Harry Houdini

First Name: Harry
Last Name: Houdini

Harry Houdini, a famous magician, actor and film producer was born on March 24 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. Houdini claimed to have been born in Appleton, Winscosin on April 6 but in reality was born on March 24. His mother was Cecilia Steiner and his father Rabbi Mayer.

Houdini was 4 years old when he and his family immigrated to the Uniated States on July 3, 1878, from Mexico with his pregnant mother and four brothers. Houdini's original name was Ehric Weiss.

On June 6, 1882, his father Rabbi Weiss became an american citizen and in 1887 he moved with Ehrich (Houdini) in New York City. They were later reunited with the whole family when they found permanent housing.
Ehrich became a champion cross country runner and he made his first public appearance at 9 years old as a trapeze artist. His new name, Houdini came half from the French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin's name which he believed that in french adding an "i" to Houdin would mean "like Houdin". Later in his career Houdini stated that that his firstname "Harry" was a tribute to Harry Kellar, an american actor that Houdini admired allot.

Career

His magic career had little success at first starting with small card tricks, then graduating to escape acts from being handcuffed or in a straitjacket. He went on tours in countries including England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia. Everywhere he went, Houdini would challenge local police officers to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. He slowly became known as "The HandCuff King".

Harry performed various tricks and magic schemes and impressed people everywhere he went. He was challenged in 1904 by the London daily Mirror newspaper to escape a special handcuff that took a locksmith from Birmingham seven years to create. Houdini accepted the challenge and it took him an hour and ten minutes to break free. He claimed that was the most difficult escape in his entire career. There were rumors that the key was passed to him in a glass water or by his wife's mouth when she kissed him almost 1 hour after he was locked. Some also believed that the whole challenge was pre-arranged by the newspaper and Houdini for publicity and that his more than 1 hour struggle was just for showmanship.

In 1917 he performed a an escape stunt in Santa Ana being buried alive. His atempt failed because he became exausted and started panicking and was helped by his assistants. He stated that the escape was very dangerous because of the earth's crushing presure and he was unconcious by the time they pulled him out.

Houdini Death

People speculated that Houdini was killed accidentally by an university student who delivered multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen to test his claim that he was able to take a blow above weist without apparent injury.

In reality Houdini died of peritonitis as a result of a ruptured appendix.

Houdini was buried in the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York. His wife expressed her wish to be buried next to her husband but she was not permitted because she was not Jewish.