1/28/2024 0 Comments Harry houdini heightBut when his father died at age 63 in 1892, Harry was eighteen, and the older brothers were in their twenties - scarcely young waifs. ![]() So the family moved to New York where we have the picture of Harry growing up in abject poverty supporting a widowed mother. But he was not rehired after four years service. ![]() Harry's pop, Samuel, was the rabbi of the synagogue in Appleton. ![]() So it may be his American boyhood chums dubbed him Harry. At the same time, there is a natural Americanization from Ehrich to Eric to Erie. After all, Harry Houdini certainly sounds better (to American ears) than Ehrich Houdini or Harry Weisz. Reading early biographies you would think he picked his first name because of it's alliteration with his stage surname. How Ehrich Weisz became Harry Houdini isn't clear. It wasn't unheard of for naturalized US citizens to return to a visit to their native country and then get slapped in the old country's army. When he began his international travels, Harry knew that being noted as a native born American on his passport had advantages. The deception was probably less his parents fault than his. It's now well-established that Harry was born Ehrich Weisz on Main Budapest, Hungary, not in Appleton, Wisconsin, as earlier biographies stated. Few people read his biographies or see the (inaccurate) movies and docudramas. The big question is why and how? The conjuring profession that made Harry Houdini famous has largely vanished. That a vaudeville performer who was born in 1874 and who died in 1926 is still part of everyday culture of the Twenty-First Century is amazing.
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