Houdini
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini began as a man, and became something far greater. While Vaudeville was rising in the streets of America’s larger cities, and feats of acrobatics, parlour magic, such as card tricks and sleight of hand, rose in popularity, the name Houdini was something to strive for among magicians. Even now, over a century after his birth, and many decades past his death, the name instills a barely disposable sense of wonder in the minds of adults, compounded many times, the younger the mind. While magicians in popular culture possess great fame and connections, the magical greatness of Harry Houdini has yet to have been met.
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Houdini's Childhood
There have been many books attempting to be a thorough Harry Houdini biography, however, it is widely accepted that every man is an island, and not the other way around, despite the original adage. Many tend to make researching Houdini and his life, their main vocation; there are several works of speculative biography, as well others that deal only in cold hard facts. Which can be fairly difficult to determine, considering that facts, and non-fiction was not an area in which Houdini was particularly proficient. The facts of his family have been uncovered –his father, Mayer Samuel Weisz, being a Jewish religious teacher that emigrated to America in the late 19th century, then bringing his family shortly after. Despite the often conflicting tone in any one Harry Houdini biography, there are still many good books that detail his life, available currently.
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Professional Wizard & Escape Artist
More than any novel or work of fiction can describe, Houdini’s life was as much a melancholic romance, with adventure at every corner as any other great piece of literature. Harry began his professional magic career with his brother Theo, who went by the stage name Dash, under the headline of “The Brothers Houdini”, but later on, he met his soon to be wife, Beatrice Raymond, or “Bess”. Bess was attempting a career in show business as well, and they were married 1894. Theo went off to become a solo magician under the headline of “Hardeen”, and Bess joined the act, now called “The Houdinis”. Bess worked on stage with him for the rest of his career, and for the rest of Houdini’s life.
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More Human Than Human?
The Houdini that the world experienced was more than any mere man creating the illusion of sorcery to the usual middle class British of yester-year. If anything, Houdini is proof that some dreams are possible, and some are not. Throughout his life, his pursued each goal with almost a tangible tenacity; whether or not he failed at some of them is just semantics. From a poor immigrant family from Hungary, Houdini rose to become literally, the highest paid Vaudeville performer; a celebrity, a crackpot, a movie star, a man who loved his mother and wife dearly, the first pilot to fly in Australia. The man, the magician, the master, and absolutely, “The Houdini.”
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Conflicts With Spiritualism
Harry Houdini and his mother, Cecilia, were very close. When Houdini was buried, he was arranged so that his head rested on a pillow filled with his mother’s letter. Throughout his life, his mother supported him, and praised him as well as any other parent with such a child as him to be proud of. Perhaps it is because of this closeness, and the devastation that her death cause in him, that was the reason for his crusade against spiritualism. At times he claimed he was a firm believer in the practice, and at times, would publicly attack the practice. Harry Houdini and his mother never separated in spirit, he believed, and the main theory is that he was actually seeking out someone who could genuinely reunite his mother and himself.
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