HOUDINI

1. HOUDINI The great bamboozler BY:ANDREW LAMBERT

2. Introduction • Harry Houdini was born in Budapest Hungary on March 24 in the year 1874. • Houdini was most famous for being the worlds best bamboozling magician ever. • He passed away on Sunday, October 31, at 1:26 pm • I chose this person because I've always been interested in magic and he is the magic king. • Houdini's real name is Enrich Weiss • Son of Rabi Mayor Samuel Weisz, who was the first to get to America in 1876 and sent for his family two years after he arrived in America to always be illegal immigrants.

3. CHILDHOOD • Erich's American name was now Erick Weisz, so no one would guess there illegal immigrants • His family lived in the Midwest and New York. • Enrich started his career as an entertainer at the age of nine in Milwaukee. His stage name was Erick the Prince Of Air. • His first trick as the prince of air was picking up pins with his mouth, hanging by his legs on a trapeze. • Houdini was now an entertainer

4. Magical Teen Years Erick was now living in Wisconsin. When Erick turned twelve he was no longer a kid he was now a preteen/teen. He ran away from home at the age of twelve and went to Kansas city Missouri. Seeing how he had no food or water he had to leave so he then headed towards a town call Delavan Wisconsin, back were he started. Seeing how he was running away he didn’t go home. He started going to peoples houses telling them he would work for food, then he came across Mrs. Flintcroft. There motherly Mrs. Flintcroft sewed up his clothes washed him and dried him feed him and gave him a sleeping place. Erick wrote to his mother telling her he was headed towards Galvan Texas, and would be back in a year. Erick didn’t go to Galvan he went to New York were he met up with his father. Erick never forgot Mrs. Flintcroft he sent her a gift every year for the rest of her life. Erick got a job as a NY department store message boy. His money combined with his fathers money was enough to send for his family, waiting for them in Milwaukee. He started running for the pastime athletic group, on the east river at 67th street. He won a load of athletic medals, most of which were real. He strived to win. 2nd place was like a punishment to him. After his sports faze he started getting into magic. He was fired from the store and then got a job as a necktie cutter at a necktie factory. There he met Jacob Hayman an amateur magician. He looked like a magician with his slicked back hair a shinny shoes Erick didn’t look like one at all. Finally for Erick's teenage years was he was a geek. He said he was a physic that could see into palms, just to hold girls hands. So Erick was never a jock, chick magnet, or cool in any way he was just a geek. `

5. Adulthood (Part 1) Erick was a short person growing up, but he eventually grew into it. He got taller as he got older he was 5”4’ then 5”6’ then he finally grew into a whopping 5”7’. He was once lined up with Jacob Hayman and Hayman was very tall Houdini stood on his toes and made it look like he was as tall as Jacob. Erick’s idol was Robert Houdini. Houdin's biography was Erick’s bible, textbook, and gospel. Robert was such an idol in Erick's life, Erick changed his last name from Weiss, to Houdin. Erick added an I to Houdin and without realizing made it Houdini, which in the French language means “like Houdin”. At home Erick’s family called him Eriye (Erie), so Erick changed the sound of his home name and made it Harry. So Erick Weiss was no more he was now Harry Houdini. Harry carved his new name. He chiseled his false birth date and name. Years after he died his real birth date and name was discovered. His sign of Aries was never changed. His sculpture became a lifelong work in progress. Harry lived in obscurity at 305 east 69th street. He teamed up with Jacob Hayman, from the necktie factory as the brothers Houdini. They quit there jobs at the factory, for this magic act was sink or swim. It was now there life. Luckily Harry was already a great swimmer. They tried getting shows but they were no good. They were stuck playing bar shows for throw change. Hayman quit the brothers Houdini, so Harry asked his brother Theodor. He was now the new brother Houdini.

6. Adulthood part 2 The first trick the brothers Houdini ever pulled off was harry was locked in a trunk padlocked and tied up, and he escaped. Not only that, he had tied up his assistant (his brother) with the exact same chains he was tied in. Houdini had a catch fraise that was an odd word. His catch fraise was Metamorphous. He said that word every time he pulled off a trick. But no matter how good he was, the fact will live forever he never got even one magic lesson. He was an autodidact. His dad had passed away when Houdini was 18. On his death bed, Samuel asked Houdini to take on the responsibility of making sure his mother Cecilia never needed for anything. The question was why did he pick harry when there were two other more promising, older kids. He didn’t let Houdini leave his side until he promised. The answer to the question is simple. He had asked all his kids to make that promise. Two years later harry met Bess, a Brooklyn girl who harry met then two weeks later married at the age of twenty. Harry pulled Theodor from the brothers Houdini act and put in Bess. The brothers Houdini were now the Houdini's. Bess's full name was Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner. Harry called himself the Hungarian magician , until he married Bess, then he became the European Illusionist. Bess got them a lot more shows because she was much better of a magician then Theodor ever was. His most famous trick ever was a tie between being tied up and dunked in a tank of water head first and escaping or making a 1,500 pound Asian elephant disappear into thin air.

7. Death of Houdin In the last days of Houdini’s life, he lay in a hospital bed at Detroit’s Grace Hospital, suffering the effects of a ruptured appendix. Surgeons had removed the organ on October 25, 1926, but peritonitis has spread through his body. The infection produced extreme pain and weakness. Hospital workers remarked at how graceful the magician seemed in the face of death. Doctors tried to stop the progress of the infection with a locally developed experimental “serum.” The “serum” worked somewhat, reducing Houdini’s fever to an almost normal temperature. Doctors again operated on October 29, to relieve “paralysis of the bowels.” The second operation failed and Houdini’s temperature and pulse rose to unusually high levels. Soon after Houdini told his wife Bess to “be prepared, if anything happens.” His last words to his brother Theodore were “I can’t fight any more.” Houdini died on Sunday, October 31, at 1:26 pm. Officials placed Houdini’s body in his bronze buried alive casket, a prop that had been lost in a Detroit warehouse when other equipment had been shipped out of the city after the magician’s final performance at Garrick Theater. The casket with Houdini made its way to the Elks Clubhouse on West Forty-third Street in New York for a funeral on November 4. Houdini’s body was interned in a massive exedra built out of a thousand tons of Vermont granite and decorated with figures carved from Italian marble. On top of the monument sat a giant bronze bust of Houdini, in violation of Jewish custom. The magician had purchased the plot in the Jewish Cemetery in 1904. He had moved the bodies of his half-brother Herman (died of tuberculosis in 1885) and father (died of cancer in 1892) from other graves to the new family plot. He buried his mother there in 1913 after she died of a stroke and built the exedra in her name in 1916. In 1924, Houdini placed the body of his brother William near their mother after he, like Herman, died of tuberculosis.

8. Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877

9. Positive Contributions Harry Houdini made many positive contributions to society of his time. He influenced many magicians of today like Chris Angels, David Blaine, and David Copperfield just to name a few. He also was the idol of many kids and is still today. Harry also made many people happy by showing them a great time. He changed the definition of magic by instead of just doing a trick he risked his life to really get into his work.

10. QUESTIONS If I could ask Houdini any three questions I would ask What were your secrets? Did you always fell you had a gift? Why didn’t you keep your brother in the brothers Houdini as something instead of kick him out on the curb?

11. Bibliography Fleischman, S. (2006). Escape The Story of The Great Houdini. New York, New York: Green willow Books.