100 Years Since Houdini Died on Halloween

This October 31 marks 100 years since Harry Houdini died, on Halloween night, 1926.

Houdini's last week

On October 22, 1926, Houdini was resting in his dressing room at the Princess Theatre in Montreal when a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, asked whether it was true he could take any punch to the stomach. Before Houdini could brace himself, Whitehead struck him several times.

Houdini was in pain, but the show went on. He traveled to Detroit and on October 24 performed at the Garrick Theatre with a high fever, then collapsed after the show. At Grace Hospital, doctors found his appendix had burst. He died there on October 31, Halloween, at the age of 52. Doctors still argue over whether the punch caused it.

His wife, Bess, held a séance every Halloween for 10 years, waiting for a message in a code word only the 2 of them knew. In 1936, on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, she held the last one, put out the candle she had kept burning, and said goodnight to Harry. Fans still gather for a Houdini séance every Halloween.

The picture below comes from his wife. After he died, Bess put out this memorial with his portrait and his dates, April 6, 1874 to October 31 (Hallowe'en), 1926, under the line “Eyes of Memory Never Sleep.” She signed it simply Mrs. Harry Houdini.

Houdini spent his last years exposing fake mediums who claimed to reach the dead. Pictures like this one, a lantern slide of Houdini with the “ghost” of Abraham Lincoln, showed audiences how easily a spirit photograph could be faked.

The pictures in this post are in the Houdini and Hollywood and Ghosts, Magic & Spirit Shows collections.