![]() Fellow practitioners of the prestidigitation arts viewed Houdini as competent at best. He tried almost every flavor of magic in those years, but he settled on card magic, billing himself (with no false humility) as Houdini, King of Cards. His majestic stage name: "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air."įirst with his friend and then his brother, Harry Houdini set about building a magic act. In 1883, at just 9-years-old, Ehrich performed his first act as a trapeze artist. Showing the first streak of chutzpah that'd serve him well his whole life, Ehrich strutted his stuff for the circus manager, and the future Harry Houdini got his first big break. One day the circus came to town, and (as all good origin stories go) Ehrich was on a mission. A natural athlete, he also picked up good acrobatic and tumbling skills. According to Houdini's biography on, at 6-years-old he could run the three cup scam well enough to fool passersby out of a few coins. Somewhere along the way, young Ehrich also acquired a few street grifting side hustles. As a child, Ehrich sold newspapers, shined shoes, and did his best to bring in whatever money he could to support his family. According to Houdini: His Life and His Art, it was not an easy life for a poor Hungarian immigrant. One of seven children, Ehrich emigrated to the US with his family in 1878. The Great Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weisz in Budapest in 1874. This definitive biography allows readers to peer into Houdini’s psyche and understand him more deeply than ever before.The story of Harry Houdini begins humbly. ![]() Brandon reveals much that is new: how Houdini invented a phantom son why he wrote long daily letters to his wife, Bess, who lived one floor below him his combative relations with mediums and spiritualists, including Arthur Conan Doyle and the first full description of his fabled death. In this widely acclaimed biography, Ruth Brandon shows how Houdini’s obsession with his own mortality drove him to create death-defying stunts that not only captivated the public but also subdued his own raging psychological demons.Īs Brandon relates Houdini’s methods of escape, she asks: What was he trying to escape from? Her exploration of the psychic landscape of one of the most enduringly famous performers of the twentieth century makes for utterly fascinating reading. For master illusionist Harry Houdini, the two were inextricably linked. ![]() For many performers, stage life and real life are separate identities. ![]()
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