His crowds so enjoyed the stunt that he performed it regularly until his death. The trick required him to hold his breath for three minutes and became the pinnacle of his career. In this act, his feet were tied, and they suspended him in the air and lowered him into a glass box filled with water from which he had to escape. By 1912, he had upped the ante so much that he integrated a stunt into his act called the Chinese Water Torture Cell. In another, the box was tossed from a boat underwater.
During a typical stunt in his set, he was put in chains and placed inside a box that was then locked close, only for him to escape. He was suspended high above the ground and buried alive in the earth. Amazingly, as Houdini’s reputation and fame increased, so did the difficulty and complexity of his stunts.īy the turn of the century, Harry had graduated from jail cells to water-filled tanks, coffins, and straight jackets.
Before long, he was the biggest star in American vaudeville, charging vast sums to perform. During his performances, the police would handcuff Houdini and lock him in a cell, only for him to escape. He was not successful at first, and it wasn’t until 1899, when an entertainment manager named Martin Beck discovered him, that his popularity increased.īeck booked Houdini at vaudeville venues across the country and scheduled him on a tour of Europe.
#Henry houdini professional
The following year, Weiss officially launched his career as a professional magician, dawning the name Harry Houdini which was an homage to the great French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdini. Harry Houdini poses in his chains before jumping off the Harvard Bridge in Boston in 1908 In 1893, Erich married fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, who regularly assisted him on stage during his performances under the name Beatrice “Bess” Houdini. With his penchant for performing, Ehrich expanded his repertoire to include escape acts and magic acts, although they earned him little notoriety.
The young daredevil named himself Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.Įhrich was drawn to magic from a young age and was coached by the magician Joseph Rinn at the Pastime Athletic Club. At just nine years old, young Ehrich performed the first of what was to become a lifetime of stunts when he performed as a trapeze artist. Like many immigrant families of the era, they were poor, and the children had to find work. The family moved to Milwaukee and soon to New York City, where they moved into a boarding house. Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen that year but lost his job serving the congregation at Zion. They arrived in America on July 3, 1878, on the SS Fresia, changing their name to the German spelling Weiss and Erik’s name to Ehrich.Įhrich’s father became a rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation in Appleton, Wisconsin, where the family lived until 1882.
He was one of seven children and his parents, Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz and Cecília Steiner brought the family to the United States when Erik was four. Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874, to a large Jewish family. Houdini with his “two sweethearts,” his mother and wife, c.
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