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Five Fascinating Facts About Harry Houdini
Including how he successfully sued a newspaper for slander
Harry Houdini (Photo: mixonline.hu)
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Yesterday we told you about the Jewish Museum’s new exhibit on the world’s most famous magician—or, if Gob’s reading this, world’s famous illusionist. That got us thinking about how, ahem, badass Mr. Houdini was in his time, and how we wished we still had him around instead of Criss Angel. Here are our five favorite facts about Mr. Houdini:
#1. Harry Houdini was fond of saying that he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin (hometown of Willem Dafoe and Terry Zwigoff), which is odd considering where he actually spent the first four years of his life: Budapest. On March 27, 1874, parents Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weisz and Cecilia Steiner welcomed Erik Weisz to the world. They would eventually move to Appleton in 1878 and Lil’ Erik would soon become Harry Houdini.
#2. Of his many fascinating escapes, my favorite is the Chinese Water Torture Cell, also called the “Upside Down,” which is just as dangerous as it sounds. For the stunt, Houdini was placed upside down in a large tank of water with his feet chained together. Our jaded minds probably don’t think it’s very impressive anymore (it’s been done by many impersonators in the last few years), but look at this:
Would you have done that in 1912?
#3. Houdini Museum is an amazing website, featuring links from every time Houdini was mentioned in the New York Times. Here’s a sample, from June 1, 1924: “Houdini has a great deal to say about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with whom he has had many conversations and discussions about spiritualism. In Houdini’s opinion, Sir Arthur’s scientific knowledge does not prevent him from being deceived or from deceiving himself. He believes in spiritualism because, owing to the death of his son, he wants to believe in the possibility of communication with the departed. Sir Arthur, by the way, is one of those who have expressed the belief that Houdini possesses mediumistic powers.”
#4. According to a PBS article, Houdini ran into trouble with German police—and actually ended up suing them, and winning! After performing a typical stunt of his (no biggie, he just escaped from jail and shackles after being searched and stripped nude…), a German newspaper wrote an article called “The Unmasking of Houdini,” which accused the magician of bribing “Cologne policeman Werner Graff into rigging an escape from that city’s jail and paying a civilian police employee to help him with a phony public performance.” Houdini sued the newspaper and policeman for slander, and won.
#5. Houdini passed away on October 31, 1926 in Detroit, MI. The doctor’s report says he died because peritonitis from a ruptured appendix due to an earlier event. The story goes that while Houdini was in Montreal, a McGill University student named J. Gordon Whitehead asked the magician whether he could absorb any blow above the waist without injury. Houdini replied that this was true, and Whitehead hit him multiple times in the abdomen. Soon after, Houdini was dead. He’s buried in Machpelah Cemetery in Queens.