Updated October 25, 2026, 12:15 p.m. ET
“Death Brings Down the Curtain on Houdini,” ran the headline in the Detroit Free Press on November 1, 1926, following the death of the famous magician and escape artist at Detroit’s Grace Hospital the day before – Halloween.
Detroit Free Press Archives – Newspapers.com
“Houdini Near Death as Doctors Operate” was the headline in the Detroit Free Press on October 26, 1926. Houdini had arrived in Detroit from Montreal seriously ill and was hospitalized after his first performance of a Detroit engagement at the Garrick Theater.
Detroit Free Press Archives – Newspapers.com
Harry Houdini, left, and Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas at a congressional hearing in 1926.
National Photography Society
Legendary illusionist Harry Houdini, the “King of Handcuffs,” stars in “Haldane of the Secret Service” (1923), a silent adventure film.
Courtesy
Harry Houdini and his niece Marie Hinson photographed in 1921.
Photo provided
An undated portrait of Harry Houdini, circa 1920, by an unknown photographer.
Provided by the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution
Harry Houdini stars in “The Grim Game.” The film was released in 1919 and for years was considered lost. It was found in 2015 and restored.
Courtesy of Weyauwega International Film Festival
Circa 1919: Harry Houdini stars in “The Grim Game.”
Fighting the Irish Wire
Harry Houdini kneels in front of a pile of handcuffs in an unknown year.
File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Hanging by his ankles from the ledge of a building, the king of escape removes his straitjacket while the crowd below cheers him on in an unknown year.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files, USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
1918: Harry Houdini in Detroit.
Detroit Free Press
Surrounded by onlookers and assistants on the edge of a barge, Harry Houdini entered a wooden crate which was then lowered into New York harbor and from which he escaped on July 7, 1912.
Provided by Carl Dietz/Library of Congress
An advertisement for an upcoming appearance by Harry Houdini at the Temple Theater appeared in the Detroit Free Press in October 1911.
Detroit Free Press Archives – Newspapers.com
1908: Harry Houdini kissing his mother, Cecilia Steiner Weiss, in Rochester.
Democrat and Rochester Chronicle
Cecelia Weiss, left, along with her son Harry Houdini and daughter-in-law Beatrice “Bess” Houdini are shown in a 1905 photograph.
File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini is described as a “Wonder Worker” in a November 25, 1906 Detroit Free Press article.
Detroit Free Press via Newspapers.com
Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini is pictured at age 21 in 1895. Born Erik Weisz in 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, his family moved to Appleton in 1878. The family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss and Erik became Ehrich. Houdini took his stage name in 1890 after reading the autobiography of French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.
File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
1894: Harry and Beatrice Houdini in their first year of marriage.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files, USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Harry Houdini is one of the most famous people to ever call Appleton, Wisconsin home. He moved away when he was a child and only came back twice. During one of these visits he was interviewed by Edna Ferber.
File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Undated photo: One of Harry Houdini’s first escape routines.
Milwaukee Journal sentinel files
Undated photo: Harry Houdini poses with a large milk can, a prop used in one of his many escape routines.
Appleton Post-Crescent
Undated photo: Portrait of Harry Houdini.
Appleton Post-Crescent
At the time when he went by Erich Weiss, 3-year-old Harry Houdini posed with this brother, Theodore Weiss.
Photo courtesy of the Fond Du Lac Public Library
Harry Houdini’s death certificate, issued by the Michigan Department of Health following the magician and escape artist’s death in Detroit on October 31, 1926, lists his cause of death as “diffuse (streptococcal) peritonitis” and “ruptured appendicitis.”
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Harry Houdini is listed as the headliner in an advertisement for a Temple Theater vaudeville show in the Detroit Evening Times of March 7, 1908.
Journals.com
A 1905 portrait of Harry Houdini, “The King of Handcuffs.”
Library of Congress
The interior of Detroit’s Temple Theater is shown in this photo glass negative from circa 1904. Harry Houdini played many engagements at the theater over the years, receiving a specially designed and engraved love cup from the theater owners for “breaking all attendance records” in March 1908.
Detroit Publishing Co. Collection – Library of Congress
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