By Abir Mahmud
The magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Hungary in 1874. When he was four, he emigrated to the U.S. with his mother Cecilia and four brothers, to meet his father Herman, who had already moved to America a few years before. They settled in the town of Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father was the Rabbi of a small reform congregation. The family’s poverty instilled a drive to be successful in the boy who would become Houdini. By the age of nine, in part to support his family, Erik began working as a trapeze performer in circuses. In 1882, his family moved to New York City, where Erik began performing in Vaudeville shows, then considered to be the top of the entertainment pyramid, although Erik didn’t make much of an impact at first.
In 1891, a 17-year old Erik and his friend Jacob Hyman created an act that included a basic set of card and magic tricks called “The Brothers Houdini.” In 1892 after the death of Erik’s father, “The Brothers Houdini” took their show on the road, performing at dime museums and small theaters. In 1894, Erik married 18-year-old Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner or Bess, who became his stage assistant. The pair toured as “The Houdinis.” But life as traveling performers was hard. In 1898, the 25-year-old Houdini considered quitting the business altogether, burnt out from years on the road. In 1899, while performing in a beer garden in St Paul, Minnesota, Houdini caught the attention of Martin Beck, a man of influence in the world of Vaudeville. After watching Houdini escape from a pair of handcuffs, Beck gave Houdini a pair of his own handcuffs to try to escape from. Houdini did so with ease.
Impressed, Beck put the Houdinis on the influential Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit, which meant the husband and wife would perform fewer shows but for more money. Houdini’s profile began to rise as an escape artist, and he won admiration for his skill at manipulating locks and for pure brute strength. Houdini also attracted thousands for the drama and showmanship of his performances. A typical act would see Houdini elaborately bound with chains and tossed into a box that was locked, roped, and weighted. The container would then be tossed into water. Houdini of course escaped every time.
In 1908, Houdini premiered his infamous “milk can trick”. First, the milk can was filled with water and was inspected by audience members. A handcuffed Houdini was then squeezed into the milk can, which was sealed with six padlocks. A curtain was drawn and the audience held their breath along with the submerged magician. Within two minutes, Houdini would somehow break free and emerge from behind the milk can, although it was still padlocked. In his lifetime, no one ever discovered how he did it.
Houdini had a penchant for not only creating his own amazing illusions, but for also performing other magician’s tricks, only better. For instance, British magician Charles Moritt pioneered a trick where he made a live donkey disappear on stage. Houdini paid Morritt for the right to perform the trick, and then figured how to do it … but with an elephant!
In 1913, when Houdini was in Sweden to perform for the Royal family, Cecilia Weiss, Houdini’s mother, passed away. Houdini, a self-proclaimed mother’s boy, was so stricken by the news that “he fainted and wept uncontrollably.” In 1922, Houdini was invited to a seance being held by Lady Doyle, the wife of his famous friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Sir Doyle believed through spiritual seances he could connect with his son Kingsley, who had tragically died from the 1918 influenza epidemic or the Spanish Flu. At the seance conducted by Lady Doyle held at the Ambassador Club in Atlantic City, the hostess rapped on the table and claimed to be in contact with Houdini’s mother. Lady Doyle wrote out 15 pages of messages for Houdini, who thanked the Doyles and left quietly. However, he remained deeply skeptical of any medium claiming communication with the dead, and frequently used his skill as a stage magician to prove that some were fakes.
There are a number of reported causes of Houdini’s death. On October 11th, 1926, Houdini broke his left ankle during a performance in Albany, New York. Being a professional, Houdini finished the performance and went against the doctor’s orders by traveling to his next set of performances in Montreal. Houdini also felt the complaint of stomach cramps that evening. During a train ride to his next show in Detroit, Houdini was in a great deal of pain, both from his stomach and his shattered ankle, arriving in the motor city with a 104-degree fever. A doctor was brought to the theater and diagnosed Houdini with acute appendicitis and told the magician he needed to get to the hospital immediately. Houdini refused and allegedly declared, “I’ll do this [show] even if this is my last.” On October 24th, Houdini had an emergency operation to remove an already burst appendix. He had a second operation on October 28th. But on October 31st, 1926, Harry Houdini , one of the world’s greatest escape artists, passed due to a severe case of sepsis.