Erik Weisz
12 min read
Reading time
2,319
Words
Published
16
Film credits
9
Books
1
Award
Harry Houdini, born Erich Weiss in 1874, perfected the Challenge Act in 1898 and became the escape artist known worldwide. He debunked fraudulent mediums while hoping to contact his dead mother. The magician died of peritonitis in 1926 after a student punched him in the stomach, sparking annual Halloween séances led by his wife Bess.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Harry Houdini — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Harry Houdini by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Harry Houdini — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Erik Weisz arrived in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a four-year-old immigrant from Budapest, Austria-Hungary. His father was Rabbi Samuel Mayer Weisz and his mother Cecilia Steiner. The family lived in poverty; at age 17, Houdini formed a magic act with Jack Hayman to escape manual labor. He adopted the stage name Houdini in tribute to French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin. His fascination with magic began after seeing a traveling magician named Dr. Lynch.
Houdini’s breakthrough came in 1898 with his Challenge Act, where he escaped handcuffs provided by audience members. He evolved this into escapes from strait jackets, jail cells, and his signature Water Torture Cell. In 1896, he first used a strait jacket in Nova Scotia. He also became a film producer, starring in silent films like The Man from Beyond 1922 and The Grim Game 1919. Houdini debunked spiritualists, motivated by his search for a genuine medium to contact his mother after her death.
Houdini married Wilhelmina Rahner, known as Bess, on June 22, 1894. The marriage caused conflict because Bess was Roman Catholic while Houdini was Jewish, so they married in secret, then again at a synagogue and a Catholic church. Bess was his stage partner, replacing his brother Theodore in the Metamorphosis act. He was devoted to his mother Cecilia; after her death, he sought mediums to contact her. He died in Detroit, Michigan, on October 31, 1926, leaving his half-million dollar estate to Bess.
Houdini’s legacy as an escape artist endures. He has been portrayed on film by Tony Curtis 1953 and Adrien Brody, both of Hungarian descent like Houdini. His boyhood home in Appleton, Wisconsin, is now a museum. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame posthumously on October 31, 1975. Magicians worldwide hold séances each Halloween trying to contact Houdini, continuing the tradition his wife Bess started from 1927 to 1937. His name remains synonymous with escape and illusion.
Browse the complete filmography of Harry Houdini — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Harry Houdini — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Harry Houdini's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Harry Houdini — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Only One Man Ever Betrayed My Confidence, and That Only in a Minor Matter.
How the Early Priests Came into Possession of These Secrets Does Not Appear, and If There Were Ever Any Records of This Kind the Church Would Hardly Allow Them to Become Public.
My Professional Life Has Been a Constant Record of Disillusion, and Many Things That Seem Wonderful to Most Men Are the Everyday Commonplaces of My Business.
No Performer Should Attempt to Bite off Red Hot Iron Unless He Has a Good Set of Teeth.
I Think That in a Year I May Retire. I Cannot Take My Money with Me When I Die and I Wish to Enjoy It, with My Family, While I Live. I Should Prefer Living in Germany to Any Other Country, Though I Am an American, and Am Loyal to My Country.
It Is Still an Open Question, However, as to What Extent Exposure Really Injures a Performer.
Flames from the Lips May Be Produced by Holding in the Mouth a Sponge Saturated with the Purest Gasoline.
But Then, so Far as I Know, I Am the Only Performer Who Ever Pledged His Assistants to Secrecy, Honor and Allegiance Under a Notarial Oath.
Another Method of Eating Burning Coals Employs Small Balls of Burned Cotton in a Dish of Burning Alcohol.
Fire Has Always Been And, Seemingly, Will Always Remain, the Most Terrible of the Elements.
But It Must Not Be Thought That I Say This Out of Personal Experience: for in the Many Years That I Have Been Before the Public My Secret Methods Have Been Steadily Shielded by the Strict Integrity of My Assistants, Most of Whom Have Been with Me for Years.
To Cause the Face to Appear in a Mass of Flame Make Use of the Following: Mix Together Thoroughly Petroleum, Lard, Mutton Tallow and Quick Lime. Distill This Over a Charcoal Fire, and the Liquid Which Results Can Be Burned on the Face Without Harm.
Eating Coals of Fire Has Always Been One of the Sensational Feats of the Fire Kings, as It Is Quite Generally Known That Charcoal Burns with an Extremely Intense Heat.
The Great Day of the Fire Eater Or, Should I Say, the Day of the Great Fire Eater Has Passed.
The Eating of Burning Brimstone Is an Entirely Fake Performance.
In All Feats of Fire Eating It Should Be Noted That the Head Is Thrown Well Back, so That the Flame May Pass Out of the Open Mouth Instead of up into the Roof, as It Would If the Head Were Held Naturally.
I Make the Most Money, I Think, in Russia and Paris, for the People of Those Countries Are so Willing to Be Amused, so Eager to See Something New and Out of the Ordinary.
Little-known facts about Harry Houdini — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Houdini and Bess were married three separate times: a secret ceremony, a synagogue wedding, and a Catholic church wedding.
Beyond stage magic, Houdini spent years debunking fake mediums, driven by a personal hope to find a genuine one who could reach his dead mother.
Though born in Budapest, Houdini frequently claimed Appleton, Wisconsin as his birthplace. His childhood home there is now a museum.
Houdini was one of six children of Rabbi Samuel Mayer Weisz, who died when Houdini was 18.
Devoted to his mother Cecilia, Houdini’s casket bore a wreath reading Mother Love and a pillow made from her letters.
A cousin of Houdini was married to Moe Howard of the Three Stooges.
His stage name Houdini came from French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, whom Houdini later denounced as a charlatan.
Houdini’s will demanded a bronze bust on his tomb to help his spirit return from the afterlife.
Houdini bequeathed his magic book collection to the American Society for Psychical Research if J. Malcolm Bird resigned. When Bird refused, the books went to the Library of Congress.
Before Houdini, he performed as Eric the Great.
On Halloween 1975, Houdini received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.
Houdini has been portrayed on screen by Tony Curtis and Adrien Brody, both of Hungarian descent.
Popular film portrayals of Houdini dying in a water tank are fictional; his actual death came from peritonitis after being punched by a fan. Some escape artists still call the water torture cell the one that killed Houdini.
Though often blamed on a student’s punch, Houdini actually died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix, worsened by the assault nine days prior.
The U.S. Postal Service honored Houdini with a 37-cent stamp on July 3, 2002.
While touring with the Three Keatons, Houdini reportedly said to Joe Keaton after a fall, That’s quite a buster your kid took, coining the stage name Buster Keaton.
In 1919, Houdini co-founded Supreme Pictures Corp. with Arthur B. Reeve, John Grey, and Louis Grossman.
Houdini is referenced in the Cat Stevens song Ghost Town.
After Houdini’s death, Bess held annual Halloween séances until 1936, declaring Ten years is enough for any man.
Houdini got his start performing as a circus strongman.
An aviation enthusiast, Houdini made the first successful sustained flight in Australia in March 1910.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Harry Houdini.
Celebrities similar to Harry Houdini — same craft, ranked by reach.
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