Table of Contents
EARLY LIFE
- Famed magician/entertainer Harry Houdini was born Erich Weisz on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz (1829–1892) and Cecília Steiner (1841–1913).
- Weisz arrived in the United States on July 3, 1878,the family lived on Appleton Street in an area that is now known as Houdini Square.
- As a child, Ehrich Weiss took several jobs, making his public début as a 9-year-old trapeze artist. When Weiss became a professional magician he began calling himself “Harry Houdini”, after the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.
MAGICIAN
- Houdini began his magic career in 1891, but had little success. Houdini’s big break came in 1899 when he met manager Martin BeckMin.
- Impressed by Houdini’s handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.
- Houdini became widely known as “The Handcuff King.” In each city, Houdini challenged local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails.
MAGICIAN
- With his new-found wealth, Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria.In 1904, Houdini returned to the U.S. and purchased a house for $25,000 Harlem, New York City.
- In 1906, Houdini created his own publication, the Conjurers’ Monthly Magazine. From 1907 and throughout the 1910s, Houdini performed with great success in the United States.
- He freed himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in sight of street audiences.
MAGICIAN
- After much research, Houdini wrote a collection of articles on the history of magic, which were expanded into The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin published in 1908.
- In 1913, Houdini introduced the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, holding his breath for more than three minutes. He would go on performing this escape for the rest of his life.
- For many years, he was the highest-paid performer in American vaudeville.
MAGICIAN
- One of Houdini’s most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed at the New York Hippodrome when he vanished a full-grown elephant from the stage.
- He also served as President of the Society of American Magicians (a.k.a. S.A.M.) from 1917 until his death in 1926.
- By the end of 1916, magicians’ clubs in San Francisco and other cities that Houdini had not visited were offering to become assemblies.
- He had created the richest and longest-surviving organization of magicians in the world. It now embraces almost 6,000 dues-paying members and almost 300 assemblies worldwide. In July 1926, Houdini was elected for the ninth successive time President of the Society of American Magicians.
MOVIES
- Houdini’s wealth allowed him to indulge in other passions, such as aviation and film. He purchased his first plane in 1909 and set out to become the first person to man a controlled power flight over Australia in 1910.
- Houdini also launched a movie career, releasing his first film in 1901, Merveilleux Exploits du Célébre Houdini Paris, which documented his escapes. He starred in several subsequent films, including The Master Mystery, The Grim Game and Terror Island.
- In New York, he started his own production company, Houdini Picture Corporation, and a film lab called The Film Development Corporation, but neither was a success.
DEATH
- Harry Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, at 1:26 p.m. on October 31, 1926, in Room 401 at Detroit’s Grace Hospital, aged 52.
- Houdini’s funeral was held on November 4, 1926, in New York City, with more than 2,000 mourners in attendance.
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