The Houdini lived at this house until 1926." "You can own a piece of history…first time on the market since 1991. "The Houdini House for sale," the listing on Douglas Elliman Real Estate screams in all caps, in a kind of impatient prose.
Now, nine decades and only a handful of owners later, it's up for sale for $4.6 million.
He lived there until his death, on Halloween in 1926. In fact, he would often offer $10,000 (an enormous amount of money back then) to anyone who could come up with a psychic phenomenon that he couldn't duplicate by natural means.Harry Houdini, the iconic magician and performer who dazzled audiences with his grand illusions and thrilling escape acts, bought a house in Harlem for $25,000 in 1904. As for the handcuffs, he revealed that many times he could open them with force, although occasionally he used shoestrings and hidden lock picks and keys.Īlthough he was a magician at heart, Houdini never believed in the supernatural. He also trained his left hand to work as well as his right hand, and he practiced many “tricks," such as learning how to tie and untie ropes with his feet. To hold his breath for more than three minutes, he practiced at home regularly in an extra-large bathtub he had installed just for this purpose. He always stayed in top physical and mental health. How did Houdini perform all of these feats? Did he have supernatural powers? Not quite! While he never revealed many of his secrets, he did offer some insight in a 1909 book called Handcuff Secrets. He would have to hold his breath for more than three minutes while he tried to escape, which he did successfully every time. In this spectacle, Houdini would be hung by his feet and lowered upside down into a locked glass container filled with water. In 1912, Houdini introduced the Water Torture Cell, which would come to define his already spectacular career. No one ever collected on that offer, though - Houdini could escape every time. He even offered $100 (a lot of money at that time!) to anyone who could come up with a set of handcuffs from which he couldn't escape.
When he arrived in a new town, Houdini would challenge local police, claiming he could escape from any handcuffs they could provide. Houdini's handcuffs act impressed audiences around the country. He soon became well-known for his uncanny ability to escape from handcuffs. When he became a professional magician at the age of 17, he named himself “ Harry Houdini."Īlthough he first specialized in card tricks, it wasn't long before he began experimenting with escape acts. Erik Weisz was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, on March 24, 1874.
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