Harry Houdini (March
24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) whose birth name in Hungary was Erik
Weisz[1] (which was changed to Ehrich Weiss[2] when he immigrated to
the United States), was a Hungarian American magician, escapologist
(widely regarded as one of the greatest ever) and stunt performer, as
well as a skeptic and investigator of spiritualists, film producer and
actor. Harry Houdini forever changed the world of magic and escapes.
Birth and name
Houdini was born in Budapest Hungary. A copy of his birth certificate
was found and published in The Houdini Birth Research Committee's
Report (1972). [3] His family name, Weiß, is German, meaning "White"
in English. As to his birth date, from 1907 onwards, Houdini claimed
in interviews to have been born in Appleton Wisconsin, on April 6,
1874.
Houdini's father was Mayer (Mayo) Samuel Weiss (1829-1892), a rabbi;
his mother was Cecilia Steiner (1841-1913). Ehrich had six siblings:
Herman M. (1885); Nathan J. Weiss (1870-1927); Gottfried William Weiss
(1872-1925); Theodore Weiss (Dash) (1876-1945); [4] 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 four, on the SS Fresia with his mother (who was pregnant)
and his four brothers. Houdini's name was listed as Ehrich Weiss.[5]
Friends called him "Ehrie" or "Harry".
At first, they lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father served
as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. In 1880, the family
was living on Appleton Street.[6] 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,
then became a champion cross country runner. He made his public début
as a 10-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself "Ehrich, the prince
of the air". Weiss became a professional magician and began calling
himself "Harry Houdini" because he was heavily influenced by the
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. In later life, Houdini would claim that
the first part of his new name, Harry, was an homage to Harry Kellar,
whom Houdini admired a great deal. However, it's more likely Harry
derived naturally from his nickname "Ehrie". |
|
|
Magic career
Initially, Houdini's magic career resulted in little success. He
performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as "the Wild
Man" at a circus. Houdini initially focused on traditional card tricks.
At one point, he billed himself as the "King of Cards". But he soon
began experimenting with escape acts. In 1893, while performing with his
brother "Dash" at Coney Island as "The Brothers Houdini", Harry met and
married fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner. Bess
replaced Dash in the act, which became known as "The Houdinis". For the
rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess would work as his stage
assistant.
"My Two Sweethearts". Houdini with his wife and mother, ca. 1907.
"My Two Sweethearts". Houdini with his wife and mother, ca. 1907.
Harry Houdini's "big break" came in 1899 when he met manager 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, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.
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 prison transport
van. Houdini publicly stated that, had 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.[7] Houdini won the case when he opened the judge's
safe (he 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 a house for $25,000, a brownstone at 278 W. 113th
Street in Harlem, New York.[8] The house still stands today.
Poster promoting Houdini taking up the challenge of escaping an "extra
strong and large traveling basket".
Poster promoting Houdini taking up the challenge of escaping an "extra
strong and large traveling basket".
From 1907 and throughout the 1910s, 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. Houdini also expanded his
challenge escape act - in which he invited the public to devise
contraptions to hold him - to include nailed packing crates (sometimes
lowered into the water), riveted boilers, wet-sheets, mailbags, and even
the belly of a whale that washed ashore in Boston. At one point, brewers
challenged Houdini to escape from his milk can after they filled it with
beer. Many of these challenges were prearranged with local merchants in
what is certainly one of the first uses of mass tie-in marketing. Rather
than promote the idea that he was assisted by spirits, as did the
Davenport Brothers and others, Houdini's advertisements showed him
making his escapes via dematerializing[9], although Houdini himself
never claimed to have supernatural powers.
In 1912, Houdini 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. The act required
that Houdini hold his breath for more than three minutes. Houdini
performed the escape for the rest of his career. Despite two Hollywood
movies depicting Houdini dying in the Torture Cell, the escape had
nothing to do with his demise.
Houdini 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, 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 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 straitjacket escape; Houdini
became upset because people thought it was Hardeen up there escaping,
not Houdini. Many people imitate some of Houdini's tricks to this day.
1925 souvenir program
1925 souvenir program
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. One of Houdini's most notable non-escape stage
illusions was performed at New York's Hippodrome Theater when he
vanished a full-grown elephant (with its trainer) from a stage, beneath
which was a swimming pool. In 1923, Houdini became president of Martinka
& Co., America's oldest magic company. The business is still in
operation today. He also served as President of the Society of American
Magicians (aka S.A.M.) from 1917 until his death in 1926. In the final
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."
Notable escapes
The Mirror Escape
In 1909, the London Daily Mirror newspaper challenged Houdini to escape
from a special handcuff that it claimed had taken Nathaniel Hart, a
locksmith from Birmingham, five years to make. Houdini accepted the
challenge for March 20 during a matinee performance at London's
Hippodrome theater. It was reported that 4000 people and more than 100
journalists turned out for the much-hyped event. The escape attempt
dragged on for over an hour, during which Houdini emerged from his
"ghost house" (a small screen used to conceal the method of his escape)
several times. On one occasion, he asked if the cuff could be removed so
he could take off his coat. The Mirror representative, Frank Parker,
refused, saying Houdini could gain an advantage if he saw how the cuff
was unlocked. Houdini promptly took out a pen-knife and, holding the
knife in his teeth, used it to cut his coat from his body. Some 56
minutes later, Houdini's wife appeared on stage and gave him a kiss. It
is believed that in her mouth was the key to unlock the special
handcuff. Houdini then went back behind the curtain. After an hour and
ten minutes, Houdini emerged free. As he was paraded on the shoulders of
the cheering crowd, he broke down and wept. Houdini later said it was
the most difficult escape of his career. [10]
After Houdini's death, his friend, Will Goldstone, published in his
book, Sensational Tales of Mystery Men, that Houdini was bested that day
and appealed to his wife, Bess, for help. Goldstone goes on to claim
that Bess begged the key from the Mirror representative, then slipped it
to Houdini in a glass of water.
Ándi offered no proof of his account, and many modern biographers have
found evidence (notably in the custom design of the handcuff itself)
that the entire Mirror challenge was pre-arranged by Houdini and the
newspaper, and that his long struggle to escape was pure
showmanship.[11] |
|
|
|
Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica
600 South Holly Street Suite 103
Denver, Colorado 80246
303-322-7345
800-830-8660
Map to Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica
Store Hours
Monday
through Thursday 9 AM to 8 PM
Friday 9 AM to 1 PM
Sunday 9 AM to 4 PM |
|