What do you think?
Rate this book
The Great Houdini
How did he escape from sealed bank vaults...from an escape-proof jail?
No one in the world has ever equaled Houdini's remarkable feats. This amazing man dared to accept any challenge--from being sealed in a boiler to being dropped into the sea in a locked, chain-wrapped trunk--and never failed to escape!
Read the true life story of the Great Houdini--learn his secrets!
No one in the world has ever equaled Houdini's remarkable feats. This amazing man dared to accept any challenge--from being sealed in a boiler to being dropped into the sea in a locked, chain-wrapped trunk--and never failed to escape!
Read the true life story of the Great Houdini--learn his secrets!
275 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 10, 2023
I think this book sums it up nicely where it says at the end, "Success was the single, almost-unvarying factor in (Houdini's) career, together with a stubborn determination which drove him to any conceivable lengths to achieve that success. The methods he used were various; the tricks he devised and practised (sic.) were without number. But all of them demanded an infinite attention to detail, constant exertion of nervous and physical energy, and endless hours of thought, training, and rehearsal."
I had not realized the countless ambition that Houdini had to make it as an entertainer. He initially had little success in America, but after much struggle, his career was finally recognized in Europe. Only then was he able to make a name for himself in America. This took years of determination and even his failures would not discourage him. It only made him want to work that much harder. He drew attention to himself by setting challenges to unlock himself out of handcuffs, strait jackets, jails, and crates full of water. He had worked in a lock factory for a while and this is where he learned about locks. In fact, he might have made a long time career out of working in a lock factory for the stability of employment as he and his wife Bessie were struggling financially in the beginning of his career as an entertainer. However, with publicity, skill and determination he became known as a wonderful magician and escape artist. He also wrote a few books and acted in some silent films, performing his own stunts. He had an extensive thirst for knowledge, particularly as to magic and spiritualism, and he had built up a mass collection of books on these subjects. He became a rags to riches story, doing what he loved best. He died on a Halloween afternoon, October 31, 1926.
I had not realized the countless ambition that Houdini had to make it as an entertainer. He initially had little success in America, but after much struggle, his career was finally recognized in Europe. Only then was he able to make a name for himself in America. This took years of determination and even his failures would not discourage him. It only made him want to work that much harder. He drew attention to himself by setting challenges to unlock himself out of handcuffs, strait jackets, jails, and crates full of water. He had worked in a lock factory for a while and this is where he learned about locks. In fact, he might have made a long time career out of working in a lock factory for the stability of employment as he and his wife Bessie were struggling financially in the beginning of his career as an entertainer. However, with publicity, skill and determination he became known as a wonderful magician and escape artist. He also wrote a few books and acted in some silent films, performing his own stunts. He had an extensive thirst for knowledge, particularly as to magic and spiritualism, and he had built up a mass collection of books on these subjects. He became a rags to riches story, doing what he loved best. He died on a Halloween afternoon, October 31, 1926.
January 25, 2018
Recounting the life and achievements of Harry Houdini is a daunting task, given his involvement in so many ventures during his remarkable career including circus performer, illusionist, spiritual "medium" (when in dire straits financially), escape artist, historian of magic, published author, show manager, filmmaker, and debunker of fake spiritual mediums later in life during his tumultous friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Through tireless effort that would have broken most men half his age—and frequently exhausted his devoted wife Bessie—Houdini had become a renown showman, philanthropist, and lecturer in demand throughout Europe and the United States right up until just days before his death on 31 October 1926.
In The Great Houdini, the husband and wife team of Beryl Williams and Samuel Epstein deftly capture all of that and more in a 268-page biography that includes a foreword by Houdini friend and student, William B. Gibson (who also created the famous pulp fiction character, The Shadow).
Make no mistake, this is not a romanticized chronicling that elevates Houdini to unblemished sainthood. Williams and Epstein offer honest accounts of the performer's bravado, arrogance, ill-temper, and occasional failures (as a show manager and film star) as much as his brilliance and industriousness in crafting each stage performance and besting every handcuff and escape challenge from law enforcement and container manufacturers alike. Nothing could keep Houdini restrained—physically or mentally—and nothing could hold him captive.
It was, in fact, Houdini who captivated the world.
Through tireless effort that would have broken most men half his age—and frequently exhausted his devoted wife Bessie—Houdini had become a renown showman, philanthropist, and lecturer in demand throughout Europe and the United States right up until just days before his death on 31 October 1926.
In The Great Houdini, the husband and wife team of Beryl Williams and Samuel Epstein deftly capture all of that and more in a 268-page biography that includes a foreword by Houdini friend and student, William B. Gibson (who also created the famous pulp fiction character, The Shadow).
Make no mistake, this is not a romanticized chronicling that elevates Houdini to unblemished sainthood. Williams and Epstein offer honest accounts of the performer's bravado, arrogance, ill-temper, and occasional failures (as a show manager and film star) as much as his brilliance and industriousness in crafting each stage performance and besting every handcuff and escape challenge from law enforcement and container manufacturers alike. Nothing could keep Houdini restrained—physically or mentally—and nothing could hold him captive.
It was, in fact, Houdini who captivated the world.
August 1, 2014
I found Houdini, that is, The Great Houdini, by Beryl Williams and Samuel Epstein, (published in 1951 and sadly out of print,) in a used-book store and bought it for twenty-five cents.
I didn’t know much about Houdini. I’d heard of him, of course, who hasn’t, and I expected the book would be mildly entertaining, if nothing else. Mildly entertaining? How about fascinating.
I had a vague notion of Houdini as a late nineteenth-century showman, a magician, a vaudeville guy, maybe connected somehow with Niagara Falls, although I knew Houdini had never gone over the falls in a barrel, or on a tightrope either, the way Maria Spelterina (yes, a woman) did it in 1867. And how did Maria do it? With peach baskets on her feet and a paper bag over her head. Houdini, the consummate showman, must have loved it.
The book sat for months in my stack of books-to-be-read. I wasn’t sure I wanted to invest my time in a book about a magician. I’m always careful with non-fiction books about athletes and show-biz types. I want to be entertained by a book, sure, but I don’t want to come all the way to the end and realize all I’ve got from it is entertainment. There has to be something more. Not to fear. Houdini provides ample amounts of entertainment and elucidation. And nearly a hundred years after his death, Houdini still has people holding their breath. (Me.)
What’d I get out of it?
The American dream.
The four-year-old Houdini, actually Erik Weisz, arrives in America from Austria-Hungary in 1878, a little Jewish boy in a large, impoverished family. The family settles in Minnesota and young Eric has to quit school and go to work to help support the family.
Entranced as a young boy by a sideshow magician, Houdini will, for the rest of his life, chase the American dream in a direction few have chased it, becoming a magician, an illusionist, and ultimately, the greatest escape artist in the history of the world.
And in an ironic twist to the immigrant success story, Houdini struggles for years in America. It’s all setbacks and poverty and he wants to give up, to take a job in a factory but his devoted wife, who’s been disowned by her family for having married Houdini against their wishes, won’t allow him to quit. After years of failure, Houdini goes to Europe to try to kick start his career and wouldn’t you know it, he becomes the biggest attraction in Europe and returns triumphantly to America, a triumph that made me think of the Beatles in February of 64.
Houdini was that big, in his day.
Back then, without TV or the Internet, folks would go out for an evening’s entertainment and the biggest entertainment, the hottest ticket, was Harry Houdini, locked into impossible situations, the folks holding their breath, as Houdini, night after night, was tied up and handcuffed and dropped into canals and buried alive. Once, in a stunt that nearly cost Houdini his life (most of his stunts weren’t nearly-fatal,) they dropped him into a milk can filled with…beer. Harry was abstemious and it took tremendous amounts of energy to get out of fixes and the beer he swallowed and the alcohol fumes in the confines of the milk can inebriated Harry and he had a difficult time focusing. I suppose it would have made a great headline, had Harry not come out of the can but he made it and with the crowd standing, cheering, and not getting it, how this particular escape really was death-defying.
Houdini’s wealth and fame grew beyond even his wildest dreams, and the man was certainly capable of wild dreams.
Alas, Houdini died at a young age, although, with the physical and mental stress of his chosen career, he packed a lot of living into his 52 years. There was an ironic twist to his death. He was a sculpted man, all muscle, no fat, that was part of the escape artist’s secret, large muscles on a tight body to create and manipulate slack once the handcuffs and chains and straitjackets were applied.
Houdini was preparing to go on stage at the Princess Theatre in Montreal and a college student backstage asked Harry was it true how no punches in the stomach could hurt him. Harry said yes and somehow the kid thought Houdini had given him permission to slug the magician in the stomach, hard. It might even have been repeated blows; in any event, it staggered Harry and he went on with the show despite the pleas of his wife and his assistants. The show must go on, even when it shouldn’t, and it did, the next night and the next and with Harry ignoring the doctors’ advice and ignoring the discomfort of the ruptured appendix that was filling him with poison. Harry died on October 31, 1926, Halloween. Always the showman.
The book is pretty straightforward, it’s more a chronicle than an examination of the magician’s life and I suppose, when Harry Houdini is your subject, it’s best for the author(s) to just get out of the way.
A book review, or a book, about Houdini, could be the ultimate spoiler, revealing how Houdini and all those other illusionists, and there were many, managed their tricks. It’s kind of a lose-lose situation. You want to know how he does it but if he tells you, or if I tell you, you lose the magic. I won’t tell you how Houdini did any of tricks and if you don’t want to know, don’t read the last chapter of the book. Without saying there’s magic or there isn’t, what I can say is there’s hard work and dedication to the craft, just as there is in attaining any other kind of professional success. You want to know how to get to Carnegie Hall?
Confession: There was one Houdini trick I just had to know and I looked it up on the Internet. An eight-thousand-pound elephant is brought on stage (a pretty good trick in itself,) and is locked into a trunk and presto! The elephant vanishes. Am I sorry I went on the Internet to learn the secret of the vanishing elephant? Yes and no. It was ingenious, how he did it, and if I hadn’t learned it, I’d be wondering, so it’s just as well.
After Houdini died, his magic props were donated to the Society of American Magicians, an organization that Houdini founded and that is extant today. All his stuff except the elephant. They didn't know what to do with the elephant, elephants are expensive to maintain, and what they did, upon Harry’s death, Harry’s brother, who was also a magician and illusionist, performed the elephant vanishing act one last time, or at least the first half of the act. He made the elephant vanish and walked off stage without bringing it back. Just kidding.
I didn’t know much about Houdini. I’d heard of him, of course, who hasn’t, and I expected the book would be mildly entertaining, if nothing else. Mildly entertaining? How about fascinating.
I had a vague notion of Houdini as a late nineteenth-century showman, a magician, a vaudeville guy, maybe connected somehow with Niagara Falls, although I knew Houdini had never gone over the falls in a barrel, or on a tightrope either, the way Maria Spelterina (yes, a woman) did it in 1867. And how did Maria do it? With peach baskets on her feet and a paper bag over her head. Houdini, the consummate showman, must have loved it.
The book sat for months in my stack of books-to-be-read. I wasn’t sure I wanted to invest my time in a book about a magician. I’m always careful with non-fiction books about athletes and show-biz types. I want to be entertained by a book, sure, but I don’t want to come all the way to the end and realize all I’ve got from it is entertainment. There has to be something more. Not to fear. Houdini provides ample amounts of entertainment and elucidation. And nearly a hundred years after his death, Houdini still has people holding their breath. (Me.)
What’d I get out of it?
The American dream.
The four-year-old Houdini, actually Erik Weisz, arrives in America from Austria-Hungary in 1878, a little Jewish boy in a large, impoverished family. The family settles in Minnesota and young Eric has to quit school and go to work to help support the family.
Entranced as a young boy by a sideshow magician, Houdini will, for the rest of his life, chase the American dream in a direction few have chased it, becoming a magician, an illusionist, and ultimately, the greatest escape artist in the history of the world.
And in an ironic twist to the immigrant success story, Houdini struggles for years in America. It’s all setbacks and poverty and he wants to give up, to take a job in a factory but his devoted wife, who’s been disowned by her family for having married Houdini against their wishes, won’t allow him to quit. After years of failure, Houdini goes to Europe to try to kick start his career and wouldn’t you know it, he becomes the biggest attraction in Europe and returns triumphantly to America, a triumph that made me think of the Beatles in February of 64.
Houdini was that big, in his day.
Back then, without TV or the Internet, folks would go out for an evening’s entertainment and the biggest entertainment, the hottest ticket, was Harry Houdini, locked into impossible situations, the folks holding their breath, as Houdini, night after night, was tied up and handcuffed and dropped into canals and buried alive. Once, in a stunt that nearly cost Houdini his life (most of his stunts weren’t nearly-fatal,) they dropped him into a milk can filled with…beer. Harry was abstemious and it took tremendous amounts of energy to get out of fixes and the beer he swallowed and the alcohol fumes in the confines of the milk can inebriated Harry and he had a difficult time focusing. I suppose it would have made a great headline, had Harry not come out of the can but he made it and with the crowd standing, cheering, and not getting it, how this particular escape really was death-defying.
Houdini’s wealth and fame grew beyond even his wildest dreams, and the man was certainly capable of wild dreams.
Alas, Houdini died at a young age, although, with the physical and mental stress of his chosen career, he packed a lot of living into his 52 years. There was an ironic twist to his death. He was a sculpted man, all muscle, no fat, that was part of the escape artist’s secret, large muscles on a tight body to create and manipulate slack once the handcuffs and chains and straitjackets were applied.
Houdini was preparing to go on stage at the Princess Theatre in Montreal and a college student backstage asked Harry was it true how no punches in the stomach could hurt him. Harry said yes and somehow the kid thought Houdini had given him permission to slug the magician in the stomach, hard. It might even have been repeated blows; in any event, it staggered Harry and he went on with the show despite the pleas of his wife and his assistants. The show must go on, even when it shouldn’t, and it did, the next night and the next and with Harry ignoring the doctors’ advice and ignoring the discomfort of the ruptured appendix that was filling him with poison. Harry died on October 31, 1926, Halloween. Always the showman.
The book is pretty straightforward, it’s more a chronicle than an examination of the magician’s life and I suppose, when Harry Houdini is your subject, it’s best for the author(s) to just get out of the way.
A book review, or a book, about Houdini, could be the ultimate spoiler, revealing how Houdini and all those other illusionists, and there were many, managed their tricks. It’s kind of a lose-lose situation. You want to know how he does it but if he tells you, or if I tell you, you lose the magic. I won’t tell you how Houdini did any of tricks and if you don’t want to know, don’t read the last chapter of the book. Without saying there’s magic or there isn’t, what I can say is there’s hard work and dedication to the craft, just as there is in attaining any other kind of professional success. You want to know how to get to Carnegie Hall?
Confession: There was one Houdini trick I just had to know and I looked it up on the Internet. An eight-thousand-pound elephant is brought on stage (a pretty good trick in itself,) and is locked into a trunk and presto! The elephant vanishes. Am I sorry I went on the Internet to learn the secret of the vanishing elephant? Yes and no. It was ingenious, how he did it, and if I hadn’t learned it, I’d be wondering, so it’s just as well.
After Houdini died, his magic props were donated to the Society of American Magicians, an organization that Houdini founded and that is extant today. All his stuff except the elephant. They didn't know what to do with the elephant, elephants are expensive to maintain, and what they did, upon Harry’s death, Harry’s brother, who was also a magician and illusionist, performed the elephant vanishing act one last time, or at least the first half of the act. He made the elephant vanish and walked off stage without bringing it back. Just kidding.
June 16, 2017
great easy read about the great Houdini. Best escape artist ever.
February 7, 2020
very entertaining and informative.
November 12, 2025
If Houdini was alive today he would be a twitch streamer
May 4, 2010
I read this book while home, ostensibly ill (well, maybe I really was ill, but I faked it a lot), from elementary school. The two portions which particularly struck me were the description of his death by a blow to the stomach and his coffin's telephone.
May 28, 2014
Read this book over 50 years ago. Can't remember the specifics but do remember being very fascinated.
Read
June 16, 2017I thought this book was very boring and not very interesting as well. I have definitely read better biographies. I thought overall it was a decent book, and showed the full story of Houdini's life from beginning to end. I would recommend the book to people who like to read biographies, although the Alfred Hitchcock biography was a million times better.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews