Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874 but grew up as Erich Weiss in the small Wisconsin town of Appleton. Later, his father, Rabbi Meyer Samuel Weiss, moved the family to Milwaukee and he took over a Jewish congregation there. Legend has it that young Erich was apprenticed to a locksmith, where he learned to assemble and take apart locks with his eyes closed. If this part of the story is true, it was a skill that served him well later in life. Many aspects of Houdini's life remain a mystery today (which is likely how he wanted it) and he had been credited with the famous line about his biography: "When the legend is greater than the truth -- print the legend!"

At the age of 12, Erich ran away from home, hoping to contribute more to his impoverished parents than he could make shining shoes and selling newspapers. Rabbi Samuel Weiss left for New York a short time later, feeling that a teacher of religion could do better in a city with a larger Jewish population. Erich worked his way east and joined his father and between the two of them, they saved enough money to bring Erich’s mother and the other children to Manhattan.

Houdini continued to travel and perform. One of his most applauded illusions was one that he called “Metamorphosis”, which involved an assistant that was placed into a locked box who then switched places with the magician within seconds after a curtain was raised. Theo, who Houdini called “Dash”, could make the switch very quickly but Houdini’s wife, Bess, was even faster.

Houdini met Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner while he was performing at Coney Island. He was 20 when he impulsively married the tiny brunette singer, who weighed only 94 pounds and was even shorter than Houdini’s diminutive height. Her widowed Catholic mother was furious but the understanding Cecilia welcomed the newlyweds into her home. Bess soon began working with her husband and Theo went on the road with another girl, “Madame Olga”, as his assistant.

Houdini began employing a variety of new and strange stunts in his act and devised incredible escapes that had never been attempted before. He became known for some time as the "Handcuff King", due to the ease from which he escaped any restraints. It was a skill that would later make him famous.

Though Houdini sent half of his weekly $20 salary home to his mother, by the end of the tour with Welsh Brothers, he had saved enough to buy an interest in The American Gaiety Girls, a burlesque show. His cousin, Harry Newman, was the company’s advance man, traveling ahead of the production, booking theaters and raising publicity. The investment seemed wise. The Houdinis would be working regularly and Houdini could use his new escape skills to get free newspaper space for the shows.

In November 1895, Houdini amazed officers at a police station in Gloucester, Massachusetts by freeing himself from a pair of their handcuffs. Similar stories began to appear in newspapers wherever the show went. Houdini was gaining a good reputation and he and Bess seemed to be well on their way to success. But it was not meant to be, at least not yet. The show closed abruptly in Rhode Island when the company manager was arrested for embezzling the show’s funds.

Disappointed, Houdini signed on with “Marco the Magician” to tour Nova Scotia. Marco had hoped to emulate Herrmann the Great but business was so bad in Halifax that he gave up the show and returned to Connecticut, where he was a church organist.

Houdini stayed on in Canada, hoping to make it on his own. He was playing in St. John, the principal city of New Brunswick, when he accompanied a recent doctor friend on his rounds in a mental institution. Houdini watched in shocked fascination as a man in straitjacket, locked in a padded cell, tried frantically to free himself. Houdini became convinced that an escape from a straitjacket would be an effective one to perform on stage. He obtained a straightjacket from his friend and then, after weeks of strenuous practice, was ready to try it before an audience. Eager volunteers buckled Houdini in, carried him to a cabinet and then closed the curtains. He had gained some slack by holding his crossed arms rigidly as the sleeve straps were fastened. Straining every muscle, a little at a time, he forced one sleeve and then other over his head. Then, he opened the straps with the pressure of his fingers through the canvas. He twisted, turned, and finally squirmed free. He threw off the restraint and burst through the curtains to take a bow.

No one applauded. The escape had fallen flat because the audience had not witnessed his struggle. They assumed that a hidden assistant had released him. Houdini had not yet discovered the showmanship that would allow him to hold an audience enthralled.

The Houdinis had their worst winter season so far in 1896 and new bookings eluded them until the spring. In August, they were in so much trouble financially that Harry wrote to both Harry Kellar and Herrmann the Great and offered the services of he and Bess as assistants. Kellar wrote back to say that he was filled at this time but offered Houdini luck in the future.

In the fall of 1897, Houdini toured with a midwestern medicine show. Dr. Hill, the owner, sold bottled cure-alls to crowds that gathered in small towns to watch the free entertainment supplied by members of his troupe. He then offered another show, for a ticket, later on in the evening.

In one town, Dr. Hill heard that a professional spirit medium had been attracting sizable audiences in the area and Houdin offered to stage a séance as part of their performance. Harry made his debut as a “Spiritualist” on January 8, 1898 in the Galena, Kansas opera house. Tied to a chair in his cabinet by a committee from the audience, he pretended to go into a trance. Once the curtains were closed, a mandolin played softly and bells and tambourines jangled before flying off over the heads of the crowd. When the curtains opened, Houdini was still firmly tied. Once more, the curtains closed and he was “freed from his bonds by the spirits”. Houdini then walked to the front of the stage, closed his eyes and passed on messages from the dead.

Houdini had hurriedly prepared for this, the most convincing part of his performance, by listening to local gossip, reading back copies of the Galena newspaper, and copying names and dates from tombstones in local cemeteries. When Houdini pretended to contact the spirit of a lame man whose throat had been cut and spelled out the victim’s name, several people actually fled from the theater!

The medicine show tour ended and Houdini still found it difficult to book his magic and escape act. He and Bess traveled for a time as mediums before they signed on to play another season with the Welsh Brothers Circus. At 24, Houdini was still on the bottom rung of the show business ladder. He promised his wife that he would try for only one more year and then, if he was not a hot, he would give up magic and find another, more profitable, line of work.

While playing in St. Paul, Minnesota, early in 1899, Houdini was approached by a short, plump, German man after his show. Could Houdini, the man asked, free himself from other manacles, or only those used in the show? Houdini boasted that the restraint had yet to be made that could hold him. The next evening, the man returned with his own handcuffs, locked them on Houdini’s wrists and pocketed the key. When the brash young magician easily escaped from the manacles, the man introduced himself as Martin Beck, the acclaimed booker for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. He offered Houdini a trial date in Omaha if Harry would put together a new act with dramatic escapes. Soon after, with Beck’s assistance, Houdini left the small time behind and the enigmatic showman began his journey to become an American, and then worldwide, sensation. In Omaha, where he played for a week and received $60 --- the most money he had ever earned at one time --- the escape artist slipped out of five pair of police shackles and a set of regulation leg irons. By the time he reached California, his salary had jumped to $90. In San Francisco, Houdini was stripped to the skin in the office of the San Francisco detective force and examined by a police surgeon. He then proceeded to slip out of 10 pairs of handcuffs, a wide leather belt used to subdue dangerous prisoners and a regulation straitjacket. The escapes took place behind the closed door of a closest and the veteran detectives could come up with no explanation as to how it was done. The lengthy newspaper account never mentioned that Houdini had visited the detective bureau in advance to inspect the restraints and never mentioned the kiss he exchanged with Bess prior to being placed in the closet. There was no way that they could know about the clever method the Houdinis had devised --- where Bess slipped a key to her husband with her tongue in the midst of their kiss!

When Houdini’s salary soared to $150 per week, he ran large ads in the trade papers to make sure that the theatrical world knew of his accomplishments. Martin Beck used the ads, as well as the lengthy newspapers stories of his feats and box office reports from the Orpheum tour, to sell Houdini to the Keith Theater circuit in the East as a headliner. To publicize his first date at the Orpheum Theatre in Kansas City, Houdini escaped from handcuffs at the Central Police Station. When he returned after playing the Keith theaters, he introduced his second major publicity stunt. Stripped naked, fastened at his wrists and ankles by five pairs of irons, he was locked in a cell. In less than eight minutes, he escaped from not only the manacles but the cell, too! Needless to say, newspaper headlines screamed his name and Houdini rode the wave of popularity to several sold-out shows. Eager to travel abroad, Houdini and Bess sailed for England without a booking. He had to convince a dubious theater manager that he could escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard before he received his first British contract. In July 1900, he opened to acclaim at the Alhambra Theater in London and then traveled to the Continent, where he set new box-office records in Dresden and Berlin. The demand for vaudeville handcuff acts became so great that he brought his brother Theo from New York and sent him on tour as “Hardeen”. Within a year, Houdini was the most popular attraction in Europe.

Houdini became known as the "Handcuff King" but he also perfected the straitjacket escape, which would earn him worldwide fame.

Houdini never turned down any opportunity for publicity. When Werner Graf, a German policeman, wrote a derisive article in July 1901, accusing Houdini of lying when he said that he could escape from any sort of police restraint, Houdini sued Graf for slander. He fought the case through two German appeals courts but he eventually won the case. Houdini celebrated by issuing a new advertising lithograph showing himself in a tuxedo and manacles, standing before the highest German tribunal. “Apologize in the name of King Wilhelm II, Kaiser of Germany”, the lithograph was titled and it included a few words on Graf’s forced apology and the fact that he had to pay all of the magician’s court costs.

He loved publicity but he was never the sort to ignore an insult, either. Engelberto Klepini, an escape artist with the Circus Sidoli, advertised in 1902 that he had defeated the American in a handcuff competition. He likely assumed that Houdini would never see the advertisement but not only did Harry see it, he traveled from Holland to Dortmund, Germany to confront his detractor. Wearing a disguise, he took a seat in the stands. He sat through the show until Klepini told the audience he had beaten Houdini in an escape contest. At that point, Harry leapt into the circus ring, ripped off his disguise and, waving a handful of bank notes, challenged the startled performer. He would give Klepini 5,000 marks if he could escape from a pair of Houdini handcuffs --- and he would offer another 5,000 if Houdini could not escape from his!

Prodded by the circus’ business manager, Klepini agreed to allow Houdini to lock him into a set of French letter cuffs the next night. Before show time, the business manager was shown the manacles and Houdini showed him how the five cylinders could be turned to spell out c-l-e-f-s, the French word for keys, and open the handcuffs. Klepini confidently entered his cabinet but after 30 minutes, the structure was moved to the side of the ring so that the rest of the show could continue. After the program ended, workers lifted the cabinet again. Klepini ran out and darted across the ring to the manager’s office --- still shackled. It was almost 1:00 a.m. when the manager ordered Klepini to give up. Harry spun the cylinders until the letters f-r-a-u-d fell into place. The cuffs sprang open. He had changed the combination before the manacles were placed on his competitor’s wrists.

If the police did not challenge Houdini in a city where he played, Houdini challenged them. During an engagement in Moscow in May 1903, he dared the chief of the Russian secret police to imprison him on one of the “escape-proof” jails on wheels that had been designed to transport enemies of the state to Siberia. Houdini had seen one of these strange horse-drawn vans on the street and had examined it while the horses were drinking from a trough. Escape was impossible from the front, sides, bottom or top but the entrance door at the back was fastened with a single padlock --- located just below a barred window that a slender arm could pass through. Houdini was stripped, searched, chained hand and foot, and then locked in the wagon. The entrance door was turned away from the police, who watched from the far side of a courtyard. Harry escaped within 20 minutes. The indignant police refused to confirm his escape, but the news spread rapidly, and soon handsome lithographs appeared showing the American magician outwitting the Russian secret police.

Houdini returned to America and found himself in great demand. His exploits in Europe had been widely told at home and he was soon selling out theaters all over the country. Four months after his return, he staged his most remarkable prison break so far. In March 1906, officials locked the naked magician in the Washington, D.C. cell on “Murderer’s Row” that had once held Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield. The officers then locked Harry’s clothes in another cell and returned to the warden’s office. Working quickly, Houdini freed himself and then proceeded to open all of the doors and to shift the prisoners from one cell to another. He met no resistance, and in fact, the prisoners were highly entertained, although surprised by the sudden appearance of a naked man. After changing the cells of all of the men on the entire cellblock, Harry locked the cells, dressed and knocked on the warden’s door. The entire feat took less than 27 minutes.

(Left) Houdini prepares for one of his manacled bridge jumps. He performed them all over the country to earn publicity for the shows that he did in various cities. He also escaped from jail cells in each city that he visited (below).

Houdini began his famous milk can escapes in 1908. They would be his most popular for years, until the Chinese Underwater Torture Escape was unveiled.

That winter, Houdini jumped from the Belle Island Bridge in Detroit and got out of two pairs of handcuffs while submerged below the surface of the icy water. Some stories say that the river was actually frozen over at the time and Houdini jumped into the water through a hole that had been cut into it. The story goes on to say that he almost drowned before he found the opening again and could be pulled out. In truth, though, it was cold that day but the river was not frozen. Regardless, this exploit, like his subsequent bridge jumps, made front-page news.

Houdini made the first of the escapes for which he would become the most famous --- from a padlocked water can --- at the Columbia Theatre in St. Louis in January 1908. He went offstage to put on his bathing suit while a committee inspected a large, galvanized container, much like the milk cans that dairies supplied to farmers. The volunteers looked on as assistants filled the container with water. While this was being done, Houdini was building the drama by grimly reminding the audience that a man could only live for a short time without “life sustaining air.” He suggested that they start holding their breath the moment that his head disappeared from view into the tank. He entered the can feet first and quickly disappeared into the water. Within 30 seconds, most of the spectators were gasping for air --- but Houdini had not appeared. He stayed out for sight for nearly two minutes. This act of endurance won him a large round of applause, but the most thrilling part of the act was still to come.

This time, before Houdini went back into the water-filled can, his wrists were handcuffed. More water was added until the can overflowed onto the stage. Quickly, his assistants jammed the top onto the can and secured it with six padlocks. Escape seemed impossible!

A curtain was drawn around the can and time began to tick by. Audience members who had again gulped in a large breath of air as Houdini vanished into the can now gasped for air with loud, whopping coughs. The clocked ticked --- thirty seconds passed, then sixty, then ninety. Houdini’s chief assistant, Franz Kukol, came from backstage with an ax in his hands, prepared to break the locks to save the magician. He leaned toward the curtain and listened closely, but there was no sound. Two minutes passed, then three. Kukol raised the ax. The tension in the theater was nearly unbearable. Something must have gone terribly wrong. Audience members began shouting to the assistants on the stage, urging them to break open the locks and to free Houdini! Finally, Kukol leaned forward with the ax and started to pull back the curtain around the milk can. Just as he did though, Houdini, dripping wet but wearing a wide smile, ripped the curtain aside and stepped out into full view. As he took a bow, the rafters of the theater quaked from the sound of the audience applause.

Preparation for his next spectacular feat took place in Germany. While playing at the Hansa Theatre in Hamburg in November 1909, he bought a Voisin biplane after witnessing a short flight by a local aviator. Within a month, the showman had learned how to pilot the plane on his own. He had followed the development of aviation with fascination since the Wright Brothers had flown at Kitty Hawk and dreamed of taking flight. He knew that no one had yet conquered the air over Australia and he was determined to be the first. The crated biplane was stored in the hold of a ship and in January 1910, Houdini sailed for Australia.

Houdini was appearing at the New Opera House in Melbourne and, as usual, planned a spectacular stunt to publicize the show. On February 18, more than 20,000 people lined the Queen’s Bridge and the banks of the Yarra River to see the manacled escapologist plunge into the murky waters below. A much smaller crowd was present less than a month later at Digger’s Rest, a field just outside of the city, when Houdini flew the first plane on the continent. Eager to take advantage of some good flying weather, Houdini went to the field after his show and slept in the tent that served as a hangar for his biplane. On March 16, at 5:00 a.m., Houdini’s plane was wheeled out on the wooden planks that served as a take-off area. He donned a pair of goggles and a cap and climbed behind the steering wheel. With a wave to Bess, the propeller was started, the mooring line was cast off and the engine began to roar. The plane shot forward and up, soaring gracefully into the morning sky. Houdini circled the field and then headed back toward the runway. As the plane touched down, the assembled audience clapped and laughed with approval. Houdini came in for a perfect landing after the first sustained flight in Australian history.

While playing in England the next year, Houdini worked on a new device that would take the place of the padlocked water can --- and lead to even more acclaim. When it was completed, the new “Chinese Water Torture Cell” was crated and stored until another blockbuster attraction was needed to bolster his act.

When he returned to the United States in the fall of 1911, Houdini released himself after being tied to the plank by three sea captains. He also escaped from a deep-sea diving suit, even after the headpiece had been bolted to the shoulders. Then, he accepted his strangest challenge of all. A “sea monster”, which looked something like a cross between a whale and a giant squid, had been found on a beach near Boston and the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts dared Houdini to “play Jonah.” The manacled magician was forced through a slit in the embalmed carcass on the stage of a theater. Assistants “sewed” the opening closed with a metal chain, would more chain around the carcass and then padlocked it. Working behind the cover of a curtain, Houdini freed himself in 15 minutes. Afterward, he said that he would never try anything like it again; he had almost been overcome by the fumes of the embalming fluid that taxidermists had used inside of the creature.

Houdini introduced the Chinese Water Torture Cell into his act in 1912. It would remain a staple at his shows until the end of his career.

Houdini kept his name in the papers --- and drew huge crowds to the theaters where he played --- during the summer of 1912 by escaping from heavy wooden crates that had been nailed and boarded shut and then dropped in the river. Since performers in America, Europe and Australia had copied his water can escape, Houdini introduced the “Chinese Water Torture Cell” in his act during his fall tour with the Circus Busch in Germany. A committee of volunteers was chosen prior to the show and they examined the metal-line mahogany tank, along with the cage that was to be lowered into the water-filled chamber. After they snapped the cuffs on his wrists, they also examined the heavy enclosures on his ankles and the massive frame that was fitted over them. Houdini was then hauled upward, turned upside down and lowered down into the water. Assistants locked the top of the tank and pushed a canopy over it to cover the top. Houdini was visible through the plate glass on the front of the tank until the drapes around it were closed. Two assistants stood by with axes; ready to break the glass in case of emergency. Suspenseful minutes passed and then Houdini parted the curtains to show-stopping applause.

Houdini returned home to the United States the following summer because he wanted to spend some time with his mother. Cecilia was now frail and weak and at the age of 72, her health was failing. Harry played a single, month-long engagement at Hammerstein’s Roof Garden in New York City, so that he could be close to her. The last time that he saw her would be at his bon voyage party when he returned to Europe. He was in Copenhagen on July 17, being interviewed by several newspapermen when a cable arrived for him. Houdini ripped open the envelope and discovered that his beloved mother had died. He fell unconscious to the floor. Houdini breached his Copenhagen contract, canceled the rest of his European bookings and returned to New York for the funeral. It was the greatest below the great magician had ever suffered. He did not resume his European tour until September. He often said that the death of his mother had been “a shock from which I do not think recovery is possible.” Houdini was working in the United States when the Great War broke out in 1914. Since the European theaters were closed to him for the duration, he perfected a new publicity stunt to bring in the crowds to American theaters --- a straitjacket escape made while dangling high in the air, upside down and dangling from the top of a building. More than 20,000 people turned out to watch him wriggle out of his bindings in Providence. Another 50,000 turned out in Baltimore and twice that many gathered in the nation’ s capital. Houdini ended the stunt by letting the straitjacket fall a dozen stories of more to the street below. Then, he extended his arms and took a bow while still hanging in mid-air.

Houdini with his beloved mother toward the end of her life. He stated that her passing was "a shock from which I do not think recovery is possible."