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Harry Houdini : A Man Of Mystery And Class

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Harry Houdini was a man of mystery and class. Houdini was daring and pulled the impossible with his death-defying tricks that earned him recognition and fame along with popularity in the 1920s. He embodied the wants of the 1920s and became them, though his life did not hold as much fame and glory. Harry Houdini, here and gone in a flash.
Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Austro-Hungary on March 24, 1874. His real name was Erik Weisz though through the ages he went by Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss. He was born into a Jewish family his parents being Rabbi Mayer Samual Weisz and Cecilia Steiner (Weisz) Harry Houdini was one of seven siblings, him being the fourth child with three older brothers and two younger brothers and a sister. On July 3, 1878, Houdini and his family arrived in the U.S where Houdini’s birth name was changed to Ehrich Weiss and they moved to Appleton, Wisconsin before moving to New York with his family. Houdini and his family were not rich by any means so the kids often went and took odd end jobs especially Houdini who was a public trapeze artist at age 9. He called himself “Ehrich, the Prince of Air”. Once he became a professional magician he changed his name to Harry Houdini. For his registration for the selective service, Houdini used the name, Harry Handcuff Houdini. Harry Houdini’s Magic career started in 1891 but had little success as he performed in sideshows and dime museums and at one point doubled as “The Wild Man” in a circus. Soon after these unsuccessful events, he began to make attempts at escape acts. Houdini while performing in coney islands with his younger brother Theodore, also known as Dash, as “The Brothers Houdini” Houdini met a fellow performer named Wilhelmina Beatrice “Bess” Rahner. Houdini and Wilhelmina fell in love and married in 1894, Dash becoming part of the past, Wilhelmina took over Dash’s position in the acts where they became known as “The Houdinis”. In 1899, Houdini’s big break came when he met Martin Beck in St. Paul, Minnesota who was impressed by Houdini’s handcuffs act. He urged him the concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the vaudeville, which was a theatrical genre where acts that were unrelated got grouped together on a common bill, that was

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