A century ago this was Harry Houdini’s house He lived here for the last twenty two years of his life Most likely you know Houdini’s name but you probably don’t know all that much about him He was a famous magician and illusionist but he was most famous for being an escape artist They would lock him up in handcuffs in a jail cell a rolltop desk a giant milk can and a mailbag He was even locked inside a hot water heater He’d always find a way to get out A Chicago envelope company once sealed him inside the world’s largest envelope He escaped Houdini even escaped from inside a giant football They could lock him up in just about anything anything and he would find a way to get out There was nobody else like him A century ago Harry Houdini was one of the most famous people in the world When I walk up the stairs in my house it’s cool to think that Houdini walked up those same stairs When I go down to the basement it’s the same basement where Houdini practiced practiced his escapes When I go to sleep at night 3
I’m sleeping in a room where Harry Houdini might have slept When I get up in the morning morning I step on a floorboard next to my bed that makes a loud creaking sound that Houdini might have heard when he lived in the house a hundred years ago Living in the house once owned by this famous guy I naturally became curious about him I’ve read a bunch of biographies and learned a lot To be completely honest I’m sort of obsessed with Houdini and with magic People walking past my house are always stopping to take pictures of the plaque on the wall and asking me questions about Houdini It makes me feel like I’m a little famous too I like that Oh I forgot to tell you The funny thing is my name is Harry too My parents didn’t name me after Houdini They just liked the name And my last name is Mancini which sounds a lot like Houdini Mancini is an Italian name Houdini wasn’t Italian In fact he wasn’t even born with the name Houdini Harry Houdini’s real name was Erik Weisz 5
He was a Jewish kid who was born in Budapest Budapest Hungary His family came to America and lived in Wisconsin before they moved to New York City when Erik was a teenager Growing up Erik’s idol was a French magician magician named Robert Houdin Harry just added an i to the end of Houdin and called himself Houdini for the rest of his life I don’t know why he changed his name from Erik to Harry I guess he thought Harry Houdini sounded better than Erik Houdini Lots of kids from school have seen the plaque on the wall of course so everybody knows I live in Houdini’s house Sometimes they ask me to do magic tricks so I learned a few You know how grown ups always say Don’t try this at home kids Well here’s a really simple magic trick you can try at home to impress your friends All you need is a raw egg a little salt and a smooth level table First challenge your friends to try to balance balance the egg on its end so it stands up all by itself It’s really hard to do and they probably won’t be able to do it 6
