Today, join us as we uncover the biography of the father of magic himself!
Transcript:
Some words, phrases, and names become so commonplace that they become part of our vocabulary. Most of the time, we probably couldn’t even tell you where these phrases come from. Today, let’s dig into one of those household names and learn of the magnificent life, and the bizarre death of Harry Houdini.
Prior to changing his name Harry Houdini was known as Erik Weisz, and was born in Hungary in the year 1874. However, shortly into his childhood, Weisz would move to Wisconsin with his family, and would actually claim from hereon out that he was a Wisconsinite born and raised. When he turned 13, Erik and his father would move to New York in search of work, and would take up odd jobs to scrounge up enough money for the rest of the family to join them.
During his time in New York, Erik would become fascinated with the performance arts, and at the age of 20 he would launch his career as a professional magician. Harry Houdini wasn’t only his stage name however, as he would soon adopt this name as his new title. The first named derived of his childhood nickname, Ehrie, and the last was an homage to a french Magician, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin.
Performers, however were a dime a dozen in New York City, and Houdini’s magic failed to bring the interest of any crowds. Though, there was one trick that would eventually catch the publics eye. A trick unlike one they had ever seen, and one that nobody could rationalize. Houdini had the magnificent ability of freeing himself from any pair of bonds be it ropes, chains, handcuffs, practically anything tied around his arms could be escaped.
These acts were a combination of technical expertise, physical strength, and some sleight of hand. Soon, after finding himself an entertainment manager, Houdini would go nationwide. The best vaudeville venues in the country were booking Houdini for his amazing escape acts. His showstopper would involve the local police in a performance involving a strip search, handcuffing, being locked inside a jail cell, and every single time, Houdini would manage to escape.
However, Houdini unfortunately would never live to see retirement. At the age of 52, Houdini would perform his last show. A few days prior to this performance, the magician would be visited by a group of students from a lecture he had taught prior. One of the students would prod Houdini about a claim he made once, that he could resist hard punches to his abdomen, the moment that Houdini reaffirmed these claims, the student would strike Houdini with five hard, and well-directed blows to his abdomen.
Despite the terrible pain of it all, Houdini would shrug the incident off, as pain would grow in his stomach over the next few days. He would begin to feel immense pain, fatigue, and a high fever. Ignoring the pleas of his team, he insisted on performing that night, and would collapse moments after the show ended, and die shortly after reaching a hospital.
Doctors diagnosed that Houdini had died of a ruptured appendix. However, some contest this claim as such cases of traumatic appendicitis are incredibly rare. Instead, some believe that Houdini had been cursed due to his vocal criticisms of spiritualism, mediums, fortune-tellers, and basically anyone who interacted with the supernatural. This claim gets especially accentuated by the fact that his sudden death was on Halloween. Whatever the real cause of his death mightve been, Houdini truly lived an extraordinary life.
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