HARRY HOUDINI (1874-1926)
Before Harry Houdini became the world’s most famous magician – a title he arguably still holds today – he was born Erik Weisz in Pest’s Terézváros district, not far from Nyugati Station. His family moved to the USA during his childhood, and by age nine he was a trapeze artist, launching a long career as an audacious showman. After learning magic tricks as a teen, Houdini adopted his stage name and worked New York’s sideshow circuit (meeting his wife and lifelong assistant at a Coney Island performance). Houdini’s card tricks weren’t too impressive, so the athletic entertainer honed his act as an escape artist, and by 1900 he was starring in America’s top vaudeville theaters. In every nation he visited while touring Europe, Houdini challenged local police to lock him up; of course they couldn’t, earning “The Handcuff King” renown across the Continent, along with a $300 weekly salary – huge pay in those days. As Houdini’s fame grew, his tricks grew more death-defying, such as escaping from a nailed packing crate immersed underwater or digging himself out after being buried alive. By the 1920s his sensational shows earned him a fortune, paving the way for today’s magic spectaculars that are a major industry in Las Vegas and beyond. Back in Budapest, the House of Houdini appropriately honors this Magyar magician with astounding flair.