![]() ![]() Houdini is restrained by German police in a 1908 circus poster Houdini became a wealthy man and he spent much of his money sponsoring magicians’ groups in the U.S. Houdini, on the other hand, saw himself as more than an entertainer, fashioning himself as a kind of public intellectual-although he had had little formal education. Houdini’s tricks were so sophisticated that some believed he was able to transcend the material world. His most infamous act was escaping from a milk can filled with water. In 1924 he was able to attract a crowd of 15,000 in Milwaukee, then about half the city’s population. He later toured Europe, performing his daring escapes. Returning to Wisconsin in 1897, Houdini challenged local law enforcement officers to lock him up, and the act became a hit. They remained partners in romance and in the entertainment business for Houdini’s entire life. Weiss then met another Coney Island performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, or Bess for short, and they married when he was 20 and she was 18. He worked as a contortionist and then hooked up with a friend to form the “Brothers Houdini,” named for the famous French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Houdini saw himself as a kind of public intellectual.Īt the age of 12, he ran away to the circus…only to return to his family in New York. And indeed, escapes would become his calling card: To “pull a Houdini,” or to miraculously escape an uncomfortable or dangerous situation, is still part of the American lexicon, even 90 years after his death. He was introduced to escape techniques when asked as a young boy to assist a local police officer unshackle a prisoner. The state was then a center for various circuses, and Houdini later said he was mesmerized by the atmosphere. Weiss’s Wisconsin roots played a role in his later life. The family then moved to Milwaukee, only to eventually land in New York in the rabbi’s search for work as a non-English speaking cleric. His father was an itinerant rabbi who settled in Appleton, Wisconsin, to minister to a small European Jewish community. He was born Erik Weisz, with his family’s name being changed in American entry forms to Weiss. Houdini, born March 24, 1874, came to the U.S. That’s been part of the profession since the days of the infamous Harry Houdini. As the New York Times recently reported, one of the hottest new magicians around works to dismantle illusions, trying to “break magic.” But Derek DelGaudio isn’t the first performer to try to upend the audience’s expectations. What does it mean to be a magician? It’s a question that illusionists of all stripes have played with for decades.
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