Harry Houdini A Spy Essay

Was Harry Houdini a spy? This question is one of many people ask themselves about the mysterious man that was Harry Houdini. He was a unique man, who had a very shady existence. He certainly had the abilities to escape bad situations of he in fact was a spy, but no one really knows for sure whether he was or not. The questions he raises are just tiny chips in the tapestry Houdini painted into history.

For his entire life, Houdini claimed that he was born on April 6, 1874 in Appleton Wisconsin. The fact was, however, that he was born on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary. His father was a religious teacher , his mother a stay at home wife. He had six siblings that survived adulthood. His father emigrated to America and changed the spelling

of their last name to Weiss. They all lived for some time in Appleton before moving to Milwaukee when Ehrich was eight. Houdini claimed that his first show for an audience was when he was nine, an act performed on a trapeze hung from a tree. He had called himself “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.”
Ehrich Weisz idolized a great French magician named Robert-Houdin. When the boy started performing and practicing magic, he added an ‘i’ to the end of Houdini's name and called himself ‘Houdini’. He began his professional career at age seventeen, doing magic shows before civic groups, in music halls, at sideshows, and at Coney Island in New York. He sometimes performed twenty shows each day. Small shows were not enough for Houdini after he joined the Welsh Brothers Circus in 1895. The team up had only lasted six months when he left, wanting to work on new tricks and to develop his speaking voice and showmanship.
He began doing his escaping artist trick, claiming to be an expert at escaping any type of handcuff. His easy escapes in public provided an excellent reputation for him. He offered a hundred dollars to anyone who had handcuffs he could not escape, but he never had to pay a single customer. His incredibly complex escapes and his reputation made Houdini a headliner on the Vaudeville circut. He played cities all over the country. He was still not satisfied however, and moved to Europe.

His breakthrough in Europe came when he successfully broke free from his binds in Scotland yard. He had been handcuffed around a pillar. The publicity from that single act led to more shows and his fame quickly spread. He performed in Germany and throughout Europe. Oftentimes when he performed called on local police to restrain him, confounding them every time. He loved suspense and jumped into rivers while handcuffed, remaining underwater long after most observers thought he was dead. Then he would spring up, the binds escaped.
Houdini then continues his career in the US in the beginning of the 1900’s. His acts continued to get more daring throughout his career. In 1912 though, his acr reached its pinnacle. He had acquired a chinese water torture cell. Houdini was suspended by his feet and lowered upside-down in a locked glass cabinet filled with water, requiring him to hold his breath for more than three minutes to escape. This act was so daring and crowd pleasing that it remained his shows until his death in 1926. He had always loved daring escapes, and was never really satisfied. He always wanted more. As he once said: "The easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place someone is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death."

While Harry Houdini was in Scotland yard he talked to a man named Melville, who was a British spymaster. Melville helped launch Houdini's career in Europe by arranging an audition with a London theatre owner. He also gave Houdini handcuffs. Many Historians believe that because Melville and Harry were friends, that Melville recruited him as a spy because of Houdini's excellent escaping skills. In Chicago, too, Harry was helped by a local police lieutenant. This suggest that he and authorities had a very strong connection in most places he went.

Harry Houdini's death was very odd according to most.

He reportedly dies of Appendicitis after a fan took his offer to punch him in the gut, and punched him harder than they probably should have. Most people, however believe that the fan did it on purpose, knowing that Harry was sick. He had been feeling bad that day, according to his colleges and wife. After he escaped from his chinese water torture cell, he collapsed and was sent to the hospital. His appendix ruptured and he tragically died in 1926.
After his death, his wife tried to conduct a seance to contact his spirit. They had made a secret code years before in case he died before her. He did not believe in spirits, as he had tried to contact his dead mother and failed. The people that helped him contact his mother had either been frauds or had not been able to. "I do not believe that ghosts or spirits exist.” He would say later on. To this day, seances are conducted to contact the deceased Harry Houdini.

Long after Houdini’s death, people have loved his magic shows and have been fascinated by his great escapes. Many magicians now idolize him, such as David Copperfield. When we think of magic today, our minds usually go to Houdini rather than the great magicians we have today. This is, of course, because Houdini shaped the history of magic throughout the world. He was one of the world's first most memorable magicians that we will all treasure for, hopefully,

forever.