most honorable of all was his determination. Every time you think he’s done the most impossible thing, he comes out with another! Perhaps another word for it would be his determination to outdo himself, not just the magician on Broadway. Just that alone is what I admire about him. There are other things, like how he had a hardship happen to him and he got right up again and worked around it. There aren’t a whole lot of people who can do that.

Houdini about to enter a coffin to be placed unde (http://houdini.org/photos/underwat.jpg)

I’ve written all I could about Harry Houdini, and there are still more things to write about him. Did you know that Harry Houdini was once in a coffin with about three to four minutes of air space in it, put underwater, and stayed under and alive for about one and a half hours? He did that to prove that fear is what kills miners in airless spaces. He went to great lengths to prove a point. Reading about him has taught me that you should always stick up for what you believe in.