Harry Houdini was an American-Hungarian illusionist that was born in March 24, 1874 and died October 31, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 52 due to a peritonitis, ruptured appendix, and he refused medical attention. His original name is Erich Weisz until he changed his name to Harry Houdini. An illusionist is a person who performs tricks that deceive the eye; a Magician. Houdini was one of the greatest magicians. Famous for his sensational escape acts. He was an escape artist. An escape artist is an entertainer expert that knows how to get out of handcuffs, ropes, chains, trunks, and any other life threatening device. Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Sometimes it was escaping some handcuffs and sometimes it was so close to death. One of his most difficult stunt was escaping from handcuffs that took a locksmith five years to …show more content…
His original name was Erich Weisz until he changed his name to Harry Houdini. He was one of six children, his parents were Rabbi Mayer Weisz and Cecilia Steiner. He later came to the United States in 1876. He moved to Milwaukee when he was eight years old. He sold newspapers and shined shoes to help support family. On October 28, 1883 he made his first appearance on stage performing a trapeze act at nine years of age. He called himself “Erich, the Prince of Air.” At the age of twelve he hopped on a freight car and ran away from home. A year later he went back to his family in New York to help support family by working as a messenger, necktie cutter, and photography assistant. His brother was Theo was starting to pursue an interest in magic. As a stage name he became Harry Houdini. All he did was steal someone's last name and added an I. He left his family again to go pursue his magic career. When he was twenty years old he had been performing small acts throughout New York. He later joined a circus and started devolving and performing his escape