Two men are standing on a stage in front of you. One climbs into a box. The otherlocks it.
The man outside of the box goes behind a curtain and claps three times. Then,the man who, moments earlier was inside the box, emerges from behind the curtain. Heopens the box and the second man comes out. This is what watching a show by HarryHoudini would have been like. Read on to find out more about his amazing life andtricks. First Ill tell you about his childhood.
He was born as Ehrich Weiss on March 24,1874, in Budapest, Hungary. In 1878 he moved to Appleton,Wisconsin with his family. When he was 9, he and some of his friends set up a small circus where he performed asEhrich, Prince of the Air. Throughout his life Houdini did shows with friends, his brother, and his wife.
Hissignature trick was the metamorphis. Harrys father died in 1892 at 63. Three years laterHoudini started to do public handcuff escapes. In 1898 he opened Harry Houdinisschool for magic. In 1900 he got a job from a theater manager in St. Paul named MartinBeck.
There he did tricks for police and reporters. In 1902 he won a slander case byrevealing some of his tricks to the court. He advertised as The only artist to whom theGerman police have given the Imperial Certificates. Houdini did card tricks, made a handkerchief come from a candle, andregurgitated Ivory balls. He would also swallow needles and thread then when he tookthem out the needles would be threaded. One trick took an hour and forty minutes.
Hewas covered with bloody welts by the end. Houdini died of appendicitis when a boxer punched an unprepared Houdini threetimes. That night, magic lost its greatest maker.
