A Picture Book of Harry Houdini (Picture Book Biography)

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Believe, One Network, Every Topic, Everywhere.

Lisa Bueno (0:07)

Okay, our friends. So one magic story deserves another. Only this particular story is not about imagination. This story is about a guy who made people's imaginations question themselves. This guy was a master of magic.

What? It's true. His name was Harry Houdini, and this is a picture book about Harry Houdini. And in fact, that's what it's called, A Picture Book of Harry Houdini. It was written by David A. Adler and Michael S. Adler, and it's illustrated by Matt Collins. My friends, if you do not know who he was, you should because you're not gonna believe what I'm about to read to you. Today's story, A Picture Book of Harry Houdini, is read by Mommy and...

Who are you? Philip. Philip, love it. Here we go. Two men lifted the great Harry Houdini and lowered him into a large water can. If I fail to appear, Houdini told his audience, my assistance will do everything possible to save my life.

Wait, what? Houdini ducked under the water. The men sealed the can with a metal lid and secured it with six heavy metal padlocks. The curtains closed. One minute passed, then two, then three. The audience was tense. They were sure no one could survive so long underwater. Finally, the curtain opened. A very wet Harry Houdini stepped forward and bowed.

The metal can was behind him, still locked. This was just one of many escapes Houdini made during his career. He freed himself from ropes, handcuffs, straight jackets, and prison cells.

Philip (2:18)

What's a straight jacket?

Lisa Bueno (2:20)

I'm so glad you asked. So it's kind of hard to explain what this is, but I will do my best. It is a sort of a white jacket that they would put people's arms facing, you would put your arms facing front, and then your arms would cross over you inside of the jacket, so you couldn't move your arms out. And they would do it for people who maybe would hurt themselves on accidents. So to help them and keep them safe, they would put them in a straight jacket so they couldn't hurt themselves or anyone else. Makes sense?

Okay. So he was the most celebrated escape artist and magician of his time. Harry Houdini was born on March 24th of 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. He was named Heinrich by his parents, Rabbi Mayer Samuel and Cecilia Weiss. He was one of their six children. Shortly after Heinrich was born, his father changed the spelling of the family name to Weiss, and moved his family to Appleton, Wisconsin. There, Heinrich's father became Rabbi of the town's new synagogue. Rabbi Weiss, who had never learned English, soon lost his job. The family moved to Milwaukee, where Rabbi Weiss gave Hebrew lessons. Work for him was scarce, so young Heinrich helped out by selling newspapers and shining shoes. We don't do either one of those things nowadays, do we? When traveling circuses came to town, Heinrich watched the magicians. He tried to perform their tricks. At age nine, he got a job at a five-cent circus. He wore long red stockings and called himself the Prince of the Air. At 11, he took a job with a local locksmith, where there he often played with the locks and soon could open them all without keys. He used pins and pieces of bent wire. When he was 12, Heinrich ran away from home. He wandered, did odd jobs and performed magic wherever he could, and for a time he joined a circus as an escape artist. He called himself Eric the Great. In 1887, the Weiss family moved to New York City, where Heinrich's father hoped that he would find work, and Heinrich joined them. There he worked as a department store messenger, photographer's assistant, and necktie cutter, but his passion was magic. Heinrich read a book, Memoirs of Robert Houdini, a 19th century French magician. In 1891, Heinrich changed his first name to Harry, after Harry Keller, a popular American magician, and his family name from Weiss to Houdini. He added an I at the end that meant like Houdini.

In early 1894, Harry met Beatrice Bess Raymond, a singer and a dancer. They fell in love and married on July 22nd of 1894 Bess took care of her husband, and when he performed, she was often on stage as his assistant. She described her husband as the most helpless man in the world. Once, when Bess couldn't travel with him, she packed for his trip and labelled each shirt so Houdini would know when to wear it. It didn't help. When he returned home, all the shirts were still in their bags, still labelled. He'd worn the same shirt all week.