Houdini

6 Pages 1468 Words

“Houdini the Life, the Legend”

There have been many entertainers in the past, but few rival the entertaining career of Ehrich Weiss. Ehrich Weiss was born in Budapest Hungary on March 24th, 1874, and brought to the United States by his mother and father (pbs.org). It was in Appelton Wisconsin that Ehrich would have to go to work at an early age to help support his family. But who is Erich Weiss? The man better known as Harry Houdini was known by many names: the Prince of the Air, Eric the Great, the Handcuff King, and the Card King (geocities.com). Ehrich became fascinated with the idea of magic when he was eight years old after his father took him to see a show performed by Dr. Lyan who was a traveling magician. By the age of twelve Ehrich ran away from home and traveled with circuses and side shows, using two show names “Ehrich the Prince of the Air” and “Eric the Great” (geocities.com). After a year of traveling Houdini now thirteen reunited with his parents in New York. While in New York Ehrich read the autobiography of a Frenchman named Jean Robert-Houdin who was a magician and Harry Houdini was born, legally changing his name after establishing himself as an international icon while in Great Britain.
Houdini and Beatrice Rahner were married in 1894. Bess Houdini traveled with her husband and became an assistant in his act. There were no children to follow in their father’s footsteps and keep his name alive, but his wife did a very good job. For sixteen years after Houdini’s untimely death Bess paid a publicist to keep his name alive (geocities.com).
Houdini spent a few years in the United States making a name for himself and then in 1900 he left for England. During his stay in England Houdini became the highest paid entertainer in Europe. At $2,000 a week he was making $112,000 a year, an incredibly high salary for 1900. Harry stayed in Europe for five years enjoying his money and coming up...