His name is now synonymous with breaking out of impossible situations and surviving death-defying stunts, including one that came with the warning “Failure Means a Drowning Death.” To his audiences, Harry Houdini’s skills seemed almost supernatural. But to Houdini himself, an immigrant who embraced showmanship to escape grinding poverty, his abilities were built entirely on intelligence, reason, and meticulous preparation.

Always looking over his shoulder at imitators, Houdini spent his career upping his game–and the stakes. In 1903, in Russia, he requested to be locked naked in a freezing prison van the tsarist police used to transport prisoners on a three-week trip to Siberia. To the astonishment of the guards, Houdini broke out after 45 minutes. From then on, his acts became riskier: He was locked into water-filled milk cans, thrown chained off bridges, and tossed bound in a packing crate into the sea.

What drove him to these extremes during his relatively short life? The riddle of how and why Houdini pulled off such feats continues to fascinate his admirers, while the circumstances around his death still intrigue his biographers.

Prince of the Air

Houdini’s first escape was from the poverty of his childhood. Born Ehrich Weiss in 1874 into a Jewish-Hungarian family in Budapest, he immigrated at a young age with his family to Wisconsin, where his father struggled to make a living.

Hardship and showmanship went side by side in Ehrich’s childhood. He practiced dexterity skills with sleight of hand at age six and became a regular at circuses by age seven.

(How does a magician trick other magicians? We went to find out.)

These cards and card trimmer belonged to Harry Houdini, a lifelong collector of effects, props, and locking devices that he learned how to pick.

Alamy/Cordon Press

His desire for success grew stronger when his father fell sick. In 1883 Ehrich set up an improvised circus along with boys from his neighborhood and performed as a trapeze artist. In a glimpse of his future flair for self-styling, the nine-year-old crowned himself Prince of the Air.

Having tried and failed to work as a rabbi, Ehrich’s father moved the Weisses to a New York slum. The young boy’s early love for illusionism and tricks offered the chance of freedom from the fate that awaited so many young immigrants at that time: the lifelong drudgery of the garment trade. As if in preparation for the feats ahead, the stocky Ehrich trained by lifting weights, swimming, and boxing while taking on a variety of manual-labor jobs to make ends meet.

A friend introduced Ehrich to the memoirs of 19th-century French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, considered the father of modern conjuring. In the 1890s, Ehrich added an i to Houdin to make his new last name, and his career, “like Houdin.” He also gave himself a new first name in homage to American magician Harry Kellar. Under this stage name, Harry Houdini set up a traveling circus with his younger brother, whose stage name was Theodore “Dash” Hardeen. The brothers featured high-wire acts, snake charmers, and belly dancers.

The duo reached their long-sought acclaim with what became their signature act, Metamorphosis, first performed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Dash tied Houdini up and put him in a sack, which was placed inside a chest. Once the curtain was pulled, Dash was revealed to have replaced Houdini, the speed of which astonished the crowds.

UnrestrainedOne of Houdini’s most iconic stunts was his straitjacket escape. First performed in Kansas City in 1915 in front of thousands, and always staged near newspaper offices, it involved Houdini dangling from a crane by his feet. Wriggling himself free from the straitjacket, shown here, he the…Read More

Bridgeman/ACI

Within a year, Dash was superseded by young singer and dancer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, or Bess, who Houdini had married within three weeks of meeting and made his new partner in magic. They went by the Houdinis, and Bess became his stage assistant for the rest of his life. Although their performances, also consisting of traditional magic tricks, were popular, earnings were scant. Houdini knew he had to maximize the sensationalism to pull in the crowds.

The handcuff king

Experience as an apprentice locksmith gave Houdini the founding idea of his career. Arriving in a town, he’d alert the press. He would then call a police station and ask to be handcuffed and locked in a cell. Within minutes, he’d walk free.

Harry Houdini moments before being lowered into his water torture cell in 1913.

Bridgeman/ACI

The media coverage from these stunts helped promote the Houdinis’ shows. In 1899 entrepreneur Martin Beck offered Houdini a contract to perform in his theaters. Houdini now had a substantial income, and new horizons suddenly opened. He was performing in Britain in 1900 and Russia in 1903.

His popularity led to an avalanche of copycats and doubters, forcing him to push his limits and defend his name, even winning a lawsuit in 1902 against a German newspaper that called him a fraud.