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Erik Weisz was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. When he came to
the United States with his family, immigration officials changed his
name to Ehrich Weiss. His family often called him by a nickname,
Ehrie (rhymes with Harry), derived from his first name. Despite
being from Hungary, Ehrich claimed Appleton, Wis., as his hometown.
Most people have heard of Ehrich Weiss as a world-famous
performer, but only by his stage name. In fact, Funk & Wagnall's
dictionary even listed his stage name as a verb. Very little is
known about his invention, which was a diving suit that he patented
in 1921, because it never achieved much commercial success.
He made his debut as a magician at age 9 in a local circus, where
he billed himself as "Ehrich, The Prince of the Air." He performed
with his four brothers early in his career. He continued to work
with one of his brothers, Theo, until he got married; then he
replaced him with his new bride, Bess.
Around 1900, vaudeville was the top form of entertainment and
Ehrich was becoming a star, but not as a typical vaudeville
performer. Along the way, one of the people he knew on the
vaudeville circuit was Buster Keaton; it was Ehrich who gave Buster
his nickname. (Buster's real name was Joseph Keaton.)
Around the turn of the century, the place to be in the
entertainment industry was in Europe, not America. So in 1900, he
and wife Bess left for Europe and spent the next five years there.
One of Ehrich's many great tricks was making an elephant
disappear on stage. He later began to perform many of his tricks in
full view of the audience, unlike other performers.
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In 1910, he became the first person to fly over Australia. But it
wasn't his aviation skills for which he is remembered.
His experience with magic enabled him to expose many of the
fraudulent "spiritualists" and so-called psychics who tried to
convince their audiences that they could communicate with the dead.
He was friends with the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, until he exposed a friend of Doyle's (Boston's famed Mina
Crandon, aka Margery) as a fraud.
His career, which later included a number of movies in which he
starred, lasted for nearly 30 years. He died on Halloween in 1926 at
age 52, and his widow tried unsuccessfully to contact him every
Halloween for the next 10 years through the seances that she
conducted.
The diver's suit that Ehrich Weiss invented was meant to allow a
deep-sea diver to remove the suit by himself if he was in danger.
Since the clever Weiss could escape from just about any type of
device, whether he was submerged in water, locked in handcuffs or
dangling in midair from a building, he probably never needed to use
the diver's suit himself. Why not? Because his stage name was… Harry
Houdini.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com. You can see what Houdini's invention looked
like by visiting the official Invention Mysteries
website.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2005
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