Beck felt that Harry’s best option was to concentrate on escape acts. Beck suggested the Harry set aside his card tricks and his other ‘ordinary’ routines. And then Harry got to know a manager called Martin Beck. Even when he began to perform his exciting escape tricks, the reception he got was, at best, luke-warm.

He worked hard but could never get the break he needed. He first partnered with his brother Dash, and later with his new young wife Bess. At first Harry’s career as a magician was a very uninspired one. His new last name, Houdini, was Harry’s way of honoring his hero, Robert-Houdin, who was a famous French magician. However, when he was a young man Ehrich reinvented himself adopting a new name (Harry Houdini), a new birthday (April 6 th 1974), and a new birthplace (Appleton, Wisconsin). Harry Houdini began life as Ehrich Weiss who was born in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. Not only that but he was able to meet and become friends with Harry’s widow, Bess Houdini, who became “a kind of den mother to us young West Coast magicians.” This is his biography of the man who made a big impression on him and who has indeed fascinated thousands of people over the years. Not surprisingly, therefore, he read and learned a great deal about the incorporable Harry Houdini. Escape! The story of the Great Houdini Sid Fleischman Non-Fiction Ages 12 and up HarperCollins, 2006, 0-06-085094-9 When he was young Sid Fleischman – who won a Newbery Award for his book “The Whipping Boy” in 1987 – loved magic and magicians.

The great houdini book