Harry Houdini

Houdini was an amazing magician, and he had an interesting life. He was known by all and challenged by all in his lengthy career and managed to mesmerize them all. And the following about his life will mesmerizes you. .

Ehrich Weiss, was his genuine name, was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest Hungary, but later he claimed he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin on April 6th of the same year. Some say he said this because his father had a criminal history there in Hungary. Furthermore people believed him because this was were he later moved. In 1888 he became interested in magic when his father, a religious scholar, took him to see Dr. Lynn, a traveling magician. He didn’t have much time in his younger age to practice magic because his family had financial trouble and he had to start work early on. At the age of twelve he ran away to Kansas City and stayed there one year. After that year he met up with his family in New York. While in New York he managed to practice magic, hold a job to support his family, and participate in track and swimming. In the beginning he practiced easy tricks like vanishing matches, spirit release, and the magic butterflies. The physical sports Harry participated in especially swimming helped him to learn endurance, which helped him acquire the skills that an escape artist needs. While studying up on magic he came upon the memoirs of Robert Houdin and that was the spark that started the fire. Robert Houdin was his idol for a long while and that is how he got his last name, Houdini, from. He got his first name from what his family used to call him, ‘Ehrie’. Evan though Robert Houdin was Houdini’s idol he (Houdini) wrote a book, The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, which demolished Houdin’s reputation. Finally in 1891 Harry Houdini was officially a professional magician after he preformed ‘Metamorphosis’. Soon after in 1892 he and his brother Theodore put on a “ Double Act”. During one of their big breaks they had forgotten the tools needed to escape and Harry was stuck in the box and this made It hard to find jobs in NY. So to get work flowing they went to the Midwest to start over. 1894 Harry meets Beatrice Rahner a struggling dancer and singer in a group the “The Floral Sisters. They married her on June 22nd . Beatrice soon replaced Theodore and they were known as Houdini’s Harry & Bess. His brother, Theodore, went off on his own and became a famous conjurer. As the years went by Harry learned more tricks like how to escape handcuffs, strait jackets, and many more captivating illusions. To make more drama Houdini preformed his escapes in front and close to the audiences. He was soon a headliner and people from around the world were challenging him. People used to say Houdini had done something to the crate or mailbag and that’s why he could escape, he let the company bring it to the theater themselves without even letting him near it. Sometimes people went to the extent of having him do it naked! Although those things were done, Houdini managed to escape. Onetime though Houdini had to rig a crate because he didn’t have enough time, especially when underwater, to use all the tools needed.

Houdini’s next success was in England. He arrived there in the early 1900’s and was not known at all. Houdini first went to the Alhambra Theater in London and was turned down until Houdini said the Scotland Yard Theater, the Alhambra’s rival, was going to consider him. That was in 1900 and soon enough in the year of 1901 Houdini was known practically all over Europe. That same year he returned to New York to stun audiences by being nailed in a crate and thrown in a river. He also escaped from a giant milk can filled with water and a Chinese water torture cell. After he had preformed the Chinese water torture cell act in Germany a women in the same circus, “ Miss Undina” presented an imitation of that. Harry later sued her for infringement of dramatic rights and won. Furthermore in the same year Houdini’s mother died on July 17th. This forced him return to America. Even though Houdini was great he still got hurt and was laid off for a few weeks. This was not a bad injury at all, but Harry was hurt when strapped into a bag. Harry almost died once escaping from “ The Living Burial” because of shortage of breath. Also even though people thought Harry was putting his life in danger, he had it all planned out and thought of all the things that could go wrong beforehand. Another thing Harry Houdini was known for was movies. He was in a few and directed a few. He directed two films with himself and his brother, Theodore, also helped direct. These movies were “ The Man From Beyond” and “Haldane Of The Secret Service”. Those movies were in 1921 the movies he was in were “ The Grim Game” and “Terror Island” in1919. For those two movies he had died his hair black.

On October 31st 1926 Houdini collapsed before his show in Detroit, Michigan. The mysteries thing is Houdini died on Halloween night. He was brought to Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in room 104 and died at about 1:26 pm. He died from Peritonitis, which resulted from Appendicitis. They say this might have occurred because he was punched in the stomach after a show and ruptured his appendix. He was then buried at 82-30 Cypress road Hills Street Queens New York. He was buried with his family, but not with his wife

In conclusion I found Harry Houdini’s life both interesting and full of success. After his death his wife made a few attempts to contact his soul by séances, but never thoroughly succeeded. Lastly many magicians have tried, but I doubt any one of them will ever be a great a the Amazing Harry Houdini.