By: Sarah Allison

1. Harry Houdini By: Sarah Allison “My brain is the key that sets my mind free.” ~Harry Houdini

2. 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 Bess’s German Catholic mother, and then had a third ceremony with a rabbi.

3. 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.

4. SocialContribution 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Adolescence • In 1888, Harry got a job with a tie manufacturer called H. Ritcher’s 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.

8. 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 Harry’s real brother, Dash. They performed at the 1893 World’s 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.”

9. 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.

10. Harry and Bess joined Dr. Hill’s California Concert Company for $25 a week in 1897, as a last resort from applying for jobs from other companies. Dr. Hill’s 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 Brother’s 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. Adulthood {continued}

11. The turning point of Harry’s life was in early 1899, when Martin Beck, owner of the Orpheum Circuit, saw Harry’s 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. Adulthood {continued}

12. 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, Harry’s 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 Harry’s, 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 Houdini’s 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 man’s 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

14. 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?

15. 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 medium’s “powers”. Harry wrote a book that disapproves Spiritualism called A Magician Among the Spirits. (1924)

16. Bibliography • A Magician Among the Spirits, by Harry Houdini. Digital image. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://g- ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/cc/e8/9f20431378a06f23b9db7110.L._SL500_ AA300_.jpg>. • Appleton Public Library. "Harry Houdini - Biography." Harry Houdini. Appleton Public Library, 2 Aug. 2004. Web. 07 May 2010. <http://www.apl.org/history/houdini/biography.html>. • Harry Houdini. Digital image. Web. 9 May 2010. <http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/32/3214/6FQ1F00Z.jpg> • Harry Houdini. Digital image. Web. 8 May 2010. <http://img.allposters.com/6//p/MED/22/2265/CCTZD00Z/-houdini--the-worlds-handcuff-king- and-prison-breaker.jpg>. • Harry Houdini in Handcuffs. Digital image. Web. <http://fusionanomaly.net/harryhoudini.jpg>. • King, Robert R. "Harry Houdini." Houdini: Harry Houdini. 27 Mar. 2010. Web. 6 May 2010. <http://www.houdinitribute.com/houdini.html>. • Magic Tricks, Inc. "Harry Houdini - Biographies of Famous Magicians | Magic Tricks .Com." MagicTricks.Com. 2009. Web. 07 May 2010. <http://www.magictricks.com/houdini/>. • Magic Wand. Digital image. Web. <http://img.shinyshack.com/l_magicwand.jpg>. • Meachen Rau, Dana. Harry Houdini: Master Magician. New York: Franklin Watts, 2001. Print. • Ulysses S. Grant. Digital image. Web. <http://www.aztecclub.com/1881/Grant1880.jpg>. • Wisconsin House, 1878. Digital image. Web. 9 May 2010. <http://lh5.ggpht.com/_MdA1BCzwv1o/SiIIhRPNxWI/AAAAAAAADfI/EKSaQts3WK U/s400/None.jpg>.