Magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit 100 years ago this Halloween

FOX 2 - If there was ever a time for Harry Houdini to reveal himself – it would be in Detroit on Halloween 2026 – 100 years since the figurative curtain fell on the master magician for the last time, at least on this earthly plane.

The backstory:

Harry Houdini died in Detroit on Oct. 31, 1926, at Grace Hospital from peritonitis, or infection, caused by a ruptured appendix. He died at 1:26 p.m. 

The 52-year-old completed a full performance lasting two and a half hours at the Garrick Theater on Oct. 24, but collapsed after the curtain fell. He would die one week later on Halloween. 

Houdini's last show in Detroit

Local perspective:

On October, 24, Houdini performed his "3 Shows In One" revue at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, located at 1120 Griswold, right at the intersection of Lafayette and Michigan Avenue.

The "Master Mystifyer" and expert in "Magic, illusions, escapes and fraud medium exposes" as his advertisements read, was severely ailing when he arrived in Detroit – and almost didn't make it to the stage, being severely ill.

The Garrick, which sat 1,400, opened in 1887 and was closed in 1928 as it struggled to compete with motion picture palaces (as they were known then). It was demolished one year later and replaced by the Cunningham Building.

Dig deeper:

According to the Wild About Harry (Houdini) website, he performed off his full evening and variety show. It included:

• The Whirlwind of Colors: Houdini would pull dry scarves and streamers out of a crystal bowl of colored water.
• The Radio 1950 Act: A futuristic stage illusion predicting what the then-new technology would look like in 30 years.
• The Flower Bush Illusion: A female assistant would vanish on stage, replaced by a flower bush. The assistant then appears in the back of the theater.
• Card Sleights and Crystal Casket: Close-up card sleight of hand and throwing of silver coins from across the room which would show up inside a clear, suspended glass box.
• The Chinese Water Torture Cell: Also known as his famous upside-down water escape. Houdini would be locked by his ankles and lowered upside down in a glass cabinet filled with water.

According to published accounts, the water escape was the most strenuous and it caused him to need help from assistants to stand.

Houdini dies in Detroit

The backstory:

As the story goes, Houdini was performing on Oct. 22 in Montreal when, after a show, he met with medical students from McGill University in his dressing room. He lectured at the school earlier in the week about his work to expose fake mediums and spiritualists. 

A student asked if he could take a belly punch, to which he replied in the affirmative, said PBS.org, which said he was hit before having the chance to tighten his stomach muscles and brace himself.  "The 'hammer-like' punches caused visible pain and Houdini stopped Whitehead in mid-blow on the third attempt to punch his gut," the story says.

Houdini's next stop was Detroit and after a 15-hour train ride, he arrived with a 104-degree fever and was diagnosed by a doctor of having acute appendicitis. He declined medical help, declaring, "I'll do this show if it's my last."

After the show, he was rushed to Grace Hospital where he had emergency surgery to remove his ruptured appendix, but his infection from peritonitis was severe. Incidentally, the hospital, at Willis and John R, merged with Harper Hospital in the 1970s, then joined Detroit Medical Center in the 1980s. The hospital building itself, was demolished in 1979. 

On Sunday, Oct. 31, he died at 1:26 p.m. suffering from sepsis, with the last words reportedly, "I'm tired of fighting."

Houdini and Belle Isle

Dig deeper:

His last trip to Detroit wasn't his first, however, having performed in the Motor City before. 

In late November 1906, Houdini was in town to perform for two weeks at the Temple Theater. And in an effort to promote the show, Houdini decided to jump from the Belle Isle Bridge, bound with restraints, said an article from Michigan History Magazine in 2000. 

According to Houdini, he leaped – handcuffed, chained and leg-ironed – into a small hole cut in the frozen river. He claimed he was swept away by the current and stayed alive by breathing the air bubbles between the ice and water until he found the hole.

The Detroit News reported on Nov. 27, 1906 that Houdini's feat – although done in frigid water – wasn't as death defying. It reported he actually was "tied by a lifeline 113 feet long, handcuffed … Houdini … leapt from the draw span of the Belle Isle Bridge at one o’clock this afternoon, freed himself while underwater, then swam to a waiting lifeboat, passed over the unlocked and open cuffs and clambered aboard."

Houdini Halloween seances

Meanwhile:

His death has taken on an element of supernatural mystique with seances and rituals held globally in his honor by the magic community and more. Ironically, Houdini always hated seances and worked to debunk them throughout his career.

The first 10 years after his death, his widow Bess hosted an official Houdini seance which was covered by the media across radio and newspapers, just in case he could pull off the ultimate escape act. 

Since then, loved ones and fans have tried to make contact with Houdini, who had promised Bess that whoever died first would contact the other from beyond the grave.

In 1936, the Los Angeles Knickerbocker Hotel held the final official seance – with Bess snuffing out a candle next to his photograph with the infamous quote: "Ten years is long enough to wait for any man."

Who was Harry Houdini?

Dig deeper:

Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in what was formerly Austria-Hungary with a father who was a Jewish rabbi, and came to the U.S. with his family when he was 4.

Houdini lived first in Appleton, and later in Milwaukee – mastering the art of self-promotion in street performance, while perfecting feats of the impossible including escaping from straitjackets, trunks and water-filled tanks. In many of his performances in his formative years, he performed outside newspaper offices in a ploy for publicity. 

According to family and published reports, he ran 10 miles a day, stayed in peak physical shape and was compulsive about fitness and perfecting his craft. 

Along the way, he elevated from card tricks and simple magic at the start, to illusions and escape challenges — which he did not create, but according to many, perfected. 

Harry Houdini is buried in Machpelah Cemetery in Glendale Queens, New York City. 

What they're saying:

"Houdini had made a career out of surviving the impossible, which only made the circumstances of his 1926 death all the more mysterious," wrote History.com in a biography.

His grave site has an elaborate large granite semicircle and bench with a bust of him along the crest of the Society of American Magicians, of which he was president when he died.

It has become a site of gawkers, pilgrimages and Halloween rituals. The cemetery is closed on Halloween, however.

In his book, From a Magician Among The Spirits, he wrote that "Magic is science unaccepted by scientists."

"What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes," he said.

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