People are still confused by the Italian name of one of the most famous magicians, escapologists and stunt performers of all time. In actual fact, however, Harry Houdini was the stage name of Erich Weiss who began calling himself Houdini as a tribute to the French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. 

Erich Weiss was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. In 1878 the family moved to the United States. Like many of his peers, Erich was an illiterate but highly driven young man. He changed many jobs working as a messenger, selling newspapers and working as a bootblack before taking his own act on the road. He spent five years focusing on cards and other card acts but with little success. Finally, tired and heartbroken, he came to his friend, a psychologist, and saw there a straitjacket. The encounter gave rise to the famous Houdini Escapes series that eventually made him a living legend. Houdini was soon escaping from numerous devices, including leg irons, coffins and even a paper bag without even tearing it. They say that when he managed to complete his stunt quickly he would just sit behind the curtains reading a magazine just to keep the audience on edge…

Initially, his magical career met with little success. To perform his stunts with greater effect Houdini needed a stage partner whom he finally found in the person of his brother Theo. The Houdini brothers staked on a stunt they called Metamorphosis where Theo had his hands tied and placed inside a wooden box. Harry would stand on the lid and then the whole concoction disappeared behind a curtain. On the count of three the curtain went up and, much to everyone’s amazement, there was Theo standing exactly where his brother stood a moment before… Then they opened up the box and a tied-up Harry appeared from inside it… Even though the stunt was a big success, the brothers were not earning enough money to cover their expenses.  By the summer of 1892 much of Harry’s enthusiasm was gone, partly because, his father now dead, the 17-year-old had his mother, brother and sister to care for. 

The brothers then headed to Chicago where they earned quick recognition working on virtually every stage they could find in the city. Earning nearly 10 dollars a week Harry learned the art of breaking locks from a suspect looking local type and started thinking about using it in his stunts. The first locks he cracked happened to be police handcuffs. 

Once, performing in New York Harry, already 19, met fellow performer Bess Rahner and married her three weeks later. Bess joined Houdini’s act and Theo struck out on his own. In 1899 they crossed the Atlantic and toured Europe wowing audiences with their escapist stunts of which The Metamorphosis was certainly one… The Houdinis remained in Europe for five years and became the premiere vaudeville attraction there.  In 1905 a nostalgic Houdini returned to the States determined to become an even bigger star.  He increased the difficulty and originality of his stunts and the money he was getting for his sold-out performances were incomparable with anything a regular stuntman could ever hope for…

Unfortunately, Harry and Bess never had a child. Houdini was a living legend and he was doing much to shroud his life in mystery. Unlike his colleagues, he regularly performed in public trying to make sure that as many people as possible could see them and that they were extensively covered in the press. In his most famous stunt, Houdini, strapped in a straitjacket, was hung head down from a high-rise or a bridge and was supposed to free himself.  Newspaper stories about him that came out almost on a daily basis during the first two decades of the 20th century made Houdini one of the most rumored about people of his time. All that chitchat, most of which was spread by Houdini’s envious colleagues, were enough to write a whole heartrending soap opera, but Houdini was above all that gossip. 

On October 22, 1926 Houdini was in Montreal giving a lecture on spiritualism. While sitting on his dressing room with several students from McGill University, Houdini was asked if he could actually withstand a blow to the stomach thrown by any man. Before Houdini could prepare himself by tightening his stomach muscles, one of the students hit him three times. Already 50, Houdini was no longer the man-mountain he once used to be... Although he seemed to recover, even performing shortly after, he soon fell ill. Houdini would not see a doctor for several days. By the time he was diagnosed, it was too late. Houdini died of peritonitis on October 31. Having escaped from the most unthinkable situations the human mind could ever think of, Houdini died as a result of an unfortunate accident. As they say, fate is something you just can’t escape…
 
 

10/31/2005