HOUDINI

HOUDINI

The name Houdini still means magic. No lock, straitjacket or shackle could hold him. Born Erich Weiss in Hungary, in 1874, he came to the United States with his family as an infant. He created the stage name Harry Houdini, after famed magician Robert-Houdin. He turned pro at age 17.
His death-defying escapes in the early 20th century fascinated audiences, particularly the many European immigrants. They saw this small immigrant beat impossible odds. Seeing him gave them hope for their own lives.
Houdini's milk can escape
Houdini is shown here performing his famous milk can escape. Stagehands filled the can with water. A handcuffed Houdini tucked his body inside the can. The steel cover went on, locked with padlocks. Then the crew pulled a screen forward and around the can. After an endless two minutes, Houdini appeared from behind the screen soaking wet and out of breath.
Houdini devoted a large chunk of his time and effort towards discrediting mediums, who claimed to contact the dead. In the 1920s, spiritualism was quite popular, and people spent a lot of money paying for messages from loved ones who had died.
Some say he worked against mediums because he wanted to contact his dead mother and several mediums had claimed that they had reached her, only to disappoint him when they did things like give Houdini her message in English, when his mother spoke to him only in German.
"I saw his show twice while in Chicago. To say I was astounded, surprised and delighted is putting it too faint." -Dr. A.M. Wilson in the magicians' magazine,"The Sphinx," May 1926
Houdini searched for (and failed to find) a medium who could do something under test conditions that he could not duplicate. He studied their methods and the tools they used. He wore disguises to attend seances anonymously.
The magazine Scientific American offered a prize of $2,500 to a medium who could produce evidence of ghosts under controlled conditions. Houdini was one of the investigators on the team, and one of the most skeptical. It was partly due to his expertise as an escape artist that no one ever took the prize.
Houdini died in 1926 on Halloween.