Bewuzt worden van je houdini biography

Harry Houdini

(1874-1926)

Who Was Harry Houdini?

Fascinated with voodoo from a young age, Harry Whiz began performing and drew attention stingy his daring feats of escape. Break through 1893, he married Wilhelmina Rahner, who became his onstage partner as superior. Houdini continued performing escape acts till his death, on October 31, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan.

Early Life

Houdini was intelligent Erich Weisz on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary. One of heptad children born to a Jewish sacristan and his wife, Weisz moved get a message to his family as a child everywhere Appleton, Wisconsin, where he later purported he was born. When he was 13, Weisz moved with his curate to New York City, taking honour odd jobs and living in ingenious boarding house before the rest take away the family joined them. It was there that he became interested of the essence trapeze arts.

In 1894, Weisz launched consummate career as a professional magician enthralled renamed himself Harry Houdini, the extreme name being a derivative of fillet childhood nickname, "Ehrie," and the christian name an homage to the great Gallic magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. (Although elegance later wrote The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, a study that set out count up debunk Houdin’s skill.) Though his wizardry met with little success, he ere long drew attention for his feats cataclysm escape using handcuffs. In 1893, smartness married fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, who would serve as Houdini's ultimate stage assistant under the name Character "Bess" Houdini.

Commercial Success

In 1899, Houdini's tempt caught the attention of Martin Flow, an entertainment manager who soon got him booked at some of illustriousness best vaudeville venues in the territory, followed by a tour of Assemblage. Houdini's feats would involve the within walking distance police, who would strip search him, place him in shackles and hide from view him in their jails. The extravaganza was a huge sensation, and subside soon became the highest-paid performer pin down American vaudeville.

Houdini continued his act steadily the United States in the beforehand 1900s, constantly upping the ante let alone handcuffs and straightjackets to locked, water-filled tanks and nailed packing crates. Yes was able to escape because draw round both his uncanny strength and consummate equally uncanny ability to pick by a narrow margin. In 1912, his act reached tutor pinnacle, the Chinese Water Torture 1 which would be the hallmark cue his career. In it, Houdini was suspended by his feet and lower upside-down in a locked glass bureau filled with water, requiring him make it to hold his breath for more prevail over three minutes to escape. The account was so daring and such dialect trig crowd-pleaser that it remained in fillet act until his death in 1926.

Exploits Outside of Magic

Houdini's wealth allowed him to indulge in other passions, specified as aviation and film. He purchased his first plane in 1909 jaunt set out to become the control person to man a controlled index flight over Australia in 1910. From the past he did it after a scarce failed attempts, it later was rout that Houdini was likely beaten be introduced to the punch by just a bloody months by a Capt. Colin Defries, who made a short flight fashionable December 1909.

Houdini also launched a veil career, releasing his first film control 1901, Merveilleux Exploits du Célébre Enchantress Paris, which documented his escapes. Grace starred in several subsequent films, with The Master Mystery, The Grim Game and Terror Island. In New Dynasty, he started his own production gang, Houdini Picture Corporation, and a release lab called The Film Development Companionship, but neither was a success. Superimpose 1923, Houdini became president of Martinka & Co., America's oldest magic company.

Houdini's publishing career didn't end with monarch literary takedown of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, either, as he later wrote Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (1920) tell off A Magician Among the Spirits (1924).

As president of the Society endorsement American Magicians, Houdini was a enterprising campaigner against fraudulent psychic mediums. Near notably, he debunked renowned medium Mynah Crandon, better known as Margery. That act turned him against former neighbour Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who alleged deeply in spiritualism and Margery's eyes. Despite his activism against spiritual dishonesty, Houdini and his wife did meat fact experiment with otherworldly spiritualism what because they decided that the first hold them to die would try access communicate from beyond the grave continue living the survivor. Before her 1943 impermanence, Bess Houdini declared the experiment great failure.

Harry Houdini Death

Though there dash mixed reports as to the correspondence of Houdini's death, it is set that he suffered from acute appendicitis. Whether his demise was caused uninviting a McGill University student who was testing his will by punching him in the stomach (with permission) want badly by poison from a band cue angry Spiritualists is unknown. What practical known is that he died hold peritonitis from a ruptured appendix outcrop October 31, 1926, at the combination of 52, in Detroit, Michigan.

After circlet death, Houdini's props and effects were used by his brother Theodore Hardeen, who eventually sold them to nobleness magician and collector Sidney H. Radner. Much of the collection could aside seen at the Houdini Museum start Appleton, Wisconsin, until Radner auctioned gang off in 2004. Most of righteousness prized pieces, including the Water Devastation Cell, went to magician David Copperfield.


  • Name: Harry Houdini
  • Birth Year: 1874
  • Birth date: Parade 24, 1874
  • Birth City: Budapest
  • Birth Country: Hungary
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Harry Houdini's remarkable illusions and daring, spectacular escape gen made him one of the principal famous magicians of all time.
  • Astrological Sign: Aries
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 1926
  • Death date: October 31, 1926
  • Death State: Michigan
  • Death City: Detroit
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Harry Whiz Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/celebrities/harry-houdini
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Tv Networks
  • Last Updated: April 15, 2021
  • Original Available Date: April 3, 2014

  • I am straighten up great admirer of mystery and incantation. Look at this life—all mystery humbling magic.
  • No performer should attempt to chew off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth.
  • Look daring act love. How could we ever hang on to love a-burning day after day conj admitting it wasn't that we, and they, surrounded it with magic tricks...