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1. His real name was Erich Weiss, but he changed his name to Houdini in honour of a famous French magician, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

2. He was actually born in Budapest, Hungary, although his family moved to the USA when he was very young. However, he did claim in later years to have been born in Appleton, Wisconsin.

3. Houdini began life as a very average magician, going by the title King Of Kards for a while, before embarking on his unique career as an escapologist, for which he became so famous.

4. His wife, Bess, was also a performer, and after they were married, she worked as his stage assistant for the rest of his performing career.

5. It was during his highly successful tour of Europe, just after the turn of the century, that he acquired the name The Handcuff King
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6. He became renowned for his suspended straitjacket escapes, as well as escapes from under water, but his most famous was the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was hung upside down, by his ankles, in a cabinet filled with water.

7. Houdini was an avid aviator, and was the first person to achieve a controlled, powered flight over Australia, in 1910, in his own Voisin biplane.

8. He made a few movies, including The Man From Beyond (1921), although they were far from successful.

9. For many years, Houdini was the highest paid performer in vaudeville.
10. He served as the President of the Society Of American Magicians from 1917 until his death in 1926.

11. After the death of his beloved mother, Cecilia, he spent much of his time debunking fraudulent mediums after vain attempts to contact her from beyond the grave.

12. His exposures of spiritualists cost him his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the famous Sherlock Homes stories.

13. Although the movie starring Tony Curtis about Houdini's life had him dying under water in a failed escape, he actually died after contracting peritonitis, supposedly after being hit in the stomach by a student before he had to time to prepare himself. He died several days later, on Halloween 1926, at the age of 52.