Harry Houdini

"Houdini" redirects here. For other uses, see Houdini (disambiguation).

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	Halloween October 31, 1926 Detroit, Michigan, USA
Occupation(s)	magician, escapologist, stunt performer, actor, historian, pilot, and paranormal investigator.

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 311926), born Erik Weisz, was a Hungarian magician, escapologist, stunt performer, as well as an investigator of spiritualists, and an amateur aviator.

Birth

Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary, to a Jewish family. His given name is found spelled differently in different sources and also his birth date is uncertain. However, years after his death a copy of his birth certificate was found and published in The Houdini Birth Research Committee's Report (1972). According to that source, he was born on March 24, 1874 as Erik Weisz. Houdini himself spelled his name Ehrich Weiss, as can for example seen from this letter to his mother. As to his birth date, from 1900 onwards Houdini claimed in interviews to have been born in Appleton, Wisconsin on April 6, 1874.

His father, Mayer (Mayo) Samuel Weiss (1829-1892) also known as Samuel Mayer Weisz was a rabbi; and his mother was Cecilia Steiner (1841-1913). Ehrich had the following siblings: Armin M. Weiss (half-brother) (1863-1885); Nathan J. Weiss (1870-1927); Gottfried William Weiss (1872-1925); Theodore Weiss (Dash) (1876-1945); Leopold D. Weiss (1879-1962); and Gladys Carrie Weiss (1882-?).

He immigrated with his family to the United States on July 3, 1878 at the age of 4 on the SS Fresia with his mother (listed as Cisy), sister Aurine, and brothers Nathan, and Willi. Houdini's name was listed as Ehrich Weiss. . Friends called him "Ehrie" or "Harry".

At first, they lived in Appleton, where his father served as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. In 1880, the family was living on Appleton Street. On June 6, 1882, Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen. After losing his tenure, he 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 10-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself, "Ehrich, the prince of the air."

Magic

In 1894, Weiss became a professional magician, and began calling himself "Harry Houdini" because he was influenced by French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin and his friend Jack Hayman told him that in French adding an "i" to Houdin would mean "like Houdin" the great magician". 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." 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.

He soon began experimenting with escape acts. 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.

Houdini was a sensation in Europe where he became widely known as "The Handcuff King." He toured England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia. In each city Houdini would challenge local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. In many of these challenge escapes, Houdini would first be stripped nude and searched. In Moscow, Houdini escaped from a Siberian Transport Prison van. Publicity stated that he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia where the only key was kept. In Cologne, he sued a police officer, Werner Graff, who claimed he made his escapes via bribery. Houdini won the case when he opened the judge's safe (Houdini would later say the judge had forgotten to lock it). With his new found wealth and success, Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria. He then arranged a grand reception where he presented his mother in the dress to all their relatives. Houdini said it was the happiest day of his life. In 1904, Houdini returned to the U.S. and purchased for $25,000 a brownstone at 278w 113th street in Harlem, New York. The house still stands today.

From 1907 and throughout the 1910's, Houdini performed with great success in the United States. He would free himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in plain sight of street audiences. Because of imitators and a dwindling audience, on January 25, 1908, Houdini put his "handcuff act" behind him and began escaping from a locked water filled milk can. The possibility of failure and death thrilled his audiences. Rather than promote the idea he was assisted by spirits, as did the Davenport Brothers and others, Houdini advertised to the public that he made his escapes by dematerializing. 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 more than three minutes.

He explained some of his tricks in books written for the magic brotherhood throughout his career. In Handcuff Secrets (1909) he revealed how many locks and handcuffs could be opened with properly applied force, others with shoestrings. Other times, he carried concealed lockpicks or keys, being able to regurgitate small keys at will. When tied down in ropes or straitjackets, he gained wiggle room by enlarging his shoulders and chest, and by moving his arms slightly away from his body, and then dislocating his shoulders. His straitjacket escape was originally performed behind curtains, with him popping out free at the end. However, Houdini's brother who was also an escape artist billing himself as Theodore Hardeen, after being accused of having someone sneak in and let him out and being challenged to escape without the curtain, discovered that audiences were more impressed and entertained when the curtains were eliminated, so that they could watch him struggle to get out. They both performed straitjacket escapes dangling upside-down from the roof of a building for publicity on more than one occasion. It is said that Hardeen once handed out bills for his show while Houdini was doing his suspended straightjacket escape and Houdini became upset because people thought it was Hardeen up there escaping, not Houdini. Many people imitate some of his tricks to this day.

In 1914 Houdini toured Australia. He bought with him his Viosin biplane and had the distinction of achieving the first powered flight over Australia. [1]

In 1923, Houdini became president of Martinka & Co., America's oldest magic company. The business is still in operation today.

For the majority of his career, Houdini performed his act as a headliner in Vaudeville. For many years he was the highest paid performer in American vaudeville. But in the last years of his life (1925/26) Houdini launched his own full evening show which he billed as "3 Shows in One: Magic, Escapes, and Fraud Mediums Exposed."

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

File:3c12428r.jpg

Houdini and his wife Bess

Movie career

Houdini made his first movie for Pathé in 1901. Titled Merveilleux Exploits du Célébre Houdini a Paris it featured a loose narrative meant to showcase several of Houdini's famous escapes, including his straight-jacket escape. Houdini returned to film in 1916 when he served as special effects consultant on the Pathé thriller, The Mysteries of Myra. That same year he got an offer to star as Captain Nemo in a silent version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but the project never made it into production.

In 1918, Houdini signed a contract with film producer B.A. Rolfe to star in a 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. Financial difficulties resulted in B.A. Rolfe Productions going out of business, but The Master Mystery was a box-office success, and lead to Houdini being signed by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation for whom he made two pictures, The Grim Game (1919) and Terror Island (1920). While making these films in Los Angeles, Houdini rented a home in Laurel Canyon.

Following his two-picture stint in Hollywood, Houdini returned to New York and started his own film production company called the "Houdini Picture Corporation." He produced and starred in two films, The Man From Beyond (1921) and Haldane of the Secret Service (1923). He also invested in starting up a film laboratory in New Jersey, gambling on a new process for developing motion picture film. Called The Film Development Corporation (FDC), Houdini’s brother, Hardeen, left his own career as a magician and escape artist to run the company. Magician Harry Keller was a major investor.

Neither Houdni's acting career nor film development corporation found success, and he gave up on the movie business in 1923, complaining the "the profits are too meager.” But his celebrity was such that years later he would be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 7001 Hollywood Blvd).

Of all Houdini's movies, only The Man From Beyond has been commercially released on DVD. Incomplete versions of The Master Mystery and Terror Island were released by private collectors on VHS. Complete 35mm prints of Haldane of the Secret Service and The Grim Game exist only in private collections. Haldane of the Secret Service was screened in Los Angeles in 2007.

Debunking spiritualists

In the 1920s, after the death of his beloved mother Cecilia, he turned his energies toward debunking self-proclaimed psychics and mediums, a pursuit that would inspire and be followed by later-day conjurers Milbourne Christopher, James Randi, Martin Gardner, P. C. Sorcar, and Penn and Teller. Houdini's magical training allowed him to expose frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee which offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities. Thanks to the contributions and skepticism of Houdini and three others (there were five in the committee), the prize was never collected. As his fame as a "ghostbuster" grew, Houdini took to attending séances in disguise, accompanied by a reporter and police officer. Possibly the most famous medium whom he debunked was the Boston medium Mina Crandon, also known as "Margery". Houdini chronicled his debunking exploits in his book A Magician Among the Spirits.

These activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle, a firm believer in spiritualism during his later years, refused to believe any ofto block those of other mediums that he was 'debunking' (see Doyle's The Edge of The Unknown, published in 1931, after Houdini's death). This disagreement led to the two men becoming public antagonists. Gabriel Brownstein has written fictionalized account of the meetings of Houdini, Doyle, and "Margery" in "The Man from Beyond: a Novel" (2005).

The new book The Secret Life of Houdini has a fascinating account of Doyle's involvement with the camp of medium Mina Crandon ("Margery") and presents personal letters showing it was strongly believed by Doyle and Mina's husband that revenging spirits would soon kill Houdini for hiding the "truth". The book further proposes Doyle's campaign to hijack Houdini's legacy when a Spiritualist minister protege of Doyle, Rev. Arthur Ford (a marvelous teller of tales, some stretched taller than reality), conspired with him to bring messages from Houdini and his mother back from the grave in séances that would further the Spiritualist's agenda. According to the book, Houdini's wife felt so depressed that she actually tried to commit suicide on the eve of the séance. There is no mention of the fact that twelve days after the séance Bess Houdini wrote a moving letter to Walter Winchell, the columnist, that was published in the Graphic, denying the words she received from her deceased husband were GIVEN to Ford. She trusted his reading. Neither is there any mention of the fact that the Houdini code was already widely known by the public before the séance. (See:Arthur Ford)

Possible spying career

A new biography of Houdini, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, by magic historian William Kalush and author Larry "Ratso" Sloman[2] suggests that he worked for both Scotland Yard and the US Secret Service. It suggests that he used his escape act tours to cover intelligence gathering. This assertion was documented in a journal kept by Scotland Yard Inspector William Melville, who worked for British intelligence. The author's conclusions have been endorsed by former CIA director John McLaughlin who wrote the preface for the book.

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, 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 in Queens, New York, with the crest of the Society of American Magicians inscribed on his grave site. The Society holds their "Broken Wand" ceremony at the grave site 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 séance 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.[3]

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.
• A mostly fictionalized biopic of Houdini's life was made in 1953 starring Tony Curtis, and called simply Houdini. 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) which was 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, Pennsylvania. 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 Séance.
• 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. Séances 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 séance 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.
• 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 not true.
• 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.
• Houdini is the main character of Walter Satterthwait's polar Escapade, which also features Arthur Conan Doyle.
• Houdini is featured in a episode of Ghostbusters {TV cartoon series} as a ghost who not only gets out of traps the Ghostbusters set for him but who also frees the "Ghostbusters" from a crooked magician who not only stole Houdini's escape tricks-but traps the Ghostbusters in Houdini's "magic cabinet".

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 [4]):

• 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

• Houdini: His Life-Story by Harold Kellock, from the recollections and documents of Beatrice Houdini, Harcourt, Brace Co., June, 1928
• Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsay Gresham, Henry Holt & Co, NY, 1959
• Houdini: The Untold Story by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1969
• Houdini: A Mind in Chains by Bernard C. Meyer, M.D., E.P. Dutton & Co. NY, 1976
• The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Brandon, Seeker & Warburg, Ltd. GB, 1993
• Houdini!!!: The Career of Ehrich Weiss by Kenneth Silverman, 1997 ISBN 006092862X
• The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, 2006 ISBN 0743272072

Further reading

• Mediums, Mystics and the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, 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)
• Arthur Ford: The Man Who Talked with the Dead by Allen Spraggett with William V. Rauscher, 1973, pp 152-165, Chapter 7, The Houdini Affair contains detailed information about the Houdini messages and their disclosure. (Recommend compare)
• Sixty Years of Psychical Research by Joseph F. Rinn, Truth Seeker Co., 1950, 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)
• The Man Who Killed Houdini by Don Bell, Vehicule Press, 2004. Investigates J. Gordon Whitehead and the events surrounding Houdini's death.

See also

• Arthur Ford
• James Randi
• Haunted Hollywood
• Dorothy Dietrich
• Joseph Dunninger
• Dai Vernon
• Wonder of the Worlds

Timeline

• 1874 Birth in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24
• 1876 Birth of sibling Theodore Weiss (Theodore Hardeen) (1876-1945)
• 1878 Immigration from Budapest, Hungary, to USA on July 3
• 1879 Birth of sibling Leopold D. Weiss (1879-?)
• 1880 US Census with family living in Wisconsin
• 1882 Citizenship for Mayer on June 6
• 1887 Houdini and father move to New York City
• 1892 Death of father
• 1913 Death of mother
• 1913 Changes name to "Harry Houdini" legally
• 1918 World War I draft listing himself as "Harry Handcuff Houdini"
• 1926 Death from appendicitis on Halloween in room 401 at Grace Hospital in Detroit

External links

• Houdini Tribute 400+ Photos, videos, multimedia, and hear Houdini's voice
• Timeline of Houdini's life
• Biographical resources dedicated to Harry Houdini
• The Houdini Museum in Scranton Pennsylvania
• House of Deception article on Houdini's handwriting & signature
• Martinka & Co. - Once owned by Houdini
• Harry Houdini's Gravesite
• CFI's 10th Annual Houdini Séance - Halloween 2006 � seance held to get in touch with Houdini, Point of Inquiry, 31 October, 2006.
• Houdini Lives! - what's new in the world of Houdini
• The Secret Life of Houdini- The Making of America's First Superhero

Template:Persondata