When teenage Ehrich and his friend Jacob read the memoirs of the great French illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, they decided magic was their future. Harry Houdini was devoted to his mother (L) and his wife Bess. His compact, muscular physique was ideal for boxing, swimming, and running. Ehrich worked long, grim hours cutting fabric in a sweatshop, but he found a positive outlet for his frustration in sports. Struggling to make ends meet in an East Side tenement was a humiliating comedown for the family of a respected clergyman. He wrote: “I have loved two women in my time.” His mother and his wife. But even there, no one wanted a rabbi who couldn’t speak English. Before he died, he made Ehrich promise that he would always care for his mother. Unable to find work in Appleton, Rabbi Weiss moved the family from town to town, and, finally, to New York City. Rabbi Weiss, never comfortable with English, had continued saying prayers in German, irritating members of his congregation who already considered him too Old World. The family was reunited, but the good times didn’t last.

Overjoyed, he sent for his own family, including 4-year-old Ehrich, to join him. These families promptly hired Mayer Samuel to be their rabbi. He found it in Appleton, a community so welcoming the Christian congregations helped raise money to build a temple for the Jewish families. His father, Mayer Samuel, like millions of immigrants during that era, sought a better life in America.

Houdini was actually born Ehrich Weiss (also spelled Erik Weisz) on March 24 in Budapest, Hungary.

Separating truth from illusion is as hard for his biographers as it was for his audiences. He wrote: “My birth occurred April 6, 1874, in the small town of Appleton in the state of Wisconsin, U.S.A.” Although many books and sites repeat this, none of it is true. All his life, Houdini, and later his widow Bess, told fibs and conflicting stories. Or rather, after failing as a magician, he reinvented himself in a new role that made him famous: the escape artist. The funny thing is, Houdini wasn’t really a magician. The dog gets out of the yard, or the baby out of the playpen, and someone will say: “That little Houdini!” The name still stands for “magician” the way “Fido” stands for “dog.” Even today, nearly a century after his death, we say his name.

Bess houdini