Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz to Mayer Samuel Weisz and Cecilia Steiner Weisz when Cecilia was 33 years old, "somewhat late by 19th century standards". The two shared an intense bond since Erik was just an infant. According to Cecilia, she just had to hold Harry to her breast to get him to immediately stop crying. When Erik, now Harry Houdini, struck out with one of brothers in a magic act performed at city carnivals, museums, and beer halls, he relied on his mother for encouragement. They frequently wrote to each other, and Cecilia helped select his costumes even after he became famous. Houdini would even sit on his mother's lap at times "to re-enact the story of the calming influence she had on him as a child". Houdini called her his "angel on earth" and his "guiding beacon of [his] life". Houdini's father's last wish on his deathbed was that his son would take care of Cecilia, and after Houdini broke through to fame, he made sure to keep this promise. He bought Cecilia a home in a well-to-do part of town with many foreign residents so that his mother could speak with her neighbors (she never learned English very well). At this point, Houdini had married Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rhaner, a Catholic who must have surprised Cecilia, a staunch Jew. They managed to get along despite religious differences, and Houdini once called them his "two sweethearts". It is impossible to say which one of his sweethearts he cared for more. He once threw a party at which his mother presided over the guests as "Queen Cecilia", wearing a dress made for the Queen of England and sitting on a throne, lavished with gifts and adoration. Cecilia died on July 17, 1913 at age 72 of a fatal stroke while Houdini was performing in Copenhagen, Denmark. At a press conference, Houdini received a trans-Atlantic telegram containing the news of his mother's death. After reading the telegram, he fainted; once revived, he sobbed inconsolably, moaning in grief for his dear mother. Later he said of the event, "I who have laughed at the terrors of death, who have smilingly leaped from high bridges, received a shock from which I do not think recovery is possible." The Weisz family delayed the burial, against Jewish custom, so that Houdini could look upon his mother one last time. Doctorow goes on to describe how Houdini's enormous grief for his mother led him to seek out mystics and séances to communicate with his deceased mother, but all he found was fraud. This was the genesis of Houdini's anti-Spiritualism campaign that took up a large part of his later career. This is a great story, but it's not exactly true. It would actually be 10 years before Harry unmasked his first phony medium. In addition, the myth that his interest in Spiritualism was sparked by Cecilia's death is false. By the time of her death in 1913, he already had enough experience with Spiritualism throughout his career to let him know it's false. His relationship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, is truly the link between Cecelia Weisz and Spiritualism. On June 17, 1922, nearly nine years after Cecilia's death, Doyle's wife gives Houdini a séance that is clearly a sham. Houdini keeps quiet about his doubts to not shame Lady Doyle, but his silence is mistaken for approval by Doyle himself. After Doyle publicly announces that Houdini has been influenced by the spirits, Houdini must defend himself, and suddenly he is in a debate over Spiritualism with one of the leading intellectuals of the century, a debate he is determined to win. And so begins his public anti-fraud crusade, as described in Ragtime. It was as if, now that his mother was dead, heaven had to be defended...He himself went to seances disguised as a gray-haired widow in a veil. he would shine a portable electric torch on the thin wire that caused the table to levitate. He roe the covering from the hidden Victrola. He plucked trumpets out of the air and grabbed by the scruff of the neck confederates hidden behind drapes. Then he stood up and dramatically cast of his wig of waved gray hair and announced who he was. He accrued lawsuits by the dozens.
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One evening...Houdini's manager told him of being called by Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish of 78th Street, who wanted to book Houdini for a private party...Mrs. Fish was throwing commemorative ball in honor of her friend the late Stanford White, the architect of her home. He had designed her home in the style of a doge palace. A doge was the chief magistrate in the republic of Genoa or Venice. I won't have nothing to do with those people, Houdini told his manager. Dutifully the manager reported to Mrs. Fish that Houdini was not available. She doubled the fee. Marion Graves Anthon "Mamie" Fish was a socialite and self-proclaimed "fun-maker" at the turn of the century in New York and Rhode Island. Though she could barely read and write, she married Mr. Stuyvesant Fish at 23 years old, rising to become a ruler of society and renowned party planner. Doctorow calls her a member of the "Four Hundred", the social elite of New York City in the late 19th century. Ward McAllister named this group according to the four hundred people of New York who he believed "really mattered".
In her house Glenclyffe on 78th Street designed by Stanford White, she threw outrageous parties. One might see a monkey drunk on champagne throwing lightbulbs at guests from the chandelier, guests simultaneously dancing and feeding an elephant, or according to Doctorow, an entire party talking in baby voices. Houdini would have heard of her antics, prompting him to initially refuse her author. There is no record, however, of Houdini appearing at a Fish party. The early 1900's saw competition between European engineers to produce "heavier than air" aircrafts at an all-time height. (While hot air balloons and blimps function using a mix of gases designed to make the craft float by displacing the air around it, hence the name "lighter than air", "heavier than air" aircrafts had yet to be invented). The Wright Brothers invented the Flyer III in 1903, but they were hesitant to make public demonstrations for fear of another engineer stealing their intellectual property. Therefore, many did not believe the Wright Brothers until a demonstration of their aircraft in August of 1908.
According to Doctorow, Houdini paid $5000 for his Voisin biplane 1909. He made the first "heavier than air flight" in Australia on March 18, 1910. He was competing against Ralph Banks and Fred Custance to set the record in Australia according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale; all three were magicians aspiring to make aviation a part of their remarkable repertoire. Houdini made at least 18 more flights before shipping his airplane back to England, never to fly it again. Doctorow also points out an interaction between Houdini and Archduke Franz Ferdinand in which Ferdinand congratulates Houdini for the invention of the airplane. However, there is no evidence that Ferdinand and Houdini ever met. A "sandhog" is a slang name for the miners who work on underground projects throughout New York City. They are responsible for much of the underground infrastructure in the city, including the Brooklyn Bridge, subway tunnels, sewers, and water tunnels. Many of the workers are historically Irish or West Indian. It is possible that some of the immigrants of the ensemble might be working as underground construction workers. One day there was a blowout so explosive that it sucked four workmen out of the tunnel and blew them through the river silt and shot them up through the river itself forty feet into the air on the crest of a geyser. Only one of the men survived. The freak accident made headlines in all the papers, and when Harry Houdini read the accounts over his morning coffee he hurriedly dressed and rushed downtown to the Bellevue Hospital where it was said the surviving worker had been taken. Doctorow describes Houdini's personal relationship to a freak accident that happened to four sandhogs working underneath the East River. Read the original New York Times article about accident. Interestingly enough, a very similar accident occurred 11 years later. Read a personal account from the second blow out here.
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Dramaturgy for the Ragtime musical and novel.© Eliza Pillsbury, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eliza Pillsbury with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Categories
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