After the show, he was unable to dress himself. What are you doing?"Īt that evening's performance, Houdini retired to his couch during intermissions in a cold sweat. The shots caught Houdini as he started to rise off the pillows bolstering him.Īccording to later sworn testimony, another student protested, "Hey there, you must be crazy. Hovering over Houdini, elbow bent, the student began forcibly punching him in the stomach. Yet he accepted the student's challenge, as he had so many others. His ankle had snapped during an Albany performance of the water-torture cell escape, as he was being hoisted upside-down on a pulley. He had kept his little Hercules physique tuned for them by years of running, swimming and acrobatics, but he was now 52, and for more than a week he had limped through his 2-1/2 hour program in a splint and leg brace, says Silverman. "Would you mind if I delivered a few blows to your abdomen?" he asked. One of them, a ruddy six-footer, asked if it was true that Houdini could take the hardest punches to his stomach. Lying on a couch, he chatted with three students from McGill University. 22, 1926, Houdini was in his dressing room at a Montreal theater. He recalled Houdini's last days in a 1996 commentary for All Things Considered. Kenneth Silverman wrote about Houdini's life in the book, Houdini: The Career of Ehrich Weiss. By the time of his death, Houdini was known around the world for his stunts on the stage and off, a master of cunning and endurance. Houdini had himself manacled and thrown into rivers, bobbing to the surface unchained within minutes. He publicized his shows by successfully escaping from hundreds of local jails. Young Weiss tried his hand at many things, gravitating eventually toward the life of an escape artist and conjurer. Some say Houdini's premature death was caused in part by his reputation for bravado and superhuman strength.īorn in Budapest, Hungary, as Ehrich Weiss, he grew up in the Midwest and in New York City.
The great magician Harry Houdini left this life nearly 80 years ago on Halloween. NPR's Liane Hansen visits the Houdini collection at the Library of Congress.
'Weekend Edition Sunday,' 1994: A Profile of the Magician and Escapist Some 50 years after his death, Houdini's followers continue to try make contact. 'All Things Considered,' 1977: Houdini Followers Remember his Death Bob Lund, director of American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Mich., leads special seance in an attempt to contact spirit of magician Harry Houdini.
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