![]() ![]() When he became a magician, he changed his name to Harry Houdini as he greatly admired the French magician, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. His friends called him ‘Ehrie’ or ‘Harry’.Īt the age of 9, Ehrich gave his first public appearance when he performed as a trapeze artist and was billed as the ‘Prince of the Air’. They changed the spelling of their surname to Weiss and Erik’s name became Ehrich. On 3 July 1878, he travelled to the United States sailing on the SS Fresia with his mother and brothers and they settled in Appleton, Wisconsin where Erik’s father served as a Rabbi. One of his brothers, Herman, died at a young age. He had a very close bond with his mother all his life.Įrik was one of seven children and had five brothers and one sister. He was the son of Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss and his wife, Cecilia. Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Hungary on 24 March 1874, however, he claimed that he had been born in Appleton, Wisconsin on 6 April 1874. packed with new, fascinating facts” delivers a thrilling look into the life and career of history’s greatest escapologist (Wild About Harry). ![]() He was always triumphant, and his awesome, crowd-drawing feats made him the highest paid entertainer in the world at the time.Įxtensively researched, The Great Houdini: His British Tours follows Houdini’s decades-long UK tour through rare archival material, vintage newspaper clippings, photos, and original playbills and ballyhoo advertisements-many of which have not been seen since they were originally published. On each stop, he challenged locals to design “inescapable” contraptions. He befriended Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, immersed himself in spiritualism and most notably, escaped from jails, survived death-defying leaps into rivers while bound in chains, and executed amazing tricks and illusions. This fascinating biography “brings to life the excitement and thrills” of the master escape artist’s legendary turn-of-century tour in Great Britain ( Lancashire Post).īetween 19, a century before endurance artist and street magician David Blaine, Hungarian-born Harry Houdini traveled Great Britain, performing in its major villages and cities.
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