He was able to escape because of both his uncanny strength and his equally uncanny ability to pick locks. In 1912, his act reached its pinnacle, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, which would be the hallmark of his career. Houdini continued his act in the United States in the early 1900s, constantly upping the ante from handcuffs and straightjackets to locked, water-filled tanks and nailed packing crates. The show was a huge sensation, and he soon became the highest-paid performer in American vaudeville. Houdini's feats would involve the local police, who would strip search him, place him in shackles and lock him in their jails. He is buried in the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York, in a bronze casket fabricated for his buried-alive stunt.In 1899, Houdini's act caught the attention of Martin Beck, an entertainment manager who soon got him booked at some of the best vaudeville venues in the country, followed by a tour of Europe. It is more likely that he had been suffering from appendicitis and died of peritonitis after suffering a blow to the stomach by a student visiting his backstage dressing room (the student had persuaded Houdini to allow him to punch the magician to test his strength). Houdini’s death, which occurred on Halloween in 1926, has inspired many myths: that he was poisoned, that he died in the Water Torture Cell, and that he faked his death and escaped. Over the next decade, Houdini rose to international fame through increasingly daring feats that involved seemingly superhuman physical strength and stamina.Īn advocate for the magic profession, he served as president of the Society of American Magicians from 1917 until his death, and used his fame to debunk the widespread popularity of the quasi-religion Spiritualism. She became his onstage partner for a short time, and together they performed the Metamorphosis illusion in which magician and assistant quickly switch places bagged and sealed in a trunk. But it was after he married Bess Rahner, a Catholic Coney Island song and dance performer, that his acclaim grew. Early on he performed card tricks and the Needle Threading Trick in which needles and thread are swallowed and then pulled from the mouth in a long threaded chain. He changed his name to Harry Houdini as a tribute to the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Weiss’ career as a professional magician began after his father’s death in 1892. These early workouts paved the way for Houdini’s rigorous training routine as a magician and illusionist. Passionate about athletics-he trained as a runner, swimmer, and boxer. Instead, he spent his teenage years doing odd jobs to help support his impoverished family, now living in New York City. When he was 12, he ran away from home with the intention of joining the circus. From the beginning, Weiss was drawn to illusion, performance, and spectacle. Houdini was the son of a rabbi who immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin four years after his birth. Harry Houdini (1874–1926) was born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary. The objects and art works featured in Houdini: Art and Magic are drawn from many private and public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art the Museum of the City of New York the Library of Congress the Harvard Theatre Collection The New York Public Library The History Museum at the Castle, Appleton, Wisconsin The National Portrait Gallery the Whitney Museum of American Art the Harry Ransom Humanities Center, University of Texas at Austin and Tate, London. The exhibition also features the work of 26 contemporary artists who have been inspired by his physical audacity and celebrity, his props and illusionist effects, and the themes of metamorphosis and escape. Artists include Matthew Barney, Whitney Bedford, Joe Coleman, Petah Coyne, Bruce Cratsley, Jane Hammond, Tim Lee, Vik Muniz, Ikuo Nakamura, Deborah Oropallo, Raymond Pettibon, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Allen Ruppersberg, Christopher Wool, and Carol Yeh. Houdini: Art and Magic includes more than 160 objects including magic apparatus, a recreation of the famous Water Torture Cell, historic photographs, dramatic art nouveau-era posters, theater ephemera, and archival and silent films that allow visitors to fully explore the career and legacy of the celebrated entertainer.
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