He also began to augment his act with handcuff tricks. In his solo performances as a magician, Houdini appeared in amusement parks, sideshows, and vaudeville. The name was chosen to invoke the reputation of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic. In about 1890, in New York City, he adopted the name Harry Houdini as part of a Houdini Brothers magic act. Many stories, some of them fanciful, surround the early days of his performing career. As the family struggled to make ends meet young Erich Weiss, as his name was now spelled, held a variety of low-skilled jobs and ran away from home at least once. His father had been hired as the rabbi of a Jewish congregation there, but the job lasted only a few years. Rare Book & Special Collections Divisionīorn in Budapest, Hungary, as Ehrich Weisz in 1874, the future Houdini emigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, when he was just a few years old. The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920. Harry and Beatrice Houdini in Nice, France, full-length portrait, standing, facing front. To release or extricate oneself from confinement, bonds, or the like, as by wiggling out.”įunk and Wagnall’s New Dictionary as quoted on Houdini Letterhead. Partners in work and life for the next thirty-two years, the Houdinis never attempted escape from the bonds of matrimony. When they met, she was performing as one of the Floral Sisters at the Sea Beach Palace, in West Brighton Beach, New York he was a virtually unknown magician. Legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner on June 22, 1894.

Houdini the handcuff king