The Mystery Man
Ehrich Weiss the first person to successfully fly a plane to Australia. He starred in three films and became an international celebrity perhaps the biggest star in America at the turn of the 20th century. Best known as “ The Hand Cuff King”(The Washington Post TP3), Harry Houdini is considered by most to be the best magician the world has ever seen. Houdini was a person with varied interests who lived an extraordinary life that carried him around the world.
Weiss claimed he was born on April 6,1874 in Appleton Wisconsin but was in fact born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest Hungary. He and his family immigrated to America in search of a better life in 1876 when Ehrich was only a toddler. Immediately after arriving, the family changed their last name from Weisz, which was Eastern European sounding to the more Americanized form,Weiss. Ehrich's father Samuel Weiss had to support the family so he took a job as a Rabbi with a annual salary of $750 (Staff at the Appleton Public Library). According to a biography from the staff at the Appleton Public Library: Harry's mother claimed that as a child he learned to open locked cabinets to get to goodies, but the story is said to be more legend than fact (Staff at the Appleton Public Library). Seven years later he and his family moved to Milwaukee when Ehrich was about eight. To support his family Harry would sell newspapers and shine shoes. On October 28,1883 Harry first appeared before an audience. At nine years old he would preform on a trapeze hung from a tree. As his first stage name he declared himself Ehrich “The Prince of the Air”. Eight years later at the age of seventeen, Harry began his professional career. He started doing magic shows before civic groups, music halls, side shows, and at NY Coney Island Amusement Park. On the average he was in 20 shows per day (Staff at the Appleton Library). For a short amount of time he worked with his brother, Theo. They became known as “The Houdini...