Harry Houdini

"Houdini, love, you don't know what you're running away from" - Arctic Monkeys

Well well well, good day, ladies and gentlemen!

As you might have noticed, I haven't been posting regularly lately. I guess we can attribute that to the fact that although my French course is over, I have been focusing in a Genomics online course, reading some books I had meant to read a long time ago and working out. I excuse myself, but I will continue posting here as long as I've got something to talk about. Hooray!

And now, to the subject of the post. Today I am going to talk about one of the most mysterious figures to ever walk the face of the Earth. Whether his mystery is solved or not, remains unknown. He was both the most incredible illusionist to exist and the creepiest magician I've ever heard about. Many songs, movies and books have been made about him and his life.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you

The Magnificent Harry Houdini

How did he escape?

How does he do it?

Those were the questions that followed him everywhere. Today, though, because of the amount of historical data we've been able to collect about his life, little mystery remains. But these questions are still unanswered.

I've always been interested in mysteries, and this one in particular attracted my attention after reading a book that mentioned his incredible escape stunts. The book, which I am going to talk about later on, is called Carter Beats The Devil, and it's also about a magician.

Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, in 1874, as Erik Weisz. After his family moved to the USA in 1878, the family changed the hungarian spelling name Weisz to Weiss, and Erik became Ehrich to go along with the german spelling of his last name. Later, however, we would see him transform into the legendary illusionist Harry Houdini. He grew up in New York City, already tending towards the artistic performance zone in which he acted until the end of his life. He ever had an act called "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air", where he acted as a trapeze artist, with only 9 years of age.

So the guy was a performer since he was a child. His career, though, took a while to finally soar. It took him eight years of little magic shows at museums and parks to get recognized - which he finally did, in 1899, in Illinois, where he met his manager to-be. Within months of their meeting, he was performing in big vaudeville theatres and that, my friends, is when the Houdini legend came to be.

Harry "Handcuff" Houdini became quickly known for his escape stunts, or might I say, for doing the impossible. He was called The Handcuff King. He toured throughout Europe, in each city asking the local police to handcuff him as best as they could, and then instantly breaking free as if nothing could stop him. He was also known for his card tricks and other kinds of illusions. One interesting case, however, happened in Cologne, Germany, when he sued a police officer that claimed he was escaping via bribery. Houdini won the case after opening the judge's own safe - even though he later admitted that the judge had forgotten to lock it.

It seems that he cared a lot about his reputation, which indeed is extremely important when it comes to this line of work. It's not for any other reason that he's a legend until today. As time went by, his stunts became more and more extreme. He'd be naked, throughly handcuffed, locked inside a wooden coffin and thrown into a river. He would then resurface, free of any of his retrains, safe and sound. He never claimed that he has supernatural powers, though. He let the rumours fly freely.

I, for one, really enjoy going through the history of these pseudo-mystical figured, specially this one. There are countless books and movies about his life, and he himself even acted in some. The book I mentioned earlier, Carter Beats The Devil, is also about the life of a magician, much like Houdini.

Carter, an illusionist who ventures only through circuses and small shows, gets recognized by none other than Houdini himself. Then President of the American Association of Magicians, he even bestows upon Carter the name "Carter The Great", which he keeps throughout the book. Most of the story, however, centres around the death of the then president Harding after a performance of Carter's infamous act: Carter Beats The Devil. Before his death, the president tells Carter a big secret - a secret that causes the magician to be pursued by the authorities, who believe him to be the murderer, and chase after a certain somebody. The whole story is told by Agent Griffin, one of the responsible police men on Carter's case. You'll have to read to know the rest hehehe.

Both stories I've told here, though, center around the conquering of the impossible, which is something that challenges a man's beliefs. And most certainly creates a legend.

There's also a very good TV series about Houdini's life, in which he is played by Adrien Brody - the Pianist. You know, the guy with the big nose. He's a very good actor. The series, called, well, Houdini, tells the life of the magician with a few interesting twists. He gets to meet one of my own idols, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's an interesting thing to see.

There are two songs that come to find when talking about Houdini. Old Yellow Bricks, by the Arctic Monkeys, which actually just use him as a metaphor-nod, and the song Houdini, that, well, is named after him. I'll leave them both here for your entertainment.


                           

Well, I'm not telling the secret. You know, how Houdini escaped - not that I know of it, anyway. There are a thousand different possibilities and rumors about it. The strongest ones mention deals with the local props salesman to modify certain coffins and handcuffs, but rumors, as we know, say all kinds of weird things. I prefer to keep it mysterious.


Oh my, it seems like I have been talking for ages here. I'll cut it short here. Leave it to you to solve the mystery, huh?

"No performer should attempt to bite red hot iron unless he has a strong set of teeth." - Harry Houdini

Music Junkie