Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini is a hero because he inspired a lot of people to do magic. He started out with nothing, taught himself how to be a magician, and became an expert at the art of escape.

Harry Houdini was born March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. Enrich Weiss was his real name. He was one of eight children. At the age of eleven, his oldest brother died of Tuberculosis. He did not go to the same school consistently. His family moved a lot because his father needed to find work. When he was twelve, Enrich ran away to find a job. He was the assistant cutter at a bowtie factory. He got hired by pranking everybody. He said that the job was taken and walked in. He decided to change his name to Harry Houdini.

Houdini had many challenges in his life. Besides his family being poor when he was young, he also had problems when he was starting his career. First, he felt that he was underpaid by his show manager, Marten Beck, the owner of the Orpheum circuit, where Houdini did his magic act. Next, he also didn't finish high school and was not very educated. He later had to educate himself with books. Later, another one of his challenges is that he got injured a lot, but he never smoked or drank.

Harry Houdini's accomplishments were many. He entertained everyone and built up the show business for magicians and escape artists. This type of performer became more popular because of him. He invented a lot of new escapes that had never been done before. He was credited with being the first successful aviator in Australia. He also invented the quick escape diving suit as well as a kind of handcuff to only be used in his act. He accomplished a great deal in his career.

Houdini had many character traits that helped him to be successful in his career. He was hard working, creative, and adventurous. He liked to do stunts without doubles. He also liked to make up his own escapes. He invented his own escape from a large milk can and he made his very own "Chinese water torture cell", which he called his "upside down". Also he worked a lot, but he got paid a lot of money. In Europe, he was invited to an insane asylum. He saw his first straitjacket on this visit. He recorded "I saw a maniac struggling on the canvas padded floor, rolling about and straining each and every muscle in a vain attempt to free himself from his canvas restraint noted that if he was able to dislocate his arm at shoulder joint, he would have been able to cause his restraint to become slack in certain parts and so allow him to free his arms this was the first time I saw a straitjacket and it left such a vivid impression I hardly slept that night". Houdini also went through a wall (well, not really, he actually went under it.). The solution to the trick was there was a trap door under a carpet that opened when a screen was lowered on every side of the wall. The carpet moved just enough for him to squeeze through the door and under a steel beam under the wall to get to the other side. That's how this trick is done, and many other tricks are unknown, at least for now - ¦read a biography of Houdini to find out more about him.

If you want to be the best at doing something, you have to work hard at it, and you have to keep learning what others are doing that might make them better than you are. This is a good person to research on the internet, but don't look up any photos of him (well, you know what I should be talking about, do you?).