Harry Houdini was far more than an escape artist. He was a magician, showman, inventor, movie star, author and relentless self-promoter whose name became synonymous with escaping the impossible.
More than a century after his death, Houdini remains the most famous magician in history. But behind the legend was a fascinating man whose real story is often even stranger than the myths.
Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874. Throughout his life he often claimed Appleton, Wisconsin, as his birthplace and April 6 as his birthday, but the Houdini story actually began in Hungary.
He was four years old when his family came to America, arriving in New York aboard the S.S. Fresia on July 3, 1878. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss and Cecilia Steiner Weiss. Houdini grew up as one of several children in a family that frequently struggled financially.
Much has been written about Houdini's extraordinary devotion to his mother, Cecilia. He was also proud of his father, who died in 1892 before his son's great success as a magician. Houdini's attachment to his family remained a powerful force throughout his life.
The Weiss family was not without conflict. Houdini became bitterly estranged from his sister-in-law Sadie after she divorced his brother Nathan and soon married another brother, Leopold. His marriage to Bess Rahner, who was Catholic, also created tension in his Jewish family. Years later, religious cemetery rules would prevent Bess from being buried beside Houdini as he had wished.
Houdini became fascinated with magic while still young. One of the performances that impressed him was a demonstration of the Linking Rings by the traveling magician Dr. Lynn.
Contrary to some later legends, Houdini did not run away with a circus and was not trained as a locksmith's apprentice. At about seventeen, he turned seriously to magic as an alternative to factory work.
He teamed with fellow magic enthusiast Jacob Hyman and performed as the Houdini Brothers. The stage name was inspired by the celebrated French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Houdini's younger brother Theodore, later famous as Hardeen, subsequently joined the act.
Then came Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner — Bess. She became Houdini's performing partner, his wife, and one of the most important people in his life.
Houdini was not an overnight success. For years he experimented with card manipulation, conventional magic, illusions and box escapes. He billed himself as the King of Cards, but audiences were not yet seeing the Houdini who would become a legend.
By 1896 he was discouraged enough to advertise his entire magic act and its secrets for sale for just $20. Nobody bought it.
One routine did stand out: the Needle Trick. Houdini appeared to swallow needles and thread, then brought the thread back up with the needles strung neatly along it. The startling feat remained part of his repertoire throughout his career.
“My brain is the key that sets me free.”
By the late 1890s Houdini found the idea that would change everything: the Challenge Act.
Instead of simply presenting tricks chosen by the magician, Houdini invited police officers, locksmiths and members of the public to bring restraints for him to escape. Handcuffs became his specialty, and the title Handcuff King became part of his identity.
The format was brilliant because every challenge seemed different and every challenger appeared to make Houdini's task more difficult. It also gave newspapers a local story wherever Houdini performed.
Houdini was not merely selling an escape. He was selling a contest between one man and seemingly impossible confinement — and the public loved it.
Houdini understood something many entertainers never master: the publicity surrounding a performance can become part of the performance itself. Police stations, jail cells, bridges, newspapers and public challenges all helped turn his escapes into headline-making events.
Once Houdini became identified with handcuffs, he expanded the idea dramatically. He escaped from jail cells, canvas mailbags, locked crates, bridge jumps and all manner of restraints.
The straitjacket became one of his greatest publicity devices. Houdini took an object associated with confinement and transformed it into outdoor spectacle by escaping while suspended upside down high above city streets.
His stage repertoire grew to include some of the most famous escape illusions ever presented: the Milk Can Escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell and Buried Alive.
By the early 1920s, Houdini's name was so closely associated with escape that dictionaries recorded the verb Houdinize, meaning to extricate oneself from confinement or bonds.
After the death of his beloved mother in 1913, Houdini became increasingly interested in claims that mediums could communicate with the dead.
He had an enormous advantage as an investigator: he understood the techniques of stage magic. Mysterious knocks, apparitions, levitations and seemingly impossible manifestations that might fool the public were familiar territory to a professional illusionist.
Houdini recreated many of these effects and publicly exposed techniques used by fraudulent mediums. The subject eventually occupied a large portion of his stage programs and became one of the defining crusades of his later life.
The irony was irresistible: the man who spent years exposing supposed messages from the dead would later become the subject of perhaps the most famous séances in history.
Escape artistry made Houdini famous, but his interests reached far beyond handcuffs and locked boxes.
He created, adapted or popularized numerous magical effects and escapes. He was also deeply involved with the magic profession itself. Houdini became president of the Society of American Magicians in 1917 and remained in that position until his death.
He was involved with the legendary Martinka magic business in New York and delighted in meeting magic enthusiasts, signing books and discussing the profession.
Houdini was also fascinated by aviation. In 1910, while touring Australia, he made pioneering flights in a Voisin biplane. His appetite for machinery, danger and innovation was perfectly suited to the new age of flight.
During World War I he performed for servicemen and helped promote Liberty Bond sales. Even when he was too old to enlist, he found a way to make himself useful — and theatrical.
Houdini patented a two-piece diving suit designed so a diver in danger could quickly release himself from the suit while underwater. It was a practical idea clearly influenced by Houdini's lifelong fascination with underwater escape.
Houdini was also drawn to the new motion-picture business. He appeared in early film footage and later became an actor, stunt performer, producer and film-company owner.
His screen work included The Master Mystery, The Grim Game, Terror Island, The Man From Beyond and Haldane of the Secret Service. Not surprisingly, his films repeatedly placed Houdini in situations requiring spectacular escapes.
He even formed the Houdini Picture Corporation. The film business never matched the extraordinary success of his live career, but it remains another example of Houdini's instinct for new forms of entertainment.
Want to explore Houdini's movie career in more detail? See the films, stories and surviving material from his years on the screen.
One enduring entertainment story connects Houdini with the young Joseph Frank Keaton, who would become one of silent film's greatest comedians. Houdini was a family friend of the Keatons, and tradition credits him with helping make the nickname “Buster” stick.
One of the most persistent Houdini myths is that he died while performing the Water Torture Cell. He did not.
During his final tour in the fall of 1926, Houdini was suffering from severe abdominal pain. He continued performing despite being ill and despite having recently injured his ankle.
While in Montreal, student J. Gordon Whitehead struck Houdini several times in the abdomen after a discussion about Houdini's ability to withstand blows. Houdini was reportedly unprepared for the punches.
Whether those blows caused or aggravated the condition has been debated for generations. What is certain is that Houdini developed appendicitis and peritonitis. He continued performing and was eventually hospitalized in Detroit.
Harry Houdini died on October 31, 1926 — Halloween — at the age of 52.
The famous stomach punches and Houdini's death happened close together, which helped create a simple dramatic story: “a punch killed Houdini.” The actual medical history is more complicated. Houdini died from peritonitis following a ruptured appendix, and historians have long debated what role, if any, the blows played in the timing of his illness.
A few months before his death, Houdini bought a bronze coffin as part of an experiment in remaining sealed underwater for an extended period. He successfully stayed inside while the coffin was submerged in a swimming pool.
He later took the coffin on tour and planned to incorporate it into his Buried Alive presentation.
In a grim twist worthy of the Houdini legend, the same coffin ultimately carried his body back to New York after his death.
Houdini's death was mourned throughout the world of magic. The Society of American Magicians honored him with a Broken Wand Ceremony, symbolically breaking a magician's wand to mark the end of his earthly performances.
The ceremony became an enduring tradition in the magic fraternity, and Houdini's grave continues to be a gathering place for magicians commemorating his life.
Houdini left his wife, Bess, a substantial estate. His brother Hardeen inherited much of his show equipment and secrets. Fortunately for historians, much of Houdini's material survived rather than being destroyed, allowing later generations to study the remarkable career more closely.
Houdini and Bess had agreed on a secret message that could be used to prove genuine communication after death. For years after Houdini died, Bess participated in highly publicized séances each Halloween in hopes that the famous skeptic might somehow return.
The attempts to contact Houdini became almost as legendary as the man himself.
Few entertainers from Houdini's era remain instantly recognizable today. Houdini does.
His name long ago escaped the boundaries of magic. To “pull a Houdini” means to disappear or get out of an impossible situation. He has been portrayed in movies and television, commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp and honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Part of that enduring fame came from extraordinary talent. Part came from courage, athleticism and obsessive preparation. And a very large part came from Houdini's extraordinary understanding of publicity.
He did not merely perform great escapes. He created stories people wanted to repeat.
Perhaps because he was a remarkable magician and escape artist.
Perhaps because he understood showmanship and publicity better than almost anyone of his generation.
Or perhaps because Houdini managed one final impossible feat:
He made sure the world never forgot his name.
Magic history is filled with conflicting accounts, uncertain dates, publicity claims, and stories repeated over many years. We make every reasonable effort to present accurate information based on the sources available to us, but historical sources sometimes disagree and new information may come to light. If you have documented information that may help us correct or improve this page, please contact us.
