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Magic History: Harry Houdini
"On a mission to perform the
impossible!!"
It's
unbelievable, inconceivable even, to imagine the world's most famous magician
Harry Houdini giving up on his astonishing career in magic.
But give it up - he didn't and thankfully he continued to
conceive a seemingly inexhaustible supply of the incredible illusions that are
remembered today. Houdini's magic continues to wow audiences today seventy
years after his death.
Houdini was born Erik Weisz, son of Hungarian
immigrant parents and made his first US appearance aged four in c.1878 when the
family arrived from Budapest. Erik Weisz then became Ehrich Weiss, a name
change attributed by immigration officials upon his arrival. The family was to
set up home in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Ehrich Weiss contributed to the
family income from an early age taking any job he could lay his hands on. He
adapted to his new country quickly developing his physical strength, focus and
knowledge.
Ehrich likened his own influences to the famous "Father of
Modern Magic" of his time, Robert-Houdin and changed his name to Houdini out of
respect for him. During his first five years of performing magic, there was a
trick within Houdini's routine called The Needle Trick. This amazing illusion
and the response he often received when performing it, led Houdini to
kick-start his then crumbling career by inventing similar shock value feats. In
1899, Houdini left behind his former routine of traditional magic tricks
transforming himself from a labouring magician to an extraordinary illusionist.
In this new guise his success and fame spiralled to new heights.
Houdini
soon became known as the "King of Handcuffs" challenging audiences to produce
any set of handcuffs and proving he could escape from them. Houdini's infamy at
this stage was largely due to his widely publicised Challenge Act - a flagrant
display of his incredible ability as an escapologist. In 1900, Houdini,
accompanied by his brother Theodore Hardeen and his wife Wilhelmina, sought and
achieved fame and fortune in Europe and returned years later an established
performer.
Constantly hungry in his search to enhance his popular
escapology stunts, being a showman and a perfectionist, Houdini often took his
audiences to new thrilling levels. One such example was the transformation of
his handcuff act into a jail cell break. In 1906, Houdini broke free from the
Washington DC jail cell of President Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau.
Simply amazing! Also during this time Houdini engineered a variety of other
stunts including breaking free from a set of handcuffs whilst inside a mail bag
and escaping when tossed into a river whilst manacled.
Houdini's
imagination knew no bounds as he planned and delivered to shock hungry
audiences more and more sensational escapology feats. He went on to engineer
and perform his "Milk Can Escape" in 1908 - of which he performed for the first
time in St. Louis, USA, and went on the astound European audiences with. He
returned to the USA to perform that year, amongst others, a manacled jump off
the Harvard Bridge in Boston.
Houdini's incredible showmanship and
energy took him to Australia to become the first aviator to sustain flight over
the country. That was in and during 1910, three years later the world was
introduced to his famous "Upside Down Water Torture Cell" and upside down(!)
strait jacket escapology stunts. Several years later in 1918, Houdini performed
his biggest illusion, the vanishing of an elephant on stage at the Hippodrome,
New York.
In 1919, the publicity thirsty and not entirely idle Houdini
entered the magical world of movies starring in six movies with Paramount. His
first motion picture was called "The Master Mystery", a serial staring Houdini
as an undercover investigator battling such criminals as a Chinese gang lord, a
strangulation expert and a mechanical monster. Escaping from ropes, manacles,
an underwater diving suit, the bottom of a lift shaft whilst bound to its floor
with the lift descending toward him, all whilst fighting evil. As with
everything else he became involved with, the Midas touch of Houdini resulted in
an astounding box office success! Audiences loved "The Master of Mystery"!
Audiences loved Houdini!
Throughout his life Houdini was haunted by the
subject and world of spiritualism. It is reported this was due to his need to
communicate with his beloved late mother. For years he solicited the help of
mediums often in an unproductive effort to communicate with her and exposing
the psychics he encountered as tricksters and frauds. An avid book collector
and expert on the subject of magic, mysticism and sorcery, he read widely and
deeply on spiritualism. Performing himself acts of spiritualism to audiences,
he would challenge mediums, encourage scepticism and expose them for what he
thought they were; cheats and frauds. Houdini was, it seemed possessed with the
idea of discovering the reality of spiritualism; seeking "the other side". In
this journey, during 1908, Houdini wrote his book "The Unmasking of
Robert-Houdin, a sweeping history of the art of magic" where he heavily
referred to spiritualism.
Houdini's fast and full career continued until
the last week of his life. His energy and sheer professionalism led him to
perform even in the face of severe illness when he appeared as billed despite
fighting the pain of a ruptured appendix.
He died on Halloween, his
least favourite time of the year, aged 52 years in 1926.
It is reported
that Harry Houdini predicted the exact day he would died.
In the form of
his fantastic life contribution to the craft, Harry Houdini's work still lives
on today.
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