BIOGRA Nonfiction The true PHY of a per story son’s life . The Amazing Life of HARRY HOUDINI Check It Out as you read, look for: THE CLIFFHANGER This is a trick writers use to make their plots more exciting—and to keep you reading. They put their characters in danger and leave them there for a while, keeping you in suspense. O n the night of October escape artist. The short, handsome 24, 1902, the people of man had astounding abilities to free Blackburn, England, himself from handcuffs and chains. poured into the Palace He was already a superstar. But some Theatre. It was Friday night, and the people still wondered whether he mostly poor working families were was a fraud, whether the chains and weary from a long week of toiling in handcuffs he used in his shows were the cotton mills. But as they trudged in fact fakes. through the cobblestone streets, Houdini wanted to win over the passing the canals and the brick doubters in his audience. The posters factories with high, soot-stained advertising his show included a chimneys, young and old buzzed bold challenge: Audience members with excitement. They knew they could bring along their own chains were about to see a show they would and locks. They could climb up talk about for the rest of their lives. onstage and bind Houdini with their They had come to see Harry Houdini (hoo-DEE-nee), the famous 4 Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 own hands. If he failed to escape from someone’s locks, Top: UPI/Bettmann/Corbis; Right: The Everett Collection, NY He was the most famous man in the world, an escape artist who astounded audiences with his incredible tricks. Even today, 84 years after his death, we still wonder: what were Houdini’s secrets? by Deborah Hopkinson Until he came up with his handcuff-escape act, Houdini struggled for success. In 1896, he was ready to give up. He ran a newspaper ad offering to sell the secrets of his magic for $20. No one bought them. Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 5 time keeping a job. The family his tremendous strength and fitness and card tricks. They performed moved, first to Milwaukee, then to would be a key to his success. a dozen shows a day, practiced New York City. Both Ehrich and his When he was 18, Ehrich and a father went to work in a sweatshop, friend created a magic act called week—barely enough to survive. After a factory where workers labored long “The Brothers Houdini.” The name six years, Houdini began to think of hours for terribly low pay. “Houdini” came from a famous quitting. Then everything changed. Although not tall, Ehrich was French magician named Robert One night in March 1899, when incredibly strong and fit, even as a Houdin. Ehrich’s nickname was Houdini was performing in St. Paul, young boy. Late at night, following 12 “Ehrie,” which in English sounds Minnesota, a man in the audience hours of work, young Ehrich would like “Harry.” And so Ehrich Weiss challenged him to escape from build up his body through running, became Harry Houdini. handcuffs. Houdini, relying purely swimming, and boxing. Later on, Three years later, he fell in love placed in a cabinet behind a curtain. The curtain went up and Houdini Fifteen minutes later, the curtain wowed the crowd with his usual was lifted to reveal Houdini, lying stunts. Then a man named William on his side, still bound. The crowd Hodgson climbed onstage hauling groaned. Houdini looked exhausted, six pairs of massive cuffs. The heavy near fainting. Bess Houdini hurried chains clanged across the floor. over and mopped the sweat from her Houdini examined the handcuffs carefully. It looked, he said, as if husband’s face. The curtain closed. Twenty left: Houdini, chained and shackled for one of his famous “bridge jumps” TOP: Harry and his wife, Bess BOTTOM: Houdini, bound and sealed in a wooden crate, is lowered from the side of a ship for one of his great underwater escapes. escaped easily. The crowd went wild, Rahner, a small, brown- and Houdini had found his specialty. haired woman everyone Soon, he was spotted by a famous called Bess. They married, agent, who offered him $200 a week created a magic act, and to perform in a New York theater. began to seek their fortune This offer, Houdini later wrote, as “The Houdinis.” “changed my whole life’s journey.” A Tough Beginning old when he accepted Hodgson’s someone had tampered with the minutes later, the curtain rose again. challenge. His real name was Ehrich locks. He was willing to accept the Was Houdini free of his chains? No! Weiss. He was born in Budapest, challenge, but he would need extra Instead, he complained he’d been Hungary, on March 24, 1874. His time. The audience broke into cheers. bound so tightly his arms were numb father, Mayer Samuel Weiss, was an and blue. Could he be set free for a educated rabbi who came to America few minutes and then try again? when Ehrich was 2. Rabbi Weiss Hodgson knew how to bind Houdini’s arms and legs in a way that would make escape nearly impossible. Hodgson and a friend pinned Houdini’s elbows to his Hodgson refused. “If you are beaten, give in.” The crowd was getting impatient. settled in Appleton, Wisconsin, and sent for his wife, Cecilia, and five sons. They arrived on July 3, 1878, sides. They yanked his arms behind Finally, the curtain dropped. People and joined Rabbi Weiss in Appleton, him, tugging so hard that Houdini spoke in hushed whispers. where eventually another son and a claimed his arms were about to break. They bound his legs and 6 Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 Maybe this mystifying American was a fraud after all. making about $400 a week, as much day, no movie theaters, as some working families earned computers, or theme in a year. But Houdini wouldn’t be parks. But there was plenty satisfied until he had become an of cheap entertainment. international star—the greatest Every city and town in escape artist in the world. of small theater or “dime Harry Houdini was 28 years daughter were born. But Ehrich’s father had a hard Within the year, Houdini was televisions in Houdini’s America had some sort So in 1900, he set sail for Europe. And that is how Harry Houdini museum” where different came to be chained up on a stage entertainers would in Blackburn, England, one night in perform. There were all October 1902. If he failed, could he kinds of acts: singers, still call himself “King of Handcuffs”? dancers, jugglers, trick ©Ray Roberts/Topham/The Image Works handsome reward. Left to Right: Brown Brothers; Culver Pictures; UPI/Bettmann/Corbis ankles tightly. Then Houdini was on his own strength and flexibility, with Wilhelmina Beatrice There were no Houdini would pay that person a constantly, and yet earned only $25 a That night, Houdini’s challenger bicycle riders, performing refused to let him take a break and monkeys, rattlesnake rub his arms, though Hodgson tamers—and magicians, did allow Bess Houdini to bring of course. Harry and her husband a drink of water. The Bess traveled the country curtain dropped again as Houdini performing their magic continued to struggle. Fifteen minutes later, to enthusiastic A poster advertising Houdini’s famous “Chinese Water Torture Cell” escape. applause, Houdini emerged with his hands free. Then, just before midnight, panting Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 7 A Shocking End heavily and with his hands and torn muscles, and even a ruptured arms bleeding and swollen, Houdini kidney. But nothing stopped him. threw the last of the chains onto the He developed a series of famous a group of students came to visit stage. The crowd burst into cheers! stunts, including the Milk Can Houdini in his dressing room. Later, a reporter wrote that it looked Escape, which Houdini called “the Houdini always bragged about his as if “some tiger had clawed him.” best escape I have ever invented.” incredible strength, and one young One night in Montreal, Canada, man asked to test the hardness of By the time Houdini returned A large, empty milk can was filled to America in 1905, he was earning with water (see the poster, below left). his stomach muscles. Houdini $1,000 a week—a fortune in those An assistant handcuffed Houdini and accepted the challenge, but the days. He kept improving his act. helped him squeeze into the narrow young man began punching him He escaped from padlocked piano can. Water sloshed onto the stage before he could ready himself. crates, giant envelopes, and steamer as Houdini’s head disappeared. The Immediately, Houdini was in trunks. He jumped from bridges and assistant shut the top, padlocked it, agonizing pain. Still, he traveled to hung upside down from skyscrapers. and closed the curtain. Audience Detroit by train, refusing to cancel He suffered from broken bones, members stared anxiously at a his opening-night show. By the time giant clock on the stage. he went to a doctor, his appendix Thirty seconds ticked by. A had burst. He died on October 31, minute. Two minutes. Some 1926. He was just 52 years old. audience members could Houdini’s funeral attracted not bear the suspense: they thousands of admirers, who hurried from their seats and cheered him as the world’s greatest waited outside for news. performer. Even today, his stunts At last Houdini emerged, inspire amazement and wonder. dripping wet, from behind Houdini most certainly found the curtain. He stood next ways to sneak lock-picking tools to the milk can, which was into his acts, often with the help of still closed and locked. The Bess or a theater owner eager for audience screamed with a successful show. It is unlikely he amazement and relief. could have escaped from William Each year, it seemed, Houdini’s fame grew. Hodgson’s locks that night in England without some help. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, believed Houdini owed his success to psychic powers his tremendous strength and daring. More than anything else, the force behind Houdini’s success was the determination that blazed in his electric-blue eyes. “I have done things which I rightly could not do,” he once said, “because I said to myself, ‘you must.’ ” 8 Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 • Top: The Granger Collection; Bottom: Brown Brothers many of his tricks relied purely on
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