By: Sarah Allison

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Harry Houdini
My brain is the key that sets my mind free.
Harry Houdini

• By Sarah Allison

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Introduction to Harry Houdini

• Harry Houdini was born on March 24, 1874 in
  Budapest, Hungary. His birth name was Ehrich
  Weiss, but he later changed it once he started
  his career in magic.
• He married Wilhemia Beatrice Rahner (known as
  Bess) in 1824. They met each other through magic
  shows. Harry and Bess became partners for life on
  June 22, 1894, but later had a second ceremony to
  please Besss German Catholic mother, and then
  had a third ceremony with a rabbi.

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Introduction continued

• Harry Houdini died on October 31,1926, at age 52,
  from severe appendicitis. His burial place is in
  Machpelah Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens County, New
  York.
• Harry and Bess had no children throughout their
  marriage because they lived on the road and moved
  from city to city. They did magic acts for most
  of their lives and stayed together until Harry
  died.

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Social Contribution

• Harry Houdini was one of the most famous
  magicians in the entire world. He is looked up
  upon by millions because of his self-confidence
  and inspiring childhood story. The fact that he
  had to overcome numerous obstacles on his road to
  success attracted the hearts of many fans. Harry
  also had an extremely kind soul he always put
  others first, whether it be his mother, his wife,
  or the little groups of orphans that he performed
  for. He was a magician that used his athletic
  skill, clever wit and intelligence, and nimble
  fingers to provide fun and exciting entertainment
  for people to enjoy.

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Childhood

• Harry Houdini was born with the name Ehrich
  Weiss, and until the age of four, lived in
  Budapest, Hungary. He moved to Appleton,
  Wisconsin, with his mother and siblings in 1878
  because his father had moved there a few years
  before to become a rabbi.
• The whole family then moved to the larger city of
  Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Ehrich helped the
  family out by getting jobs. Shoe shining, selling
  newspapers, and doing odd, unusual jobs were what
  he mostly did after school to earn the family
  money.

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Childhood cont.

• It was in these early childhood years that Ehrich
  started to develop an interest in magic. At age
  nine, he convinced a circus to pay him 35 cents
  to pick up needles with his eyelashes, upside
  down.
• When he was 12 years old, Ehrich ran away from
  home in hopes of making more money for the
  family. He ended up jumping on the wrong train
  and wound up in Missouri. A young couple took him
  in for a few days because they thought he was a
  homeless boy.
• In 1887, Ehrich and his father moved to New York
  City because of the larger Jewish population. The
  rest of the family came a year later. His family
  was so poor that at times Ehrich had to beg on
  the streets for coins.

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Adolescence

• In 1888, Harry got a job with a tie manufacturer
  called H. Ritchers Sons.
• Harry was always busy, but in his free time, he
  would play many sports. He was an avid runner,
  sometimes running up to ten miles per day. He
  also liked to swim and box, so he joined the
  Amateur Athletic Union and the Pastime Athletic
  Club.
• Harry was intensely competitive, and he once
  said, I want to be first. I vehemently want to
  be first. First in my profession, in my specialty
  in my profession.
• At age 17, Harry had a trademark body- fit and
  muscular- and it was all this training when he
  was a teenager that would ready him for the years
  to come.

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Adulthood

• In 1891, Harry and his friend, Jack Hayman,
  traveled on the road and called themselves the
  Brothers Houdini. They were able to work in dime
  museums-small museums where on-lookers would pay
  ten cents to see ten shows-, miniature theaters
  in New York and the Midwest, amusement parks, and
  beer halls.
• Jack was soon replaced by Harrys real brother,
  Dash. They performed at the 1893 Worlds
  Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and aside from
  that, did 20 shows a day, earning 12 per week.
• Harry did the infamous Metamorphosis trick, and
  for the first time in 1893 did a handcuff trick,
  therefore gaining the title Harry Houdini,
  Handcuff King and Escape Artist.

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Adulthood continued

• Harry met Bess through Dash, and at age 20,
  proposed to her. They got married on June 22,
  1894.
• The couple did performances all across the
  country, usually doing the Metamorphosis trick.
• They moved from city to city, commonly performing
  at Kohl and Middleton, where their acts were
  mostly on a curio stage.
• Harry used the time between shows to work on
  perfecting his magic tricks.

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Adulthood continued

• Harry and Bess joined Dr. Hills California
  Concert Company for 25 a week in 1897, as a last
  resort from applying for jobs from other
  companies. Dr. Hills was a traveling medicine
  show, but since it was not really popular, Dr.
  Hill suggested Harry and Bess pretend to be
  spirit mediums.
• The medicine show flopped in 1898, so Harry
  returned to spend a season at the Welsh Brothers
  Circus.
• Harry wanted to get more attention as a magician,
  therefore he challenged the police to lock him up
  with handcuffs in rooms, for him to try to get
  out.
• The earliest stunt was at a police station in
  Holyoke, Mass, and he was out of the room in less
  than a minute.
• Hopkins Theatre saw newspaper articles about him,
  and offered to pay him 1000 a week for doing
  some shows.
• At the end of 1898, Harry and Bess were
  surprisingly broke. Harry considered retiring and
  selling a book with all of his secrets, but
  luckily no one bought the book.

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Adulthood continued

• The turning point of Harrys life was in early
  1899, when Martin Beck, owner of the Orpheum
  Circuit, saw Harrys performance in St. Paul,
  Minnesota. Bess and Harry were offered jobs, and
  they got more money than they had ever earned,
  and a less hectic schedule.
• They traveled around the West, but as the century
  ended, the Orpheum tour did too. Harry and Bess
  decided to take a big chance- go to Europe in
  sights of new shows. They set sail on May 30,
  1900.
• Over the next five years, Harry and Bess traveled
  all across Europe, becoming quite popular with
  the European audience. Even though Harry had to
  deal with imitators, he never lost business.
• In the summer of 1905, Harry moved back to
  America because he missed his mother so much. He
  regained his popularity in the U.S., but decided
  to amp up his performances, by adding water to
  them. He used bathtubs and water chambers, and
  held his breath for minutes under liquids.
• Harry Houdini escaped from the cell of notorious
  assassin Charles Guiteau, in Washington D.C., in
  handcuffs, and performed his first of many bridge
  jumps in the cold Detroit River, November 27,
  1906.

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Adulthood continued

• Throughout his life, Harry Houdini pursued many
  interests, and one of them was flying planes. On
  March 16, 1910, Harry won a prize for being the
  first person to fly solo on the Australian
  continent.
• From 1916 to 1923, Harry accomplished a
  profession in film as an actor, writer, producer,
  director, and stunt-man.
• By the end of 1925, Harrys shows lasted almost
  two hours and consisted of tricks, speeches,
  Spiritualism, and fake mediums. He never
  cancelled a show because he loved his job so
  much.
• On October 22, 1926, Samuel J. Smilovitch, a
  student of Harrys, approached him in his
  dressing room with two other fellow students.
  Smilovitch, an extremely good artist, asked Harry
  if he could draw a picture of him. Whitehead, one
  of the other students, questioned Harry about his
  amazing strength. In an interview, Price, another
  fellow student who was at the scene stated,
  Whitehead asked Houdini whether it was true
  that punches in the stomach did not hurt him.
  Houdini remarked rather unenthusiastically that
  his stomach could resist much. Thereupon
  Whitehead gave Houdini some very hammer-like
  blows below the belt, first securing Houdinis
  permission to strike him.
• By the end of that day, Harry started feeling
  stomach pain, but being a true competitor, he
  continued on with the show at the Princess
  Theater. On the bus ride there, Harry was in so
  much pain that he was unable to hide it from his
  wife.
• At the dressing room, a doctor examined Harry and
  thought that he had an inflamed appendix, and
  should be taken to a hospital immediately. Harry
  still went on and did the show, but he almost
  collapsed during it. Harry ended up having
  stomach pains before the mans punches, which
  were due to his appendix that needed to be
  removed earlier on. Harry thought he would be
  able to tough out his pains, but soon they were
  so severe, he had to stop the show. He was
  finally rushed to the Grace Hospital, where
  doctors removed his burst appendix
• He was able to live for a few more days, but died
  on October 31, 1926, at age 52. His body was
  taken to New York for his funeral, and about
  2,000 people attended it.

13
President Slide

• When Harry Houdini was born, in 1874, the
  president of the United States was Ulysses S.
  Grant. He was a member of the Republican party,
  was in office from 1869 to 1877, and the 18th
  president. The prime minister of Hungary was
  Jozef Szlavy when Harry Houdini was born.
• At age four, when Harry moved to the U.S., the
  president was Rutherford B. Hayes, who ran from
  1877-1881.

Ulysses S. Grant
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Interview

• The three questions I would as Harry Houdini are
• How did you get the confidence in yourself to
  perform all of those shows, knowing that some
  were a matter of life and death?
• In the beginning of your magic career, how come
  you never gave up entirely and just had a
  regular job, because of all the effort it takes
  to be a successful magician?
• Why were you such a non-believer in Spiritualism?

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Spiritualism

• Harry Houdini spent many years of his adult life
  trying to prove that Spiritualism is fake.
  Spiritualism is the practice of communicating
  with a spirit world, where people are expected
  to live after death.
• Spiritualists believe that the people who can
  associate with the dead are called Spirit
  mediums, and usually can talk through special
  gatherings called séances.
• This unusual practice had an enormous effect on
  Harry Houdini because some of his acts were
  death-defying stunts, and many people thought he
  had help from angels while completing them.
  For a while he tried to believe in Spiritualism,
  but soon Harry was able to find physical
  explanations for all of the mediums powers.
  Harry wrote a book that disapproves Spiritualism
  called A Magician Among the Spirits. (1924)

16
Bibliography

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• Appleton Public Library. "Harry Houdini -
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