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Harry Houdini: The Connecticut Connections

Harry Houdini, Vaudeville's highest paid performer, owned a house in Stamford, and his brother, Dr. Leopold Weiss, once lived in Ridgefield.

Bow-legged, wiry and incredibly strong, Harry Houdini stood just 5 foot 4 inches tall. However, what he lacked in physical stature, he more than compensated for with his enormous ability to entertain people.

Houdini was an entertainment giant of his time, possessing a seemingly endless capacity for self promotion and marketing. Houdini's death-defying stunts drew huge crowds both at home and abroad. A creature of his times, he performed in theaters, produced and starred in films, and became among the first to fly an airplane in Australia. Few could match Houdini's star power and his cutting-edge presence in emerging enterprises such as aviation and the film industry.

Houdini's origins, however, were  very humble. Born "Erik Weisz" in Budapest on March 24, 1874, he came to the United States at age 4 in the summer of 1878, the fourth oldest of seven children. Upon arrival in Appleton, WI, the family changed its name to "Weiss" — the German form of "Weisz," perhaps to blend in better with the predominant German population of Wisconsin. Young "Erik" became the German form "Ehrich."

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As a boy, Ehrich Weiss distinguished himself in sports. He was an outstanding runner and an accomplished trapezist at an early age. Ehrich's father, Rabbi Mayer Weiss, moved the family to New York City in 1887. It was in New York that Ehrich became fascinated with magic and soon renamed himself after an admired French magician, Jean Eugene Robert Houdin. There are two possible explanations for his adopted name "Harry." One is that he named himself after a magician named Harry Kellar; the other is that the name came from his nickname "Ehrie," short for "Ehrich."

By age 17, Houdini had launched an entertainment career, first by doing amazing card tricks, then by becoming an escape artist. He possessed an incredible ability to pick locks. At the suggestion of Martin Beck — an entertainment manager — Houdini began to focus on escaping from handcuffs. His escape act became very popular and was booked on the Vaudeville circuit. Employing a clever marketing strategy, Houdini would publicly challenge local police to handcuff him and to put him in jail; naturally, he always escaped, much to the amazement and delight of the locals.

Soon, Houdini flirted with death by having himself shackled and lowered underwater; handcuffed and buried in a coffin for over an hour; placed in a straitjacket while handcuffed and hung upside down; and even placed handcuffed inside the belly of a dead whale that had washed up onto a shore near Boston! His ability to remain calm under pressure, slow down his breathing rate dramatically, deliberately dislocate his shoulders temporarily, regurgitate lock picks that he had concealed by swallowing, and withstand water so cold that it would chill a polar bear made him a sensation. Not surprisingly, he soon became wealthy.

By 1904, Houdini had not only purchased a home in New York City, but he also bought a seven-room retreat in Stamford on Webbs Hill Road. Interestingly, despite all of Houdini's notoriety, there is no known photo of his Connecticut home; furthermore, no one seems to be able to locate the actual address of his home there.

Houdini's brother, Leopold, also owned a home in Connecticut on about 5.5 acres in Ridgefield known as "The Highmeadow Estate." Dr. Leopold Weiss, Houdini's youngest brother, was one of America's first radiologists. Leopold — for some reason estranged from his more famous brother — died in October of 1962 at age 83. His Ridgefield home was for sale as recently as 2008 for over $7 million!

Houdini died at age 52 on Halloween in 1926 in Detroit. Like another megastar of his time — Rudolph Valentino — Houdini had contracted peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. In fact, Valentino had died just 4 months earlier at age 31 from the exact same cause!

Houdini's appeal continues. There are over 1,000 Houdini-related items for sale on EBay each week. In fact, there are many active Houdini societies throughout the world. Each Halloween, many Houdini fans conduct a seance to try to get in touch with Houdini's  spirit. Prior to his death, he had told his wife, Bess, that his biggest escape would be to contact her some day "from the other side" using a secret code — "Rosabelle believe."

It was a line from a play in which Bess performed when they first met. Bess tried to contact him through a seance held every Halloween for 10 years, and thousands of Houdini fans continue to try each Halloween. So far, no luck.

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