Harry Houdini Stamp

Ehrich Weiss was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. He immigrated with his family to the United States when he was four years old. Living in Appleton, Wisconsin, he began appearing as a contortionist and a trapeze performer at a five-cent circus at the age of 9. He went on to perform escape tricks and magic in medicine shows, circuses, dime museums, and small performance venues. He officially changed his name in the early 1890’s as a tribute to Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, a famous French illusionist.

Harry Houdini was the greatest magician and performer of the early 20th century. In 1899 he began performing escape tricks on vaudeville stages. By the following year, he was well known as the “King of Handcuffs”. He astonished audiences with his extreme escapes from ropes, jail cells, straitjackets, chains, water filled milk cans and trunks that were submerged in water. For many years he was the highest paid performer in American vaudeville.

In 1912, Houdini performed in the suspended upside-down locked glass and steel cabinet that was overflowing with water. He called this contraption the “Chinese Water Torture Cell”. Houdini had to hold his breath for more than three minutes in order to escape. He also challenged members of his audience to hold their breath while he was doing his trick. He performed this escape for the rest of his career.

After days of pain and the refusal of medical treatment, Harry Houdini died of Peritonitis from a ruptured Appendix on October 31, 1926.

In October of 2001, the United States Postal Service announced that a stamp honoring this great illusionist would be released. The Harry Houdini stamp was dedicated at a ceremony in New York City, at the 2002 Centennial Convention of the Society of American Magicians. David Copperfield, who is hailed as the “greatest illusionist of our time”, was on hand for the dedication ceremony.