Harry Houdini biography

Harry Houdini claimed his whole life that he was born on April 6th, 1874 in Appleton Wisconsin. In reality he was born on March 24th 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. He most likely lied about his birthplace so he would be accepted in America. He was named Ehrich Weisz; his parents were Cecilia Steiner and Mayer Samuel Weisz. He had at least 6 siblings that made it to adult hood, but it is unclear how many total siblings he had. Ehrich’s father moved to America alone to try to get a living and place so his family could hopefully come later. He got a job as a Rabbi, and his family came to America in 1876. They changed the spelling of their last name to Weiss (most likely to sound more American). When Ehrich was about eight years old his father was fired, and the family moved to Milwaukee. Ehrich sold newspapers, shined shoes, and did random jobs to help out his family. His first performance was on October 28, 1883 when he was only nine years old. He did stunts on the trapeze and hung from trees. He called himself “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air” while he did these stunts. At the age of twelve Ehrich ran away by sneaking on a freight car, which ended up in Kansas City. No one is quite sure what he did while he was gone but he eventually ended up a year later in New York reuniting with his family. After moving to New York City, Ehrich and his younger brother Theo became very interested in magic, after their idol Robert Houdin. The two began to perform, and became known as the “Brothers Houdini.” As Ehrich became more and more interested in the art of escaping, he started to put a great deal more effort into the show than his brother did. Ehrich changed his first name to Harry, probably because again he wanted to be viewed as more American and his nickname was already Ehrie. After changing his name, he started his professional career, with out his brother, when he was seventeen years old. He would perform up to twenty shows today per day. While doing

Cited: "Harry Houdini - Biography." Appleton History. Appleton Public Library, 2 Aug. 2004. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. . Who’s Who in History Biography.