Young Houdini
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.
With modern research techniques, establishing a timeline of Harry Houdini is no longer the paramount task it might have been twenty or thirty years ago. For example, throughout his life, Houdini claimed he was born in Appleton, WI. However, with the help of researchers dedicated to discovering more about the facts of this remarkable man, his birth certificate surfaced, and stated that he was actually born in Budapest, Hungary. His birth name, naturally, was different as well. He was born Ehrich Weisz on March 24, 1874, though he often claimed his birth was on April 6th, in the aforementioned location. Houdini also had at least five other siblings, a sister unaccounted for, and perhaps others; the exact number is unknown. A true timeline of Harry Houdini would start with Ehrich Weisz being born on March 24, 1874, and continue on from there.
Perhaps like all the mothers of magicians, little or well-known, Ehric’s/Harry’s mother claimed that even as a boy, the toddler Ehric was capable of wheedling locks and cabinets open in order to get to fresh baked pastries, or candy. Although this may just be the stuff of homespun legend, he did become interested in stage performing at a very young age. When Ehric was only nine years old, he performed as “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air”, wearing red socks made by his mother, on a trapeze hung in a tree. Ehric was called “Ehrie” when he was young, and although later he claimed that the name “Harry” was actually inspired by Harry Kellar, the magician Ehric admired most, it is still most likely that “Harry” was just the Americanized version of his childhood name. The “Houdini” part of his new stage name was supposedly derived from the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. After discussing it thoroughly first with a childhood friend, it was determined that adding an “i” to the end of “Houdin” would mean “like Houdin”. So thus was born Harry Houdini, arguably the most famous of all magicians.
Harry Houdini did actually begin his stage career by performing magic tricks, per se; that came in later on down the road in his career. When he was twelve, he ran away for a year to Kansas City, though his actions and whereabouts are as yet unknown, he returned to his family in New York City, and began working numerous jobs to help support his family. Harry was close with his brother Theo, aka Dash, and soon the two developed an interest in stage performance. Harry began his career by performing sleight of hand with cards, once playing a “Wild Man” in a circus sideshow, but then began to focus most of his attention on cards, and dubbed himself the “King of Cards”. It was not until later that Harry and Theo began performing magic tricks on a stage, under the title “The Brothers Houdini.”