Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini is historically probably the best known escapologist of all time. Born in 1874 in Hungary his name was originally Erik Weisz and he emigrated to the USA with his family as a child.

Houdini's first role in the entertainment world was as a child trapeze artist before he moved to working as a magician at which point he changed his name to Houdini. After a partnership on stage with his brother Dash he met and married Bess Rahner and they started working as an act known as The Houdinis.

At this stage Houdini's act incorporated general magician's trick with some escape routines. In the late 1890s he was taken over by the manager Martin Beck who advised him to concentrate on escapology. By the 1900s his act was so successful that he had started touring outside of America in Europe where he became known as The Handcuff King.

In order to liven up his act and to appeal to new audiences Houdini then started to incorporate more elaborate and potentially dangerous escapes into his act including his famous milk can escape. Here he was shut into a large milk that was filled with water from which he had to escape. From this point on Houdini's act incorporated some hair raising escapes designed to thrill audiences. His most famous devised act is probably the Chinese Water Torture Cell which involved him being hung upside down in a cabinet filled with water.

Houdini's success was such that he is thought to be have been the highest paid artist on the US vaudeville circuit. He also made a variety of films and started his own film production company. His fame led to him ultimately being awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Houdini died in 1926 from complications resulting from a ruptured appendix.