The Guardian: Magic review – spellbinding standoff between Houdini and Conan Doyle
- #news
- #headline
Figure timeline
Harry Houdini
Erik Weisz, known professionally as Harry Houdini, was an American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
entertainment · American escapologist and stuntman (1874–1926) · actor · performing artist · aircraft pilot · philosopher · film producer · historian · magician · stunt performer · film director · escape artist · also Harry Houdini, Harry Weiss, Erich Weiss, Erich Weisz, Houdini
Born 24 March 1874 · Died 31 October 1926 · Q131545
66 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
14 photos · 1 audio · 1 video
Video
The Master Mystery (trailer) - Burton King - 1919, B.A. Rolfe Photoplays - EYE FLM41533 - OB 685697
Burton King (1877 – 1944), 1919, B.A. Rolfe Photoplays (United States) · Public domain
Listen
Harry Houdini's voice
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 3 entries
The Guardian: Houdini’s reappearing act: David Haig’s new play lays bare the magician’s dispute with Conan Doyle
- #news
- #headline
Austin American-Statesman: Illusionist Harry Houdini reappears in Austin 100 years after his death
- #news
- #headline
2024· 4 entries
collider: Disney Is Making a Spy Movie ... About Harry Houdini?
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: How Did Harry Houdini Die? A Look at the Magician's Unexpected Death — and Why His Wife Held a Seance Every Halloween After
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: Who Really Killed Harry Houdini? The Answer May Be an Illusion
- #news
- #headline
IGN: Harry Houdini: The Man Who Inspired Superheroes
- #news
- #headline
2023· 1 entry
PBS: Harry Houdini's Impulse to Escape
- #news
- #headline
2016· 1 entry
StamfordAdvocate: Harry Houdini's Most Mind-bending Quotes
- #news
- #headline
2015· 1 entry
As a highlight of their yearly 4-day festival in Hollywood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2013· 1 entry
Under the prompting of Dietrich and Brookz, voted to assume the financial responsibilities for the care and maintenance of the Houdini Gravesite
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2008· 1 entry
It was revealed the parties involved had not filed legal papers to perform an exhumation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2007· 2 entries
Houdini's great-nephew (the grandson of his brother Theo) George Hardeen announced that the courts would be asked to allow exhumation of Houdini's body to investigate the possibility of Houdini being murdered by spiritua
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“t care. Illusion became big bigness, and the magicians were out of work. John Leonard, in”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2006· 1 entry
By José Luis Nazar, a Chilean/American citizen who has restored it to its former splendor
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2003· 1 entry
And auctioned it in Las Vegas, on October 30, 2004
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2001· 1 entry
Snopes rated the claim “Escape artist Harry Houdini died from a ruptured appendix caused by his being punched in the stomach.” Unproven.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
1958· 1 entry
Kendall presented his collection to the Hoblitzelle Theatre Library at the University of Texas at Austin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1943· 2 entries
Aged 67, in Needles, California, while on a train en route from Los Angeles to New York City
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Bess said that "ten years is long enough to wait for any man
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1936· 1 entry
After a last unsuccessful séance on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, she put out the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of Houdini since his death
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1934· 1 entry
The bulk of Houdini's collection of American and British theatrical material, along with a significant portion of his business and personal papers, and some of his collections of other magicians were sold to pay off esta
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1929· 1 entry
When Ford conveyed the secret code, but Bess later said the incident had been faked
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1927· 1 entry
A rarity, because graven images are forbidden in Jewish cemeteries
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1926· 9 entries
In New York, with more than 2,000 mourners in attendance
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
At the age of 52 from peritonitis (swelling of the abdomen), possibly related to appendicitis and possibly related to punches to his abdomen he had received about a week and a half earlier
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Died 1926-10-31.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
For what would be his last performance, he had a fever of 104 °F (40 °C)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Speculated that Houdini's death was caused by Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead, who repeatedly struck Houdini's abdomen
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
This time remaining sealed for one hour and eleven minutes
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
By remaining in a sealed casket or coffin submerged in the swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for an hour and a half
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“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.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Rosabelle — answer — tell — pray, answer — look — tell — answer, answer — tell.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:pt
- #multi-edition
1924· 2 entries
“Imprisoned with the Pharaohs”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
Was exposed by Houdini as a fraud
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1923· 2 entries
Complaining that "the profits are too meager"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini became president of Martinka & Co
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1919· 1 entry
Houdini moved to Los Angeles to film
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1918· 2 entries
Houdini signed a contract with film producer B
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Registered for selective service as Harry Handcuff Houdini
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1917· 1 entry
Signed Assembly Number Three's charter into existence; that charter and this club continue to provide Chicago magicians with a connection to each other and to their past
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1909· 2 entries
Houdini made a film in Paris for Cinema Lux titled Merveilleux Exploits du Célèbre Houdini à Paris (Marvellous Exploits of the Famous Houdini in Paris)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini became fascinated with aviation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1908· 2 entries
And began escaping from a locked, water-filled milk can
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini introduced his own original act, the Milk Can Escape
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1906· 4 entries
Houdini started showing films of his outside escapes as part of his vaudeville act
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini created his own publication, the Conjurers' Monthly Magazine
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Sent a letter to the French magazine L'Illusionniste stating: "You will certainly enjoy the article on Robert Houdin I am about to publish in my magazine
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Brought a case against John Clempert, one of the most persistent imitators
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1904· 4 entries
Houdini returned to the U
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The London Daily Mirror newspaper challenged Houdini to escape from special handcuffs that it claimed had taken Nathaniel Hart, a locksmith from Birmingham, five years to make
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini bought a New York City townhouse at 278 West 113th Street in Harlem
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1902· 2 entries
In the back room of Martinka's magic shop in New York, the Society expanded under the leadership of Harry Houdini during his term as national president from 1917 to 1926
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Houdini visited Blois with the aim of meeting the widow of Emile Houdin, the son of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, for an interview and permission to visit his grave
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1901· 1 entry
A newspaper in Cologne accused him of attempting to bribe a police officer in order to rig an escape attempt, and paying a civilian police employee to aid him with another performance
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1900· 1 entry
Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1899· 2 entries
Houdini was defeated by a pair of handcuffs while performing at Middleton's Clark St Dime Museum in Chicago,
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
When he met manager Martin Beck in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1895· 1 entry
And lived in it with his wife, Bess, and various other relatives until his death in 1926
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1894· 1 entry
Houdini met a fellow performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1893· 1 entry
Before returning to New York City and working at Huber's Dime Museum for "near-starvation wages"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1887· 1 entry
Rabbi Weiss moved with Ehrich to New York City, where they lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1882· 1 entry
Rabbi Weiss and family moved to Milwaukee and fell into dire poverty
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1878· 1 entry
On the SS Frisia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1874· 1 entry
Born 1874-03-24.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth