Harry Houdini — the name is synonymous with magic. He performed grandiose escapes from handcuffs and straitjackets to locked boxes underwater. As a vaudeville act, he performed worldwide for thousands who came to watch his miraculous escapes. However, 100 years ago on Oct. 22, 1926, Harry Houdini went on to perform a trick that may have cost him his life nine days later on Halloween night — or did it?
Houdini, born Erik Weisz, was born in Budapest, Hungary, before he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1874. His father was a rabbi, and the family settled in Appleton, Wisconsin; Weisz became a young trapeze performer before moving to New York City in 1882, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica article.
He later met his wife, Wilhelmina Rahner, another performer, early in life, and they hit the road together; she later changed her name to Bess Houdini. They initially toured with his brother as a family, but Houdini’s escape attracted the attention of Martin Beck, a rising “tycoon” in the vaudeville circuit, according to a PBS article about Harry Houdini. Afterward, he took his performances to an international stage while also putting down roots in New York City and Connecticut.
In the 1920s, he continued performing, though his 1926 tour was already plagued by unfortunate circumstances. Early on, his wife Bess came down with food poisoning, and Houdini himself broke his ankle but persisted, according to an article from the Yale University Press. In Montreal, on Oct. 22, 1926, two college students approached Houdini in his dressing room to test his pain tolerance. Never one to back down from a challenge, the 52-year-old agreed to be punched in the abdomen repeatedly by McGill student J. Gordon Whitehead.
The pain in his abdomen worsened, but Houdini continued to perform, not seeking medical advice until Sunday, when he reached Detroit. It was then that he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and was advised to go into surgery; however, Houdini continued to perform in immense pain and just barely made it through the act.
The next afternoon, he would finally receive the operation, which confirmed that his appendix had burst and spilled bacterial pus into his abdomen. He would live for another six days before succumbing to the infection on Oct. 31. In the days before antibiotics, peritonitis was deadly.
While some believe that the stomach trauma that occurred on Oct. 22 may have led to appendicitis, it is not very likely, as stated in the Yale University Press article. It is more likely the case that the abdominal pain may have masked the symptoms of appendicitis, causing it to go unnoticed for a few days.
Despite his magician ways, Houdini was deeply skeptical of spiritualism and the beliefs mystics and mediums peddled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result, he and his wife decided to perform an experiment where whoever passed first would attempt to communicate with the living a coded message after their death. Bess would go on to declare the experiment a failure before her death in 1943.
The only thing that Harry Houdini could not escape was death; it’s unfortunate that he most likely would have survived with the advent of antibiotics a few decades later. Nevertheless, Houdini was incredibly influential in entertainment and magic, and his legacy persists even 100 years later.