Death Hits Houdini
Death
October 31, 1926, Grace Hospital, Detroit, Michigan
The great magician and escape artist Harry Houdini lay in bed. His fever high. His strength gone. Death loomed.
“Dash…” Houdini said to his brother, Theodore. “I’m tired of fighting. Guess this thing is… going to get me.”1 Those were his last words. He was 52 years old.
The thing Houdini spoke of was peritonitis2 caused by appendicitis. He’d been diagnosed with it a week before on October 24.
It sounds like a straightforward, if tragic, death. But nothing about Houdini’s life was straightforward. Why would his death be any different?
Background
Houdini had three names: Erik Weisz, his birth name, Ehrich Weiss, the Americanized version of his birth name, and Harry Handcuff Houdini, which became first his stage, and then, his legal name.
Houdini had two birth places and two birthdays: April 6, 1874, in Appleton Wisconsin, and March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. (Okay, he wasn't really born on April 6 in Appleton. But he told everyone he was from Appleton, and he did celebrate that day as his birthday.)
See what I mean about his life not being straightforward?
Houdini started performing acrobatics when he was nine. As a teen, he developed an interest in magic. When he started performing magic is unclear, but we know he performed in a sideshow at the World’s Colombia Exposition in 1893. He performed in dime museums and other smalltime venues until 1899, when he landed a contract in vaudeville. How’d he get it? By escaping from a pair of handcuffs.
The more famous he became the bigger his act got. He escaped jails, trunks, straightjackets, milk cans, and the Chinese Water Torture Cell.
A lot more can be said about his life. But this article is concerned with death, so let's move onto that.
October 22, 1926, Princess Theater, Montreal, Canada
It was a cool, rainy day. Houdini, between shows, reclined in his dressing room. He’d hurt his ankle in a previous show and was tired. Two students from McGill University came by to see him. Houdini chatted with them. Another student, J. Gordon Whitehead, came in later. After a bit, he asked if Houdini could take a hard punch to the stomach. (It sounds like an odd question. Being an athletic man and a boxer, Houdini took pride in withstanding blows, and at least one person, who knew Houdini, later said that Houdini had invited him to hit Houdini in the gut.3) Then, depending which account you believe, Houdini either said Whitehead could hit him, or Whitehead invited himself. Regardless, Whitehead punched Houdini several times, before, again depending on which account you believe, Houdini said “that’ll do,”4 or “not that way… got to get… set for it.”5 Some accounts say he then got set for it and had Whitehead hit him again. That time, it didn't affect him. Whatever the details, Houdini got punched hard and was still in pain when he performed later.
October 23, Princess Theater, Montreal, Canada
Houdini was still in pain and had the chills. He still did his show as scheduled. Afterwards, he couldn't dress himself.
October 24, Train Through Canada
The weather was little changed. Still cool, still wet. Houdini and his company traveled by train from Montreal to Detroit, Michigan. The pain hadn't left. His temperature was 102°. His wife Bess grew concerned.
A telegram was sent asking that a doctor be ready in Detroit. Again, it’s hard to work out exactly what happened, but Houdini was examined. The doctor said Houdini had appendicitis and told him to go the hospital. Houdini refused. Too many people were counting on him. He had to perform. And perform he did. He gave all he had, collapsed backstage, and finally went to the hospital.
October 24-31, Grace Hospital, Detroit, Michigan
Doctors immediately removed Houdini’s appendix. It had already burst. The resulting infection was already well under way. In modern day, doctors would have treated him with antibiotics. At the time, nothing more could be done.
Houdini struggled on. Bess, who had her own health problems, was admitted to the same hospital. The couple was able to spend some time together.
At last, on Halloween, Houdini passed.
After Death
Immediately, Houdini’s appendicitis was attributed to the events in Canada:
According to statements made by the physicians, the playful punches he received in Montreal were the direct cause of Houdini's death, for one of the blows caused the appendix to burst, saturating his system with poison.
New York Times: November 1, 1926
But did the blows cause Houdini’s death?
Houdini’s life insurance company agreed with the doctors in Detroit and ruled the death accidental and paid Bess a double indemnity.
Scientifically, it is possible, but rare for blunt force trauma to cause appendicitis.6
But could have happened and did happen are different things. So the answer is—maybe. (I’d love to hear your opinion.)
November 4, New York, New York
Houdini’s body sat in a coffin that Houdini had had made for a buried-alive escape. (Fitting, that.) 1500-2000 people attended the funeral. Many more mourned him around the world.
So, that's it. Except, it isn’t.
The Dead Speak?
Harry Houdini was more than an escape artist. He was the first man to fly an airplane in Australia, he collaborated with H.P. Lovecraft,7 and he debunked spiritualists.
Spiritualism was a religious movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. At the core of spiritualism is the belief that one could talk to the dead through a séance.
As Houdini traveled, he’d visit spiritualists, often in disguise. He’d pay close attention to everything they did—then he’d publicly expose them.
Why did he do that? Houdini gave the answer in his book A Magician Among The Spirits:
FROM my early career as a mystical entertainer I have been interested in Spiritualism as belonging to the category of mysticism, and as a side line to my own phase of mystery shows I have associated myself with mediums, joining the rank and file and held seances as an independent medium to fathom the truth of it all. At the time I appreciated the fact that I surprised my clients, but while aware of the fact that I was deceiving them I did not see or understand the seriousness of trifling with such sacred sentimentality and the baneful result which inevitably followed. To me it was a lark. I was a mystifier and as such my ambition was being gratified and my love for a mild sensation satisfied. After delving deep I realized the seriousness of it all. As I advanced to riper years of experience I was brought to a realization of the seriousness of trifling with the hallowed reverence which the average human being bestows on the departed, and when I personally became afflicted with similar grief I was chagrined that I should ever have been guilty of such frivolity and for the first time realized that it bordered on crime.
Houdini went on to say:
I too would have parted gladly with a large share of my earthly possessions for the solace of one word from my loved departed - just one word that I was sure had been genuinely bestowed by them and so I was brought to a full consciousness of the sacredness of the thought, and became deeply interested to discover if there was a possible reality to the return, by Spirit, of one who had passed over the border and ever since have devoted to this effort my heart and soul and what brain power I possess. In this frame of mind I began a new line of psychical research in all seriousness and from that time to the present I have never entered a seance room except with an open mind devoutly anxious to learn if intercommunication is within the range of possibilities and with a willingness to accept any demonstration which proves a revelation of truth.
In short, it was one part curiosity, one part public service.
Houdini still wanted to believe the dead could contact the living; so he and Bess agreed that whoever died first would try to contact the other. For ten years she went to various spiritualists and held séances. She only found more fakes. Bess gave up. “Ten years is long enough to wait for any man,” she said.8
Houdini’s Legacy Lives
The fact that the public remembers the name Houdini nearly one hundred years after his death is impressive. His legacy includes the 1953 biopic Houdini starring Tony Curtis, numerous biographies, a museum in New York City, a museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a museum in Budapest, Hungary.9 If you want to visit the Princess Theater where Houdini was punched, or the Garrick Theater where he last performed, you're too late. Both are no more. Grace Hospital was demolished in 1979.10 The Statler Hotel, where Houdini stayed when he arrived in Detroit, was demolished in 2005.11 Since then an apartment building has been built on the site. One wonders how many of its tenants know the land’s connection to history’s greatest escape artist.
You can visit Houdini’s grave. He’s buried at Machpelah Cemetery, in Glendale, Queens, New York, New York. His wife Bess is buried in a nearby cemetery.
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Sources and Further Reading
The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski
Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsay Gresham
Houdini!!! The Career Of Ehrich Weiss by Kenneth Silverman
A Magician Among The Spirits by Harry Houdini
American Experience: Houdini
Mental Floss: The Enduring Tradition of a Houdini Séance on Halloween
Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsay Gresham, pp 286
“Peritonitis is a serious condition that starts in the abdomen….Peritonitis happens when the thin layer of tissue inside the abdomen becomes inflamed. … Peritonitis usually happens due to an infection….
American Experience: Houdini
The Life And Afterlife Of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski, pp 267
Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gersham pp 283
Lovecraft ghostwrote "Under the Pyramids" for Houdini.
The American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan, The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, Wisconsin, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin also have major Houdini exhibits.
Historic Detroit: Grace Hospital
Edna Ferber, another Appleton resident who worked as a reporter for the Post Crescent before she became a bestselling novelist, interviewed Houdini for a story and helped create the myth that he was born here. The History Museum here in Appleton has a substantial collection related to Houdini's life (and Edna Ferber's typewriter, too!).