![]() ![]() Surgeons operated on him to save his life but they failed. Houdini lingered for twelve days, but he died on this day in 1926. His death was widely reported around America and the world. Houdini’s real name was Erik Weisz, who was born in Budapest in 1874, the son of a rabbi. ![]() As a boy he emigrated to the United States like so many other Eastern European Jews, at the time. The Weisz family settled in Wisconsin and soon the young Erik was displaying extraordinary abilities. He could pick any lock and he was an amazing acrobat. From an early age, it was evident that he would be an entertainer. The young Eirk joined a travelling circus at the age of nine and he was to be an entertainer for the rest of his life. It was about this time that he adopted the stage name of Houdini.īy 1907 Houdini began to perform dangerous and dramatic routines such as being chained in a water tank. Soon Houdini was conducting many spectacular tricks and escapes and these made him world-famous. Once he was suspended from a skyscraper while he was bound in a straitjacket. On another occasion he was bound and buried under six feet of earth. He managed to escape from all of these to the amazement of the public. Houdini was a complex man and he believed in spiritualism and would often try and contact dead family and friends. However, he also campaigned against the many con-men and other impostors who pretended to be able to communicate with the dead. After his death, Houdini’s wife tried to communicate with him. They had agreed that if one of them died that the survivor would do all they could to contact the spirit of the other.
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