Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini is in all probability one of the most widely known and esteemed magicians there has ever been – if you ask an individual on the street, even today, to name a magician, there is a very good prospect they’ll name Houdini, altho he passed away in 1926.

So, here are a few facts regarding Houdini that you may not know:

1. His real name was Erich Weiss, but he changed his name to Houdini in honour of a famous French magician, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

2. He was actually born in Budapest, Hungary, though his family moved to the USA when he was very young. However, he did assert in later years to have been born in Appleton, Wisconsin.

3. Houdini begun life as a very intermediate magician, going by the title King Of Kards for a while, before embarking on his distinguishable career as an escapologist, for which he became so famous.

4. His wife, Bess, was also a performer, and after they were married, she worked as his stage assistant for the rest of his performing career.

5. It was for the duration of his highly successful tour of Europe, just after the turn of the century, that he acquired the name The Handcuff King.

6. He became famous for his suspended straitjacket escapes, as well as escapes from beneath water, but his most widely known and esteemed was the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was hung upside down, by his ankles, in a cabinet filled with water.

7. Houdini was an avid aviator, and was the firstborn person to achieve a controlled, powered flight over Australia, in 1910, in his own Voisin biplane.

8. He made a few movies, including The Man From Beyond (1921), even though they were far from successful.

9. For numerous years, Houdini was the most eminent paid performer in vaudeville.

10. He served as the President of the Society Of American Magicians from 1917 until his death in 1926.

11. After the death of his beloved mother, Cecilia, he expended much of his time debunking fraudulent mediums after vain attempts to contact her from beyond the grave.

12. His exposures of spiritualists cost him his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the famous Sherlock Homes stories.

13. Although the movie starring Tony Curtis regarding Houdini’s life had him dying under water in a failed escape, he actually passed from physical life after contracting peritonitis, supposedly after being hit in the stomach by a student before he had to time to prepare himself. He passed from physical life various days later, on Halloween 1926, at the age of 52.

Harry Houdini

Handcuff King. Escape Artist. International Superstar. Since his death eighty years ago, Harry Houdini’s life has been chronicled in books, in film, and on television. Now, in this groundbreaking biography, widely known and esteemed magic expert William Kalush and bestselling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. Drawing from millions of pages of research, they describe in bright detail the passions that drove Houdini to carry out ever-more-dangerous feats, his mystery life as a spy, and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.

The Secret Life of Houdini traces the arc of the master magician’s life from desperate poverty to international fame — his bequest later threatened by a group of fanatical Spiritualists led by esteemed British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Initiating the reader along the way into the arcane world of professional magic, Kalush and Sloman decode a life based on deception, supplying an intimate and riveting portrayal of Houdini, the man and the legend.

About the AuthorWilliam Kalush has been a consecrated student of the art of magic for more than twenty-five years. Founder of the Conjuring Arts Research Center and publisher of Gibecière, an esteemed magic history journal, he has helped develop various world-famous magic stunts and prime-time network television specials.

Larry Sloman is an award-winning author best known for his collaborations with radio personality Howard Stern on Private Parts and Miss America. He became mesmerized in magic history after working with David Blaine on his best-selling essay Mysterious Stranger.

Most helpful client reviews

54 of 56 persons found the following review helpful.
Spy controversy a distraction from this splendid biography
By John Cox
The “Houdini was a spy” aspect of this book – so hyped in the media and debated by magic historians – is a distraction from what must be seen, firstborn and foremost, as a major new Houdini biography loaded with arousing and attention holding new facts regarding the outstanding magician’s life and career.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
An perfectly marvelous book when it comes to Houdini!
By Patrick Culliton
There have been a slew of biographies of Houdini from Harold Kellock’s 1928 book that was written “from the documents and recollections of Beatrice Houdini” to this most recent one by magic authority Bill Kalush and “Reefer Madness” author Ratso Slocum. I have read them all and may say without reservation that this is my favorite.
I comprehend the feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized of a heap of readers who complain that the book holds no notes or substantiation of the facts as presented. Like the biography “Houdini, the Career of Ehrich Weiss” by Kenneth Silverman, the exploration was so voluminous, the notes so extensive, that they require another book to comprise them. I very much look forward to this forthcoming book of notes, but, the lack of footnoting in this book doesn’t bother me. What was it John Barrymore said to describe his dislike of footnotes? (He felt that footnotes got in the way of a good read). I think he said, “It’s like having to run downstairs to answer the doorbell on one’s wedding night.”
The exploration that the writers did in preparation for this book was merely enormous. When the book of notes comes out, that will become clear. Still, I commiserate with readers who would like the biography and the notes to be contained in a single volume but, believe me, that would be one thick book.
There are assorted examples of “invented” dialog that has bothered some Houdini authorities. I may state that even these will have a good deal of substantiation in the mountain of documents that will be contained in the next volume.
I wonder how a great deal of of the “Houdini experts” who question the veracity of this book have ever heard of the Hungarian escape artisan called Hanelo? Or one named Steen? Or Rex Palmer Gordon? Well, I hadn’t until I read this book and this is Culliton speaking.
Any mistakes? Well, a photo of Houdini’s leading lady Ann Forrest is misidentified as Gloria Swanson which must be corrected before the paperback comes out, but, while there are other points of view on a great deal of matters discussed in the book, the writers have done their homework and there is background for their assertions.
Then there are Houdini insiders I knew with regards to but that most of the other biographers missed: Dr. Waite, for one example. Or Montraville Wood for another. It cheered my heart when these guys picked up on them, and many, numerous others. Gertude Hills, John Hanauer, Ormer Locklear. . . I could go on and on.
Is the book 100% accurate? Probably not, due to it is subject. As Silverman pointed out in an interview, (I’m probably paraphrasing slightly) “In most life histories there are three dissimilar versions of any event. In Houdini’s life, there are at least ten.” It has become each Houdini biographer’s task to choose which story rings truest.
As to the book’s contention that Houdini did mystery work for at least two governments, I believe it, and I believe the basi two passport apps Houdini made (as discussed in the book) constitute the smoking gun.
Is this book the last word on Houdini? Uh uh! No one will ever write the last word on Houdini (after all, he’s Houdini) but I love this book and I unreservedly commend it.

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