Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini became world-renowned for his stunts and feats of escapology even more so than his magical illusions.
Born	March 24, 1874 Budapest, Hungary
Died	October 31, 1926 Detroit, Michigan, USA
Occupation	magician, escapologist, stunt performer, actor, historian, pilot.

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), born Ehrich Weiss, was a Hungarian/American magician, escapologist, stunt performer, as well as an investigator of spiritualists.

Early Life

Houdini was born as Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family; upon immigration to America the family name was changed to Weiss by immigration officials and his first-name spelling to Erich. His father was a rabbi and his mother was Cecilia Steiner.

He immigrated with his father at the age of four on July 3, 1878 on the SS Fresia. On June 6, 1882 his father, Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen and moved to New York City with Ehrich in 1887. They lived in a boarding-house on East 79th Street. Rabbi Weiss later was joined by the rest of the family once he found more permanent housing. As a child Ehrich took several jobs, one of which was as a locksmith's apprentice. He made his public debut as a 9 year old trapeze artist, calling himself, "Ehrich, the prince of the air".

Magic

Weiss became a professional magician in 1891, and began calling himself "Harry Houdini" because he was influenced by French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.. The first part of his new name, Harry, was an homage to Harry Kellar, another of Weiss' largest influences. Initially, his magic career resulted in little success, though he met fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner in 1893, and married her three weeks later. For the rest of his performing career, Bess would work as his stage assistant.

Houdini initially focused on traditional card acts. At one point he billed himself as the "King of Cards" and "King of Handcuffs." One of his most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed in London's hippodrome: he vanished a full-grown elephant (with its trainer) from a stage, beneath which was a swimming pool.

"My Lovely Sweethearts". Houdini with his wife and mother, ca. 1907.

Harry Houdini's "big break" came in 1899, when he met the showman Martin Beck. Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Houdini traveled to Europe to perform. By the time he returned in 1904, he had become a sensation.

Houdini performed with great success in the United States. He would free himself from handcuffs, chains, ropes and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope or suspended in water, sometimes in plain sight of the audience. In 1913, he introduced perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass and steel cabinet full to overflowing with water. He held his breath for over three minutes.

In 1919 Houdini became president of Martinka & Co., America's oldest magic company. The business is still in operation today. After his amazing career in magic, Houdini became obsessed with two things; Flight and Movies. In 1910, while on a tour of Australia, Houdini brought with him a primitive bi-plane with which he made the first controlled powered aeroplane flight in Australia, at Diggers Rest, Victoria.

Houdini swims above Niagara Falls in a scene from The Man from Beyond (1922)

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Houdini and his wife

Death

Houdini's last performance was at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 1926. The next day he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital. Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. on Halloween, October 31, 1926, at the age of 52.

The most widespread account is that Houdini's ruptured appendix was caused by multiple blows to his abdomen from a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, in Montreal on October 22. The eyewitnesses to this event were two McGill University students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz (sometimes called Jack Price and Sam Smiley). Their accounts generally agreed. The following is according to Price's description of events. Houdini was reclining on his couch after his performance, having an art student sketch him. When Whitehead came in and asked if it was true that Houdini could take any blow to the stomach, Houdini replied in the affirmative. In this instance, he was struck several times, before Houdini protested. Whitehead reportedly continued hitting Houdini several times afterwards, and Houdini acted as though he were in some pain. Price recounted that Houdini stated that if he had had time to prepare himself properly, he would have been in better position to take the blows. After taking statements from Price and Smilovitz, Houdini's insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing room incident and paid double indemnity.

Despite this, modern medical knowledge gives no reason to believe Houdini's acute appendicitis was caused by any physical trauma. McGill University's archive supported this idea: It appears that Whitehead's punch to Houdini's stomach, while not fatal, aggravated an existing but still undetected case of appendicitis. Although in serious pain, Houdini nonetheless continued to travel without seeking medical attention."

Houdini's funeral was held on November 4, 1926 in New York, with over two thousand mourners in attendance. He was interred in the Machpelah Cemetery Queens, New York, with the crest of the Society of American Magicians inscribed on his gravesite. The Society holds their "Broken Wand" ceremony at the gravesite on the anniversary of his death to this day. Houdini's wife, Bess, died in February, 1943 and was not permitted to be interred with him at Machpelah Cemetery because she was a non-Jew. Bess Houdini is interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

In Houdini's will, his vast library was offered to the American Society for Psychical Research on the condition that research officer and editor of the ASPR Journal, J. Malcolm Bird, resign. Bird refused and the collection went instead to the Library of Congress.

Fearing spiritualists would exploit his legacy by pretending to contact him after his death, Houdini left his wife a secret code - ten words chosen at random from a letter written by Doyle - that he would use to contact her from the afterlife. His wife held yearly séances on Halloween for ten years after his death, but Houdini never appeared. In 1936, after a last unsuccessful seance on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, she put out the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of Houdini since his death, later (1943) saying "ten years is long enough to wait for any man." The tradition of holding a séance for Houdini continues to this day, and is currently organized by Sidney H. Radner. [1]

Legacy

"The Houdini Serial", 1919

• The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp with a replica of Houdini's favorite publicity poster on July 3, 2002.
• In 1918, Houdini signed a contract with film producer B.A. Rolfe to star in his fifteen part serial The Master Mystery (released in January 1919). As was common at the time, the film serial was released simultaneously with a novel. However, financial difficulties resulted in B.A. Rolfe Productions going out of business and Houdini was signed by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation for whom he made two pictures, The Grim Game (1919) and Terror Island (1920). He then started his own film production company called the "Houdini Picture Corporation," and produced and starred in two films, The Man From Beyond (1921) and Haldane of the Secret Service (1923), writing the screenplay for the first. Although success in film eluded him and he gave up on the business in 1923, his celebrity became such that years later he would be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7001 Hollywood Blvd.
• A mostly fictionalized biopic of Houdini's life was made in 1953 starring Tony Curtis. Most of the misconceptions about Houdini's life are due in part to this film. For example, it heavily implies his death was from Houdini's failure to escape the Chinese Water Torture Cell, instead of the less spectacular peritonitis. (In fairness it should be noted that, in the film, Houdini's assistant warns him, before the Water Torture Cell stunt, that his abdominal pains are being probably caused by an appendicitis. Curtis' Houdini agrees to seek medical attention "when the tour is over.")
• Houdini was played by Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky and Hutch fame in a 1976 TV movie called The Great Houdinis (aka The Great Houdini) also highly fictionalized. The film focused on Houdini's relationship with his wife and mother, whom it portrayed as frequently bickering (although in reality they had cordial relations) and his fascination with life after death. The cast also included Sally Struthers, Bill Bixby, and Ruth Gordon.
• The Tony award-winning musical "Ragtime", based on E. L. Doctorow's novel of the same name features Houdini as one of the numerous historical supporting characters.
• Executed murderer Gary Gilmore grew up thinking that Houdini was his grandfather.
• There is a Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA. It claims to be the only building in the world entirely dedicated to Houdini and is run by magicians Dick Brooks and Dorothy Dietrich . The museum also holds an annual Houdini Seance.
• While touring in the United States, Houdini met Joe Keaton and his family vaudeville act. It's said that after Joe's young son fell down a flight of stairs unscathed, Houdini remarked "Your kid is quite the buster" (buster being a stage name for a fall) and gave a name to comedy legend Buster Keaton (the kid).
• In 1968, the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame was opened on Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. At its opening, this museum contained the majority of Houdini's personal collection of magic paraphernalia. One of Houdini's death wishes was that his entire collection be given to his brother Theodore ( also known as the magician Hardeen) , and burned upon Theodore's death. Against his wishes, forty years after Houdini's death the items were taken from storage and sold. Two entrepreneurs purchased the items and renovated a former meat packing plant on Clifton Hill, Ontario, Canada to house the museum. The museum was moved in 1972 to its final location on the top of Clifton Hill. Seances were held every year at the museum on October 31, the anniversary of Houdini's death. It has been rumored that in 1974 on the seventh seance held at the museum, medium Ann Fisher asked Houdini to make his presence known. Immediately a pot of flowers fell from a shelf along with a book about Houdini; the book opened to a page featuring a Houdini poster entitled Do Spirits Return? In 1995, a tragic fire destroyed the museum and the majority of its contents. Perhaps Houdini's final wishes were finally carried out. ^{[citation needed]}
• The City of Appleton constructed Houdini Plaza on the site of their home in 1985.
• The myth that a cousin of Houdini married Three Stooges member Moe Howard is false.
• Harry Houdini appears in issues #19 and #20 of Todd McFarlane's Spawn (comics), where he acts as a mysterious time travelling performer with the ability to manipulate the universe.
• A musical of Houdini's life written by Michael Martin and Brian Bazala premiered Off-Broadway in 1999 at the Judith Anderson Theatre.
• Houdini even has his last name as a word in the dictionary; to do a Houdini is to escape somehow.
• Houdini is a central character in Wonder of the Worlds and is the main protagonist in the remaining two volumes of the adventure trilogy by Sesh Heri, featuring a conflict between Earth and Mars.

Publications

Houdini published numerous books during his career (some of which were written by his good friend Walter Brown Gibson, the creator of The Shadow [2]):

• The Right Way to do Wrong (1906)
• Handcuff Secrets (1907)
• The Unmasking of Robert Houdin (1908)
• Magical Rope Ties and Escapes (1920)
• Miracle Mongers and their Methods (1920)
• Houdini's Paper Magic (1921)
• A Magician Among the Spirits (1924)
• Under The Pyramids (1924) with H.P. Lovecraft, as part of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

Biographies

• Silverman, Kenneth Houdini!!!: The Career of Ehrich Weiss NY: HarperCollins, 1997 ISBN 006092862X
• Kellock, Harold Houdini: His Life-Story from the recollections and documents of Beatrice Houdini, Boston: Harcourt, Brace Co., June, 1928. Houdini code on page 105.
• Christopher, Milbourne Houdini: The Untold Story NY:Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1969 ASIN B000GLV462

Further reading

• Christopher, Milbourne Mediums, Mystics and the Occult NY: Thomas T. Crowell Co., 1975, pp 122-145, Arthur Ford-Messages from the Dead, contains detailed information about the Houdini messages and their disclosure. (Recommend compare)
• Spraggett, Allen with Rauscher, William V Arthur Ford: The Man Who Talked with the Dead, NY: New American Library, 1973, pp 152-165, Chapter 7, The Houidni Affair contains detailed information about the Houdini messages and their disclosure. (Recommend compare)
• Rinn, Joseph F Sixty Years of Psychical Research , NY: Truth Seeker Co., 1950 ASIN B0006ASHEK , Rinn was a long time close friend of Houdini. Contains detailed information about the last Houdini message (there are 3) and its disclosure. (Recommend compare)

External Links

• Timeline of Houdini's life
• Biographical resources dedicated to Harry Houdini
• The Houdini Museum in Scranton Pennsylvania
• Harry Houdini's Gravesite

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