Harry Houdini - The Myth

Harry Houdini, born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest on the 24th March, 1874, was introduced to magic at an early age by his brother, Theodore. At the age of 16 he read the memories of Robert Houdin and was captivated by the magician’s charisma and self-penned legend, so much so that he adopted his name and added the letter I to the end, which he had been told gave the meaning ‘like’ in French.

Two years after his fathers death he met Beatrice Rahner and after a whirlwind romance they were married on June 22, 1894. The Houdinis adopted Maskelyne and Cooke’s metamorphosis illusion to close their shows, with Bess being tied in a sack and locked in the box, and Harry swapping places with her under cover of a curtained cabinet.

Harry took the escape element of metamorphosis and in 1895 presented his very own Handcuff Act. Differing from all other escape acts, Houdini would actually challenge the audience to restrain him in such a way, even using their own chains and padlocks, that he couldn’t escape. Of course he did, every time, and was able to move onto locked prison cells, often presented by the jailers and even police themselves.

This though wasn’t enough, and if Bess and Harry were living on the breadline they thought themselves very lucky. So, with no bookings and nothing but optimism and determination they set sail for England to find their fortune.

This initiated what would become magic’s most famous rag to riches story. In London, Harry was introduced to the manager of the Alhambra Theatre, who arranged a trip to Scotland Yard.

The story goes that Superintendant Melville handcuffed Harry to a pillar with a pair of the British police’s best handcuffs, and, expecting Harry to struggle for some time, turned to walk away with the theatre manager. At that moment Harry called after them that he would prefer to join them, and they turned back to find him free and unbound, walking towards them.

On the strength of this he secured a contract with the theatre and his fame and fortune was unstoppable.

He toured Europe, Russia and the States, accepting new and more difficult challenges and introducing publicity stunts such as being thrown from bridges into rivers in packing cases and padlocks.

This then is the abridged and accepted story of Houdini's life but how did it end? Some say that he died attempting to perform the great Water Torture escape, others that he was punched in the stomach in his hotel lobby.

The real reason is far more fascinating and as a result of a huge amount of research by Kalush and Sloman, presented in their latest book The Secret Life of Houdini, it was announced in April 2008 that his body may be exhumed in order to test for poisoning - but again by whom and why?