“No artist should attempt to bite red-hot iron unless he has good teeth.” Harry Houdini, although a little wild at times, is undoubtedly the most famous magician ever. All his tricks, from unlocking traps and other impossible situations, have led to his huge popularity. He was also called the Handcuff King for his uncanny ability to escape any pair of handcuffs. He was a legend in his day, and in ours. Harry Houdini was born Erich Weisz in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. He and his family later moved to Appleton, Wisconsin as a child, where he claimed to have been born. . He had six brothers and was the son of a Jewish rabbi and his wife, Cecilia Steiner and Mayer Samuel Weiss (Grimm, 2014). When he was 13, he moved with his father to New York City, where they lived in extreme poverty. Harry never had an education beyond the third grade, due to his need to earn money. Here, in New York, Harry did a lot of odd jobs to earn money. He also lived in a boarding house until the rest of his family moved to New York. It was there that he became interested in trapeze arts (Grimm, 2014). He performed circus stunts in the courtyard. At one of his jobs, as a tie cutter, he met a friend named Jacob Hyman, and together they began a magic act called "The Brother's Houdini." Harry's brother later took Jacob's place, but he continued to perform as "Houdini until the late 1900s." While performing at Coney Island, he met a showgirl named Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, aka Bess, and married her after three weeks of dating. In 1894, Erich Weisz began his career as a professional magician and changed his name to Harry Houdini. Harry was one of his childhood nicknames, "Ehrie", and his last name was... middle of paper... think one of the only things he could do was escape from the handcuffs. He even died trying to demonstrate one of his "skills" - that he could withstand any number of blows to the stomach, no matter how strong or numerous, if he was prepared. If I could have shared one piece of advice with him, it would have been to find a reliable job because the Great Depression was about to hit. In conclusion, Harry Houdini was one of the most successful magicians and escape artists of all time. He started from nothing, having moved to America from Hungary, and rose to the top. Sometimes he lied, posing as a false medium, performing false magic and escaping from rigged containers, but sometimes he did things truthfully. Those moments are when he was truly at his best. While I wouldn't have made the same decisions as Harry, I think he was a great wizard.