Harry Houdini: The master of escape

Harry Houdini performing the “Chinese Water Torture Cell” act. Photo: Wikipedia

Erich Weisz was born to a Jewish rabbi on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. He moved to Wisconsin, USA with his family at a very early age, and later moved to New York with his father at age 13, and soon took interest in trapeze arts.
In 1891 at the age of 17, he began a career as a magician, and renamed himself Harry Houdini - deriving the first name from his childhood nickname "Ehrie" and the last name as homage to the great French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. While his magic act did not find great success, he drew substantial attention as an escape artist. His career took a shining turn in 1899 when he met vaudeville theatre owner Martin Beck, who advised him to concentrate on escape arts, after seeing his handcuff act. Houdini was soon performing across USA, and in 1900, Beck arranged a tour of Europe for him. While in London, he gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard, and succeeded in baffling the police so effectively that he was booked at the Alhambra theatre for six months. Throughout his tour of Europe, Houdini challenged local police officers to restrain him in shackles and lock him in their prisons, from which he would escape. He won a big sum of money suing a police officer in Germany's Cologne, who had claimed that Houdini's escapes were made through bribery. He won the case by opening the presiding judge's safe, convincing the court of his skills.
In the years to come, Houdini performed with great success across USA, where he would free himself from jails, cuffs, chains and straitjackets, often in plain sight of street audiences while hanging from a rope. As other magicians began to imitate his acts, Houdini began a new act, of escaping from a sealed, water-filled milk-can, and even invited the public to devise contraptions to restrain him. In 1912 came his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell that would require him to hold his breath underwater for 3 minutes. His other most famous acts included the Mirror handcuff challenge, the buried alive challenge, and the overhead box escape.
Apart from being a celebrated illusionist, Houdini also took great interest in aviation, and was one of the first people to fly in Australia in 1910. He also launched a movie career, releasing his first film in 1901, and starred in several subsequent films, mostly portraying his escape acts - and he started his own production company, Houdini Picture Corporation, and a film lab. However, neither of these ventures saw much success. In the later parts of his life, he also took a strong stand of debunking self-proclaimed psychics. However, the stance cost him the friendship of celebrated mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a firm believer in spiritualism,
Houdini died on October 31, 1926 - from a ruptured appendix. It is said that it was caused by punches to his abdomen made by a visitor at his dressing room, who had asked if it was true that Houdini could sustain any blow to his abdomen, if prepared. Before the magician was ready, the student delivered four blows to his abdomen. Despite being in severe pain and fever for over a week, Houdini refused surgery for his appendicitis, and carried on performing his shows until he was bedridden.
Compiled by Correspondent