In 1895, in Massachusetts, Houdini first conceived the notion of escaping not from his own handcuffs, but from those of the local police.
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Bess became a well-prompted "mentalist, " performing mind-reading routines based on an alpha-numeric code known to her and Harry. Typically, during these early years, Harry would perform his famed "Hindoo Needle Trick, " in which he appeared to swallow 40 needles, then drew them from his mouth, threaded together. When escape tricks and magic didn't pan out, the pair billed themselves as a comedy act, cribbing old jokes from magazines, as Brandon noted in her book. At one point, the couple toured with a circus. By age 20 Houdini had married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner (known as Bess) she became his partner onstage as well.Īs "Mysterious Harry and La Petit Bessie, " the Houdinis played dime museums, medicine shows, and music halls, eventually working their way up to small billing at larger theaters. "Harry" was an accepted Americanized version of Erich. At age 17 he took the stage name Houdini, after the nineteenth century French magician Robert-Houdin. So it was with great dismay from his parents that Erich announced he was giving up the tie business for show business. He financed his hobby by working as a necktie cutter-the garment trade being one of the few occupations open to Jews at that time.
After serving as a young circus acrobat (Eric, Prince of the Air) the teenager focused his attention on locks and lockpicking. Magic was Erich's second obsession-indeed, "the abounding takes of his childhood magical exploits carry the mythic fuzz Houdini liked to generate, " as Brandon wrote. True to his illusionist ways, he hid the coins around his hair and clothing, then presented himself to Cecilia with the command, "Shake me, I'm magic." She did, and a flood of coins spilled out. At one point, he took to begging for coins in the street. Completely devoted to his mother to the point of obsession, the young Erich sought ways to ease her hardscrabble life. Other moves took the Weisses to Milwaukee and, eventually, New York. To escape persecution and find a better life, the Weiss family immigrated to Appleton-"perhaps April 6 was the date Samuel Weiss arrived in Wisconsin, " remarked Ruth Brandon in her The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini. Though in some documents Houdini claims to be born April 6, 1874, in Appleton, Wisconsin, this much is known: Erich Weiss, born March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary, was the youngest of three sons of Rabbi Samuel and Cecilia (Steiner) Weiss (the couple also had a daughter, Gladys). Likewise, Houdini made myth of his own life, elaborating details where he thought appropriate. Much of Houdini's escapes relied as much on myth and misdirection as they did on the magician's genuine physical and mental prowess.
Old film footage and still photos recall Houdini as generations remember him- suspended upside-down high over the heads of the crowd, escaping from a straitjacket plunging, manacled, into an icy river, only to reappear miraculously moments later performing his signature Chinese Water Torture Cell illusion, in which audiences were invited to hold their breath along with Houdini as he made his escape from yet another watery coffin.īut there was a world of difference between what turn-of-the-century audiences saw, and what they thought they saw. No one before or since has so completely defined the art of escape as Harry Houdini, magician, actor, and stage personality.
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