He even invited the public to devise restraints to escape, including being riveted into boilers, chained in mail sacks or nailed into shipping crates (often dropped into deep water). He continued to challenge police departments to confine him in their jails, handcuffs and straitjackets, but none of them could hold Harry. His continual ability to foil Scotland Yard's best restraints won him a six month booking at London's Alhambra Theatre. During Houdini's first tour of Europe he challenged the officers of Scotland Yard to restrain him in handcuffs. He began experimenting with handcuffs and escape tricks and caught the eye of an agent who booked him into the Orpheum circuit and advised him to concentrate on escapes. Initially, Harry began making the rounds of the Vaudeville circuits specializing in card tricks with somewhat limited success. He became interested in magic after reading an autobiography by Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, and adopted his hero's name (Harry would later write a book debunking Houdin's so-called powers). Eventually, the family settled in New York and young Harry made his show business debut as a trapeze performer at the age of nine.

Erik was changed to Erich, and friends called him 'Ehrie' or Harry. His father, Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weisz, moved the family to Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1878. Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, 1874. Still, Houdini spent a good deal of his career debunking the efforts of so-called spiritualists who claimed to be able to communicate with the great beyond. Part of the magician's code is to not give away the secret to the trick. Stage magic is the art of appearing to do the impossible through the use of illusion or trickery. No one understood this better than the greatest magician of all time, Harry Houdini. Although some magicians claim to have supernatural or spiritual powers, all magicians are essentially showmen.

Harry houdini mayer samuel weisz