In today's blog about our Danube Cruise, we're traveling through Budapest's Castle Hill area, and we'll take you to the Houdini Museum and tell you about him. The greatest magician and escape artist of all time, Harry Houdini was
born in Budapest, Hungary in 1874! That's why he has a museum there. We got to see a couple of the chambers that he used, and we'll show you a picture of them in this blog as well as tell you about the museum, about Houdini, and the weird way he died.. and it wasn't from an escape trap... Read on!THE HOUDINI MUSEUM - This is the museum that held the most interest to us, but, like the Labyrinth, only accepted CASH and Hungarian money.
The House of Houdini is a museum and performance venue located at 11, Dísz Square.The museum houses the only collection of original Houdini artifacts in Europe!
We did get to see a copy of the Water Torture Cell at the entrance. It is from the latest Houdini film featuring Adrien Brody – without the front panel – containing 52 roses, commemorating each year of his life, presenting a unique tribute to the legendary artist. There's also a full size safe which only opens when a question is answered.
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| Houdini Museum |
WHO WAS HOUDINI? Harry Houdini was born in Budapest in 1874 as Erik (or Ehrich) Weisz, one of the 6 children of Rabbi Mayer Weisz. Erik Weisz became Harry Houdini by adding an i to the last name of his idol, French magician Robert Houdin, while his first name, Harry is simply an Americanised version of his nickname, Ehrie.
At 17 Harry left his family to pursue his magician career, which started off as the King of Cards, and ended as the King of Handcuffs, relentlessly working along his famous expression “My brain is the key that sets me free.” Throughout the following years, he gained fame after repeatedly escaping from police handcuffs, caskets and jails, which was followed by constant American and European tours, while he became the number one stunt performer, illusionist and entertainer ever of both his and the present times. (Credit: http://budacastlebudapest.com/house-of-houdini/)
HOW HOUDINI REALLY DIED - I thought that Houdini died during one of his escape attempts. That's NOT what happened at all.
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| We saw the Escape Safe and Houdini Glass Container |
Houdini’s life ended with a tragic test in 1926 in Montreal: a
Theology student called J. Gordon Whitehead, who just returned a book
borrowed to Houdini on a Friday night, challenged Houdini about his
miraculous strength. Unfortunately, Houdini accepted the challenge, and
his abdomen received several punches of violent impact. Houdini tried to
continue his life as if nothing had happened. He suffered through a
show that night, and another one the following night, already
complaining about cramps (on Saturday he was already unable to put his
own feet in a casket used for his vanishing act). It seemed the
abdominal wall could not withstand the forcible series of blows.
On top of Whitehead’s blows, Houdini received another severe blow from a
stranger on Saturday night. According to Kalush & Sloman (The
Secret Life of Houdini), Houdini was waiting in the hotel lobby on
Saturday night to get on an overnight train for his next show. He was
reading a newspaper in the hotel lobby while the troupe was packing.
“…three young men entered the lobby from the bar and walked up to the
magician. One of them … without any warning, delivered a crushing blow,
right through the newspaper, to Houdini’s stomach. He doubled over in
pain.” On Sunday night, during the Detroit show, he collapsed. He was in
intense pain but finished the show to the sold out house. A few days
later he died of a ruptured appendix on Halloween night.(Source: http://budacastlebudapest.com/house-of-houdini/)NEXT: Climbing Saint Stephens Cathedral with Friends and a Ghost!
