Harry Houdini

His real name was Erik Weisz. He was born in 1874 in Budapest, in Hungary. When he was a small child, his family moved to the United States. They were very poor. As a boy, Erik sold newspapers and cleaned shoes to get money for his family. He never forgot what it was like to have nothing.

When he was sixteen, he read a book about a famous French magician called Robert-Houdin. After this, Erik knew what he wanted to do. He took a new name — "Harry Houdini" — and started to work as a magician. The first years were hard. He played in cheap shows, and often the rooms were nearly empty. There was very little money.

Then he found a new kind of trick. Card tricks were boring for people, but one day Houdini started to escape from handcuffs. He asked the local police to lock him up — and every time, he got free. Now people watched with open mouths. He had found something special: real chains, real danger, and a man who always escaped.

Soon Houdini was famous all over the world. He travelled to Europe and put on big shows. He walked into police stations and said, "Lock me up!" The police put their strongest chains on him, but a few minutes later he walked out free. In London in 1904, a newspaper made special handcuffs. They said no one could open them. Houdini worked on stage for more than an hour, and thousands of people watched. Then, at last, he held the open handcuffs in the air — and everyone shouted with joy.

Houdini knew the real secret: people did not come for the trick. They came for the fear. So he made his shows more and more dangerous. In one show, the "Milk Can", he was locked inside a big can full of water. The crowd counted the seconds. They were sure he was going to drown. In his most famous show, the "Water Torture Cell", he hung upside down in a glass tank of water, locked in, in front of everyone.

Houdini was a great showman. He flew an aeroplane and became the first person to fly one in Australia. He hung from tall buildings in a straitjacket — a special jacket that holds your arms — and escaped while the traffic stopped below to watch. Everything he did made people believe one thing: this small, strong man could not be killed.

Later in his life, Houdini started a new job. After the First World War, many sad families went to people called "mediums". These people said they could talk to the dead — for money. Houdini knew all the tricks, and he was angry. He thought these people were cheating sad families. So he went to their shows, sometimes with a reporter or a police officer. Then he stood up and showed everyone the hidden wires and secret tricks. He even said he would give money to any medium with real powers. No one could win the money.

Then, in October 1926, something strange happened. In a room in Montreal, a young student asked Houdini if it was true that he could take a punch to the stomach. Before Houdini was ready, the student hit him hard, several times. Houdini was already ill, and the pain got worse. But he did not want to stop his shows, so he kept working.

Houdini did not know that his appendix had burst inside him. This filled his body with infection. On 31 October 1926 — Halloween — Harry Houdini died. He was fifty-two years old. The man who escaped from every chain, lock, can and tank could not escape this. Almost one hundred years later, he is still the most famous magician who ever lived.