Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (1874-1926)

Harry Houdini was one of the greatest magicians of his time. His fame was due largely to the sensational and dangerous feats he performed. He was able to free himself from ropes, hand-cuffs, boxes that had been nailed shut, and many other kinds of restraint. He was often challenged to escape from something especially devised to hold him. Houdini accepted these challenges because of their publicity value, and he always succeeded in escaping.
Houdini claimed that his tricks could be explained so that anyone of normal intelligence could understand them. He had a thorough knowledge of his subject always prepared his magic carefully, and kept himself in the finest physical condition. Claims by spiritualists that they, and he, had supernatural powers made him angry. Houdini spent much of his life trying to protect the public from such frauds. He published the results of his investigations of their practices in A Magician Among the Spirits (1924).
Houdini's real name was Ehrich Weiss. He was Born the son of a rabbi in Budapest, Hungary. He took his stage name from Jean Eugène Robert Houdin (1805-1871), the great French magician, and later made Houdini his legal name.
As a boy, he joined a circus as a trapeze performer He soon took up magic, and, with his wife as his assistant, appeared in small theaters and dime museums throughout America. After he developed his escape type of magic, he performed in the largest theaters in the world. Houdini died of peritonitis.