Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (1874–1926) was a Hungarian-born American magician who became the most famous escape artist in history. He escaped from handcuffs, prison cells, packing crates and a locked tank of water in front of paying crowds, and he remains the name most people think of when they hear the word magician.

Early life

He was born Erik Weisz in Budapest on 24 March 1874. His family emigrated to the United States when he was a small child and settled first in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father served as a rabbi, before moving to New York. In English his name was usually spelled Ehrich Weiss.

As a teenager he read the memoirs of the French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and took his stage name from him. He started in dime museums and small variety halls, billing himself at one point as the King of Cards, and toured with his wife Bess as The Houdinis, presenting a trunk illusion called Metamorphosis.

The handcuff king

His break came at the end of the 1890s, when he began challenging police and audiences to restrain him with their own handcuffs. In 1900 he took the act to Europe, where challenges at police stations and theatres made headlines in London, Germany and Russia. Newspapers called him the Handcuff King.

He kept raising the stakes. Audiences saw him:

• escape from a milk can filled with water and locked shut (first presented in 1908)
• free himself from a straitjacket while hanging upside down above a city street
• emerge from the Water Torture Cell, in which he was lowered head first into a glass-fronted tank of water (first shown in Berlin in 1912)
• make a live elephant disappear on the stage of the New York Hippodrome in 1918

How any of these was done is the magician's secret, and Houdini guarded his closely. What made them famous was the presentation: the challenge, the visible danger and the long wait while the audience wondered whether he would come out.

Films, flight and the spirit mediums

Houdini starred in silent films, including the serial The Master Mystery (1919) and The Man from Beyond (1922). He was also a keen early aviator; a 1910 flight near Melbourne is often called the first powered flight in Australia, though that claim is disputed.

After his mother's death in 1913 he became interested in whether the dead could really be contacted, and then furious at the mediums who charged grieving families to try. In the 1920s he attended séances in disguise, testified before Congress and wrote A Magician Among the Spirits (1924). He was president of the Society of American Magicians from 1917 until his death.

Death and legacy

Houdini died in Detroit on 31 October 1926 of peritonitis after his appendix ruptured. Days earlier a student in Montreal had struck him several times in the stomach in his dressing room; whether the blows caused the illness or simply hid its symptoms is still argued about.

His name became a common noun for anyone who gets out of a tight spot. Séances on the anniversary of his death are still held each Halloween. For the wider story of the era he dominated, see the history of magic and famous magicians in history.

Frequently asked questions

What was Harry Houdini's real name?

Erik Weisz, spelled Ehrich Weiss after his family moved to America. He took the name Houdini from the French magician Robert-Houdin.

How did Harry Houdini die?

He died on 31 October 1926 of peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. A student had punched him in the stomach a few days before; historians disagree on whether that played a part.

What is Houdini most famous for?

Escapes: handcuffs, straitjackets, the Milk Can and the Water Torture Cell. He is also remembered for vanishing an elephant and for exposing fake spirit mediums.

Did Houdini have children?

No. He and his wife Bess, who performed with him early in his career, had no children.