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Harry Houdini Research Paper

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Simon Harper Mrs. Gant English 18 February 2016 Harry Houdini First Draft Harry Houdini was one of the greatest escape artists and magician of all time. His tricks and escapes pondered the minds of people of then and still to this day. His career has influenced many people to see if they can trick and ponder the human mind as Harry did. Harry Houdini is one of the most beloved and influential magicians, making him have to work harder to ponder the minds of the world. Even as a young age Harry Houdini was always competitive and worked hard at what he did. Erik Weisz was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest Hungary. He was the fourth out of the seven children his parents had. His parents were Mayer Samuel Weisz a rabbinical lawyer and Cecilia …show more content…

Once Martin Beck saw Harry’s act he booked him for shows in Europe. He broke attendance records in England, Scotland and, Wales. He soon became known as Europe’s Eclipsing Sensation. In 1904 London Daily Mirror challenged Houdini to escape from a mirror handcuff, a handcuff that took a blacksmith five years to make, his escape took him over an hour and made mainline attention. Harry always had copycat magicians had to make his escapes new. To keep his escapes fresh he started doing them outdoors such as being hung in 100 feet in the air in a strait jacket and jumping into a river from a bridge while being chained up. Houdini continued accepting challenges from police and escaped from the “inescapable” Siberian Transport Prison Van. Eventually Harry returned to the U.S, he then was challenged to escape the Murderers Row jail cell that held president assassin Charles Guiteau. He was checked then locked up and the guard walked out, Harry escaped immediately and then went to the warden’s office to tell him he let all the prisoners out too, but put them in different cells. Harry started acting in films, were he would be the hero and escape from villains traps. In 1908 Harry starts his own signature escape, the Milk Can Escape. This would put Houdini in a sealed three gallon milk can filled with water, while being chained up. Houdini would encourage the audience to hold his breath with him, to act the sense of death to the escape. Harry soon became fascinated in planes and on March 18, 1910 Harry Houdini becomes the first man to fly a plane in Australia, Harry thought this is what he would be known for. Eventually imitator escape artists found out how to accomplish it so HArry had to come up with a new escape. The Chinese Water Torture escape became known for Harry’s must known escape. This would require Houdini to

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