Belief in magic is often used by dishonest magicians exclusively to deceive and earn money. But there are people who are fascinated by watching the actions of which, you begin to doubt that there is no magic. One of these geniuses in his field was the famous Harry Houdini.
Childhood
Harry Houdini was born on March 24, 1874 in the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city of Budapest. The future magician loved to hide his birthplace and often mentioned in his autobiographies the city of Appleton, Wisconsin, where the family of a four-year-old boy moved from Europe. Relatives were fluent in German, Hungarian and Yiddish.
Erich Weiss (real name for the magician) took the pseudonym Harry Houdini at a very young age. The biography of the great artist since then was written exclusively under this name, coined in honor of a conjurer of French origin Jean Eugene Robin-Gooden. The boy acquired his labors with his first earned money and immediately absorbed everything that was written there like a sponge.
The name was borrowed from the American illusionist of German origin, Harry Kellar. Although friends say that they called Erich in early childhood.
Later, in 1887, the Harry Houdini family moved to New York, where the young talented had to work a lot as a blacksmith's assistant in a locksmith workshop and live in a boarding house. At the same time, he helped in the lock repair shop, where he got acquainted with the work of their mechanisms. Work in the forge was a temporary refuge - the artist was not taken to the cafe of Harlem, one of the most prosperous areas of New York at that time, due to his too young age.
Erich had to work from an early age - even in Appleton, he worked as an air gymnast in an amateur circus, often under the dome itself.
Parents
Making a description of the life of any famous person, it is worth starting with his parents. Who was the father of magician Harry Houdini, is known in detail. The father of the young illusionist, as well as his six siblings, is Meer Samuel (according to other sources, Chamuel) Weiss is a rabbi who, when he moved to the United States, got a job in the synagogue under the title “Reformed Jewish Community of Zion”.
The early death of his father in 1892 did not allow the young Harry Houdini to get a good education.
The future illusionist was taught by his mother, Cecilia Steiner. Of course, home schooling could not fully replace the school, and instead of deep knowledge, Harry Houdini's secrets - tricks - began to occupy the mind of young talent.
First success
A successful illusionist career began as early as ten years. Harry Houdini's tricks were amazing in their skill. Bright posters, which were hung with advertising stands of the city, called him "king of cards", and this was really not far from the truth.
The Houdini Brothers ensemble, formed with his brother Theo, became the main breadwinner of the family. Artists performed a lot, traveling a lot in different cities. But the maestro’s soul demanded real recognition, for which it was necessary to prepare more spectacular tricks.
The event that paved the way for the big stage
During numerous tours, in one of the suburbs of New York, the policeman “recognized” in the illusionist the thief, whom the guards had tried unsuccessfully for a long time to find. Confident of the right, the constable handcuffed Harry. It took him no more than five seconds to break free from the shackles. Of course, far-fetched charges were dropped.
But this is not what struck the illusionist. And the fact that the former formidable policeman blinked bewildered eyes with an open mouth a minute ago. Then he apologized and asked for an autograph. All this happened under the influence of stormy applause from a crowd of idle onlookers. Already in the evening, this trick was shown from the stage and for some time became the crown in the program.
Many magicians were exempt from handcuffs at that time, but only Harry did it with the inventory that visitors brought with them. Of course, there were envious ones. Once a police officer brought handcuffs with a broken mechanism that could not be opened. That evening, this went unnoticed by the audience, but the magician, who aimed at a grandiose continuation of his career, has since carefully checked his inventory, because any hitch could cost him his life.
Family life
1893 in the life of Harry became one of the happiest - he fastened the knot with Wilhelmina Beatrice Raner (often referred to simply as Betty). This woman became a faithful companion of the artist both in life and on stage - from now on, only he trusted her the honorary title of assistant, right up to the end of his life.
Career growth
Without waiting for the moment when the audience would get tired of the focus with handcuffs, the artist complicated it by hanging in a bag on the ledge of a skyscraper, straitjackets appeared in the program.
The recognition allowed for large-scale stunts to pass through brick walls and release from locked rooms. The police of various cities happily took part in the show, closing the magician in the most inaccessible cells, from which he was surprisingly released.
In 1899, the maestro met Martin Beck, who organized a tour of Europe. Residents of the old part of the planet were dumbfounded by new numbers in which the illusionist was released from various containers with liquids. During one of his speeches, he was even thrown into the River Thames in a bag with a tied heavy weight. Of course, with handcuffed hands. There was no limit to the glee of the crowd when, after a few moments, Harry surfaced with completely free limbs.
The inhabitants of London passed on to several generations that they could personally observe the trick with the elephant. The animal in a dark room was covered with a white blanket and then removed. There was no elephant. Where he went, the inexperienced viewer, of course, could not guess. Obviously magic.
The trick was so popular that for many years the illusionist was asked to repeat it. He surrendered only in 1918 and demonstrated a miracle at the racetrack in New York. Needless to say, the issue was a resounding success, which has long been written in newspapers around the world.
Travel around our area
The famous sorcerer visited Russia in 1908. In addition to his crown numbers for the crowd, he made the jailers of the Butyrka prison and the Peter and Paul Fortress worry a lot.
The prisoners' clothes were put on a magician for entourage, locked up in the most impregnable cells, where death row prisoners were usually held. Of course, the bolts were of the highest quality and most modern.
After a quarter of an hour, the magician dressed in his clothes was already drinking tea peacefully with the guards in their premises. They say that he could free himself in just two minutes. Rumor has it that for the sake of fun, he swapped prisoners. It is not known whether the guards had any fun.
Hobbies of the great magician
Harry Houdini was a man far ahead of his time. It is not surprising that there were constant cash flows in his bank account. They say that his income in 1920 was several times higher than the salary of the American president. But Harry Houdini bought his first plane back in 1909 and already in 1910 he was the first of the people to cross Australia by air.
He founded a production company and starred in several films. The magician’s talent was so great that over the past century seven films have been made about him with such famous actors as Tony Curtis, Guy Pearce, Adrian Brody and others. Harry Houdini was also the president of the American community of magicians and sorcerers, and he also actively fought with charlatans who "communicated" with the spirits.
