Harry Houdini

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Manacles, and Handcuffs, and Locks, Oh My!
Mathew Horsma Most people believe that to get out of a pair of handcuffs, it would be difficult, but for Harry Houdini, that is not the case. Harry Houdini has gotten out of all of the handcuffs he challenged, except for one. Sergeant Waldron from the Chicago police department challenged Harry Houdini with a doctored handcuff. Sergeant Waldron stuck a piece of lead into the keyhole of the cuffs to jam it, preventing it from ever opening. Harry had to get the cuffs sawed to get them off. Harry learned afterward to check the handcuffs before putting them on to make sure they are in working order. Harry Houdini had a way to make sure that he would always be able to take off any handcuffs he put on. He put all of his lock picking tools inside his “ghost house”. Harry’s ghost house was a four sided cabinet. A ghost house is a storage area that a magician would be able to go inside and put in and take out tools that they would need for their magic acts. …show more content…

Harry Houdini got these titles from being able to unlock and escape from so many handcuffs. Harry Houdini’s real name was Ehrich Weiss, but he changed his first name to Harry because the Americanized version of Ehrich was Harry. Harry changed his last name to Houdini because the man that inspired him to do magic was a man named Robert Houdin. Robert Houdin was French, and a friend of Harry told him that if he added an “I” at the end of Houdin, it would mean “like Houdin” in French. Robert Houdin got his last name when he hyphenated his name to match his wife’s name, Josephe Cecile

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