Dimensions: 30 x 24

About Houdini:

Harry Houdini, born Ehrich Weiss (Budapest, March 24, 1874 – Detroit, October 31, 1926), was a Hungarian-American magician and escape artist.

Born in Hungary as the son of a rabbi, Houdini moved with his family to the United States when he was four years old. He grew up in a large family in Appleton, Wisconsin. At the age of thirteen, he moved with his father to New York, and the rest of the family followed later. He began his career as a circus performer and magician. Weiss chose his stage name, Houdini, as a tribute to the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

After touring for years with his wife Bess as a largely unsuccessful vaudeville performer, his breakthrough came in 1899 when he began focusing more on one part of his repertoire: escaping from handcuffs. Because audiences usually assumed the handcuffs used were rigged, this feat had made little impression until then. In a series of publicity stunts, however, Houdini escaped from police cells and from police handcuffs fitted by experts. It brought him name recognition, especially when theater agent Martin Beck became involved in his career. Beck enabled Houdini to perform in the two vaudeville theater chains that represented the pinnacle of the genre in America: the Orpheum theaters on the West Coast and the Keith theaters on the East Coast. When interest in Houdini waned after these successful tours, he tried his luck in Europe.