Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist who ever lived, has been the subject of hundreds of books and movies. A pop icon, even today. He died 100 years ago this week, on Halloween – a coincidence that did nothing to diminish his mystique. But we’ll get to that.
Erik Weisz was born in Hungary, in 1874. When he was four, the family moved to Wisconsin. As a teenager, he performed magic tricks in sideshows and beer halls. “He was a skinny kid, and he built himself up,” said New Yorker staff writer David Denby. “He became this beautiful, incredible body, and he was a handsome man.”
But according to Denby, he wanted a catchier name. He turned to his idol, Houdin, the great French magician of the 19th century: “So, he took the name Houdin and added an i and pronounced it as Houdini. But the name always sounded funny. It’s vaguely Italian, but it’s not. What is it?”
Houdini historian Roger Dreyer owns one of the world’s largest collections of Houdini artifacts, such as the Metamorphosis Trunk. He says Houdini’s magic tricks didn’t exactly bring the house down. “If he was to perform it today, he wouldn’t even make it past the second round on ‘America’s Got Talent,'” Dreyer said. “It wasn’t until his Metamorphosis Trunk that Houdini really became bookable; theaters wanted to see his act. People today, over 100 years after Houdini’s death, still perform this exact same trick.”
After being locked in a trunk, Houdini switched places with his new wife, Bess, instantly. But once he added handcuff escapes to his show, Houdini became a sensation. Denby said, “He would be put in a cell, virtually naked, shackled. He’d come out 20 minutes later holding the handcuffs. The specialists were called out of their corners to produce the most complicated locks for him. He’d lick it every time. There’s no record of his failure.”
Denby says there was symbolism in his escapes: “He would defeat those police forces all over the world. And so, there was definitely a kind of anti-authoritarian message that people liked.”
In time, the act was more than escaping shackles. It became about escaping death. “He always reinvented himself,” Dreyer said. “Initially, he got out of a trunk. Then Houdini got out of a straitjacket. Then Houdini would get out of a straitjacket hanging from a crane. Then Houdini would go inside a live jumbo water tank upside down.”
