Harry Houdini was born March 24, 1874 as Ehrich Weiss. He was a Hungarian Emigrant that emigrated to America with his family. Harry Houdini had 3 brothers and 3 sisters. After his 12th birthday Houdini ran away from home and sent his family a post card saying that he was going to Galveston Texas and would see them in a year. Strange facts are that he hopped the wrong railcar  and ended up in Kansas City (it is said he never did make it to Texas). Budapest Hungary was his prior home so to emigrate to America for his family was a big step.

   In 1894 Ehrich Weiss (Later Known As Harry Houdini the great Magician of all time) became influenced by a French Magician that was said to be one of the best French Magicians of his time. The French Magicians name was Jean Eugene Robert-Houdini. In the start Harry Houdini did mostly card tricks for his audiences. Later he did make an Elephant and its trainer disappear or vanish on stage. It was said there was a pool under the stage. That gives pool tricks a new meaning :) Soon after he began his escape acts for his magic tricks on stage. In 1899 he was noticed for his handcuff act or handcuffs acts as you will see on our Free Houdini Videos he had many cool magic tricks.

   In 1900 Europe was where he soon set up to tour. Harry Houdini's Europe tour is one of the things that brought him fame and got him known as the great magician he was. (Got to love those Europeans for seeing things in him that were maybe overlooked by the Americans :))

    On October 22nd of 1926 Houdini was on his sofa having an art Student Sketch him in Montreal when J. Gordon Whitehead came in and asked Harry Houdini if it was true that he could take any blow or punches to the stomach (abdomen). The great Houdini said it was true that he could take any blows to his stomach or abdomen. J. Gordon Whitehead then hit Harry Houdini 3 times before Houdini protested and acted as he was in pain. It was said that J. Gordon Whitehead continued hitting Houdini several times after Houdini was showing signs of pain. The witnesses to this were McGill University Students Jacques Price & Sam Smilovitz. They said after the hitting Houdini spoke saying that if he had been better prepared he could have taken the blows easier. Some put rumors that Houdini was murdered and speak of the murder of Harry Houdini. It was not believed by his family that he had been killed or murdered by Poison or even due to the blows to his stomach.

   October 24th of 1926 was Harry Houdinis last magic trick or magic performance. He was said to have a 104F temperature when he went to perform his magic tricks that day. He was diagnosed with acute appendicitis at that time. Some believe the blows just aggravated the existing case of appendicitis in Houdini. Sadly he was Hospitalized at Detroit Grace Hospital with a ruptured appendix and passed away at 1:26pm at the age of 52 years old. Harry Houdini Died on Halloween Oct. 31st of 1926. His funeral was held at Queens Machpelah Cemetery in Queens New York. Houdini's funeral footage is on video also for those that wish to see it on our video section Here  Houdini was buried on November 4th of 1926 in Queens New York. Those that wanted to exhume Houdini or dig up Houdinis body seem to want to do this for marketing reasons or the wrong purposes. I say let the body of Harry Houdini rest in Peace.