The Start of Modernday Magic
The first Europeans to earn a living by performing tricks and magic appeared in the Middle Ages.  These were individuals or small bands of travellers who made earned their money by swallowing swords, eating fire, dancing, waving magic wands and performing tricks for crowds wherever they could.  The French coined the term Jongleurs to describe these people and so the term juggler was born.

As time progressed these acts became more sophisticated and they started to be a regular feature of local fairs.  So it was quite a natural progression for magicians and jugglers to appear in the music halls of the nineteenth century.  Initially the magicians performed their conjuring acts wearing flowing robes, but in the middle of the century a Frenchman called Houdin ignored the tradition and performed in evening dress and with the minimum of stage accessories.

Robert Houdin

Robert Houdin (1805-71) was originally a watchmaker, and built many intricate pieces of equipment that he used in his shows.  He was one of the originators of the two person minding reading act.  In fact his magic was so good that in 1856 the French government sent him to Algeria to help them counter the growing influence of the dervishes.  Houdin’s role was to expose the miracles of the dervishes by revealing how the tricks worked.  Houdin is widely regarded as the father of modern day magic.  It was as a tribute to Houdin that a young Erich Weiss(1874-1926) took on the stage name of Harry Houdin.

Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini was to become the greatest escape artist ever.  He came to the British public’s attention when he escaped from a pair of handcuffs in Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the British Police force.  That alone was enough to make sure that he gained an element of legend status, but that was only the start.  His reputation grew as he was challenged with one new escape after another, straightjackets, jail cells, chains, boxes and anything else the public could dream up, nothing held him.

But Houdini had not been an instant success. In 1896, he was ready to give up and even placed a newspaper ad offering all of his magic and secrets for $20. There were no takers. During this earl period his one big success was the Needle Trick, a grisly effect involving the swallowing of dozens of needles and thread, then the regurgitation of the thread with all the needles neatly threaded on.  This would be a cornerstone of his act throughout his life

The Challenge Act
Success came in 1898, when Houdini announced his Challenge Act. As the Handcuff King, Houdini boasted that could escape from any pair of handcuffs produced by the audience. The success of the Challenge Act was the turning point for Houdini and led to the development of the spectacular escapes that would make Houdini a legend.

The Challenge Act was extended to escape not only from the handcuffs that were offered, but from almost any location that was suggested. As a result of these challenges, Houdini escaped from jail cells, from handcuffed bridge jumps, from padlocked crates thrown into rivers, from locked canvas mailbags- even from a giant paper bag, without making a single tear in it.  But it was on stage where he made famous his most memorable escapes and stage illusions, the Water Torture Cell, the Milk Can Escape and Buried Alive.

Houdini's Death
The myths surrounding Houdini were added to by his death. The 1953 movie Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh did much to create the commonly-held belief that Houdini died onstage attempting to perform the Water Torture Cell illusion.  This story, romantic as it, is not true.

The truth is that Houdini was in the middle of a U.S. tour in 1926 when he began to experience severe stomach pains. It is quite likely that Houdini was suffering from the onset of appendicitis. 

A second myth that relates to Houdini's death is that a punch to his stomach burst his appendix.  Houdini often showed his physique off by allowing him to be punched, and although a young student did indeed punch him, it is unlikely that this was the cause of death, although it would have exacerbated an already existing but undetected case of appendicitis. Houdini was taken to Grace hospital for emergency surgery on 25 October and he died on Halloween of 1926, at 1:26 pm, in hospital

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