Houdini, Harry (1874-1926)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary:1926 Nov 3 p. 5

Birth date: 1874 Apr 6

text of obituary:

FAMOUS MAGICIAN DIES LEAVING NO SECRETS

Detroit, Mich., Nov. 1 — Harry Houdini’s mysterious feats of escape, which thrilled spectators throughout the world in his life today were locked in the mystery of death.

The magician, hailed by his fellow workers as the greatest of them all, died here last night taking with him the secrets of how he escaped from manacles, chains, coffins, straight jackets and other contrivances, performances which no other man ever had duplicated under his challenge.

In one of his favorite tricks, he permitted himself to be bound, hand and foot in a box, wrapped with ropes and chains and placed under water. he escaped from thousands of straight jackets, picked innumerable locks and freed himself while hanging from a derrick in manacles and straight jacket.

Probably one of his most spectacular feats, also one of his latest, was when he was confined in a coffin under water for ninety minutes. This performance resulted from his long standing challenge that he could duplicate or expose any seeming magic trick.

Raymon [sic Rahman] Bey, an Egyptian man of magic, had been creating dissension by remaining in a sealed coffin under water for 19 minutes and he accepted Houdini’s defy to duplicate the trick.

“Short breaths and conservation of oxygen did it,” was Houdini’s explanation after he had bested the Egyptian at his own game by remaining under water more than four times as long.

Houdini was born in Appleton, April 6, 1874, the son of Rabbi Mayer Sauel [sic Samuel] Weiss, later adopting the name by which he was known on the stage. He was taken suddenly ill during a performance here and was operated on for appendicitis last Monday, peritonitis resulting. His widow survives. The body will be taken to new York in the bronze casket he carried everywhere.