Doctors operated on him, but to no avail. The burst appendix poisoned his system, and on October 31 he died. Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in , the son of a rabbi. At a young age, he immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin , and soon demonstrated a natural acrobatic ability and an extraordinary skill at picking locks.
When he was nine, he joined a traveling circus and toured the country as a contortionist and trapeze performer. He soon was specializing in escape acts and gained fame for his reported ability to escape from any manacle. He went on his first international tour in and performed all over Europe to great acclaim. In executing his escapes, he relied on strength, dexterity, and concentration—not trickery—and was a great showman. In , Houdini began performing more dangerous and dramatic escapes.
While he did it after a few failed attempts, it later was revealed that Houdini was likely beaten to the punch by just a few months by a Capt.
Colin Defries, who made a short flight in December As president of the Society of American Magicians, Houdini was a vigorous campaigner against fraudulent psychic mediums. Most notably, he debunked renowned medium Mina Crandon, better known as Margery. This act turned him against former friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , who believed deeply in spiritualism and Margery's sight. Despite his activism against spiritual charlatanism, Houdini and his wife did in fact experiment with otherworldly spiritualism when they decided that the first of them to die would try to communicate from beyond the grave with the survivor.
Before her death, Bess Houdini declared the experiment a failure. Though there are mixed reports as to the cause of Houdini's death, it is certain that he suffered from acute appendicitis. Whether his demise was caused by a McGill University student who was testing his will by punching him in the stomach with permission or by poison from a band of angry Spiritualists is unknown. What is known is that he died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on October 31, , at the age of 52, in Detroit, Michigan.
After his death, Houdini's props and effects were used by his brother Theodore Hardeen, who eventually sold them to the magician and collector Sidney H. Much of the collection could be seen at the Houdini Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin, until Radner auctioned it off in Erich was devoted to his mother and sought ways to ease her hard life.
At one point he took to begging for coins in the street. He hid the coins in his hair and clothing, then presented himself to his mother and said, "Shake me, I'm magic.
The family remained poor, however. Erich began selling newspapers and shining shoes at the age of eight to help out. Erich was also very interested in magic. After serving as a young circus acrobat "Eric, Prince of the Air" , he began to study locks and how to "pick" them, or open them using a tool other than a key. He worked as a necktie cutter in a garment factory to earn money to support his hobby. At age seventeen Erich entered show business, taking the stage name Houdini after the nineteenth-century French magician Robert-Houdin.
By age twenty Houdini had married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner known as Bess , who became his partner onstage as well. As "Mysterious Harry and La Petit Bessie," the Houdinis played amusement parks and music halls, and they even toured with a circus for a time. When response to their escape tricks and magic was poor, they performed a comedy act, stealing old jokes from magazines.
During these early years, Harry would often perform his "Hindoo Needle Trick," in which he appeared to swallow forty needles before drawing them from his mouth, all threaded together. Bess performed as a mind reader, using a code of numbers and letters known to her and Harry. In , in Massachusetts, Houdini first thought up the idea of escaping not from his own handcuffs, but from those of the local police. These stunts brought free publicity, which increased Houdini's popularity.
Houdini's American tours were followed by successful appearances in Europe. With success came imitators, as anyone could buy a version of the Hindoo Needle Trick.
Houdini himself had purchased it. Houdini worked hard to stay ahead of the pack. He began performing escapes from straitjackets, jails, coffins, handcuffs, and shackles something that confines the arms or legs.
At each performance he invited police officials onstage to examine him and his props to make sure they were real. That same night, he was taken to a Detroit hospital and prepped for surgery. Doctors successfully removed his appendix, which was found to have ruptured several days earlier, but it had already poisoned his insides.
Despite a grim prognosis, the magician clung to life until October 31, when he died with his wife Bess and his two brothers by his side. Gordon Whitehead had given him during their backstage encounter in Montreal.
Houdini was laid to rest in Queens on November 4, , but rumors about his unusual death have persisted ever since. Just a few months earlier, he had testified in front of Congress in support of a bill to outlaw fortune telling in Washington, D. Considerable debate has also focused on J. By the time the magician finally sought out treatment, the theory goes, it was already too late.
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