Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdiniwas an American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can...
NationalityHungarian
ProfessionMagician
Date of Birth24 March 1874
CityBudapest, Hungary
I'm tired of fighting, Dash. I guess this thing is going to get me.
It is needless to say that women make the most patient as well as the most dangerous pickpockets.
I make the most money, I think, in Russia and Paris, for the people of those countries are so willing to be amused, so eager to see something new and out of the ordinary.
Some say I do it this way, others say I do it that way, but I say I do it the other way.
But it must not be thought that I say this out of personal experience: for in the many years that I have been before the public my secret methods have been steadily shielded by the strict integrity of my assistants, most of whom have been with me for years.
A magician is only an actor - an actor pretending to be a magician.
I always have on my mind the thought that next year I must do something greater, something more wonderful.
I knew, as everyone knows, that the easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death. That's what attracts us to the man who paints the flagstaff on the tall building, or to the 'human fly' who scales the walls of the same building.
But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath.
I do not believe that ghosts or spirits exist.
My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear.
An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect.
Keep up your enthusiasm! There is nothing more contagious than exuberant enthusiasm.
Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can't understand it.