| Wednesday, 20th August 2008 |
died on October 31 1926.
An interesting date for an escape artist with a history of debunking spiritualism
to die. Perhaps the spirits were having a final laugh at his expense.
Born in Budapest, Hungary he was named Ehrich Wiess.
It was a birthplace he decided to forget when writing about his life in 'The
Magician Annual, 1909-10' published in London 1910. Instead he decided he was
born in America.
In fact as an infant he went to America with his parents.
early
career
His first professional performance was on October 28 1883 as a contortionist
and trapeze performer under the name of 'Ehrich, The Prince of the Air.
Fame was not overnight and he had a good many menial jobs (including locksmith)
before he began his act as an escapologist.
In the piece he wrote in 'The Magician Annual' he claimed all this came about
whilst working for a locksmith next to a police station. A policeman came in
with a man in handcuffs. The apprehended man had attempted to escape his cuffs
by means of a key but had only managed to snap the key in the lock.
The manager of the store tried but failed to open the lock and when the whistle
for lunchtime went the task was handed over to Houdini with the instructions
to hacksaw the cuffs off.
The stories about Houdini are legion and most he made up himself, like the one about hanging upside down in his back yard picking up needles with his eyelids.
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| Carreras,
Amusing Tricks and How to do Them. [1937] |
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This proved very difficult and blade after blade was broken in the attempt.
Eventually Houdini decided to pick the lock (he adds not with a duplicate key
as people think he does).
This he manages and so a career begins.
the
showman
Houdini was a great showman and wherever he went banners and fliers had been
distributed for weeks in advance announcing his arrival and invariably that
he was going to escape from the local jail.
On Jan 7th 1906 he escaped from the Washington D.C jail cell of Charles Guiteau
(the assassin of President Garfield) and so secured his reputation as a premier
jail breaker and handcuff king.
He was interested in the history of magic and wrote on the subject. He felt
that his work, 'The Unmasking of Robert-Houdini' would be something which lived
long after the memory of his existence had diminished.
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Houdini was always looking for something
that would make him famous forever... |
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It was not his only misunderstanding of what he would always be remembered
for.
In 1910 he became the first person to manage a sustained flight in Australia.
He imagined that would be something he would be forever remembered for. The flight (after a number of crashes) last a mile. Another man claimed to have done the feat the previous day but naturally it was Houdini with the newsreel footage.
He also used the Australian Tour to learn to dirve. When he left Australia he did not fly or drive again.
All the while he was constantly innovating his escape acts to keep him ahead
of the competition. In 1913 he developed the legendary upside down water torture
escape. By 1915 he was the highest paid vaudeville act.
In the early twenties Houdini made a number of silent movies which basically
have a plot which means he gets handcuffed put in a box thrown into water then
escapes. The films titles were better, The Master Mystery, The Grim Game and
in 1921 with his own company (The Houndini Picture Corporation) The Man from
Beyond.
Spiritualism
At about this period Houdini was also keen to debunk the spiritualists that
were springing up everywhere to put families in touch with long lost relatives,
an occupation fuelled by the horrors of World War One.
He had a good deal of success in demonstrating how these illusions were done
by re-creating them and defrocking the fraudsters. His greatest challenge coming
in the form of Mina Crandon, known as Margery.
She had fooled a good many intellectual types including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(who was also capable of believing in fairies and all manner of other unlikely
nonsense). This caused an intense rivalry between the two men which did Houdini's
career no harm.
the
end
Houdini's act was intensely physical and it was wearing his body out at quite
a rate.
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His last performance was mere ghost
of his usual flair... |
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His last performance was mere ghost of his usual flair with many of the audience
exclaiming they could see through muchy of his act. Clearly the fellow was in
some sort of trouble with his assistant needing to guide him through much of
his work.
The performance had started half and hour later than billed.
After the performance he had been rushed to a hospital but they were unable
to save him. He died from peritonitis resulting from appendicitis.
Houdini always swore if there was an afterlife he would get in contact on the
anniversary of his death. He never did.
He was buried at the Machpelah Cemetery, Cypress Hills Street, Queens New York
with his Mother, Father, sisters and brothers.
Unfortunately not with his wife. Although a plot was reserved next to him because
she was Catholic and the cemetery was Jewish she had to be buried elsewhere.
