Harry Houdini for Kids: His Life and Adventures with 21 Magic Tricks and Illusions
physical forms He hated that ſhe didn't want people to think his talent was due to a spirit he wanted them to respect his cleverness at creating and per fecting the trick or illusion That made him begin debunking those who claimed to have supernatural powers such as Spiritu alists and mediums He also revealed the secrets of those who used tricks to do wrong such as criminals He even exposed some of his competitors who tried to make a living copying his act By working hard to expose and explain the history of magic he was turn ing it into a respectable profession He knew magi cians had influenced and entertained people for thousands of years and he wanted to chronicle magi cians of the past to gain prestige for magicians in the present He created a magicians guild the Society of American Magicians SAM becoming its first presi dent He wanted to be remembered as a solidly pro fessional magician Houdini was unique Although his education was sparse since he had been forced to go to work as a child his greatest joy was his book collection num bering thousands of volumes and he even wrote several books himself Like many other children at the time he turned to the public library for an educa tion reading everything he could find that would help him achieve his goals His life shows how creativity perseverance and resilience can overcome setbacks and lack of opportu
nity Houdini was an immigrant street kid who became such a popular success that his name entered the dictionary during his lifetime and his life was later celebrated with a U S postage stamp Today decades after his death and a century after he became popular Houdini remains
Humble Beginnings O n March 24 1874 Ehrich Weisz the boy who grew up to reinvent himself as Harry Houdini was born in Budapest Hungary His parents quickly had a houseful they already had three older sons and another son was born after Ehrich Their father Mayer Samuel Weisz had studied to be a lawyer but he found little opportunity in Hungary The family was just getting by and times looked bleak They were Jewish and many Jews in Europe suffered discrimination and harsh treatment Like many other immigrants from Europe at that time Mayer Weisz booked passage on a ship to New York City COMING TO AMERICA In the late 1800s millions of immigrants came to the United States from Eastern and Southern Europe They arrived by ship usually traveling in family groups with everything they owned tied in bundles or trunks Industrialization in Europe meant that machinery replaced human labor leaving many peo ple without jobs or farmland In Russia masses of
Jews left to avoid harsh anti Jewish government poli cies Over 23 million immigrants entered the United States between 1880 and 1920 From 1900 to 1914 a million immigrants arrived every year When immigrants got off the ships in the New York harbor health officers examined them If they had signs of contagious diseases they were quaran tined hospitalized or sent back to Europe The new comers stayed in hotels and boarding houses until they could get settled Those with money headed west by train to find farmland The West opened to settlers after the Civil War and homesteaders could find land of their own along the new railroad lines Those who were poor stayed in New York City look ing for work there at factory jobs In 1879 almost half of the 180 000 immigrants who arrived in New York City stayed there The rest headed by train to Wis consin Minnesota Illinois and Missouri This was the path followed by the Weisz family After arriving in New York City Mayer Weisz sent for his wife Cecilia and their five children Ehrich was four years old Cecilia and the boys traveled from the port of Hamburg Germany to New York City It took them 15 days They arrived the day before the Fourth of July and a stifling 95 degree heat wave Hungarian Jewish immigrants like many others typically changed their names when they entered the United States Americanizing them to make them easier for English speakers to pronounce The Weisz
