100 Years of Houdini's Mystery

The year 1926 yielded many headlines and noteworthy events, but a particularly grim surprise arrived on Halloween, October 31, 1926: World-famous magician, entertainer, and escape artist Harry Houdini was dead. To many of Houdini’s fans, his death simply made no sense. How could a man who spent his career escaping death finally succumb to it? For the decade that followed, his widow, Bess Houdini, held an annual séance on the rooftop of the famed Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood to contact his spirit, but he never materialized.

Houdini was called a magician and escape artist, but he didn’t believe in magic. In fact, he told fans that every one of his performances could be explained with facts. Houdini did not believe in the occult or spiritualism. He called out mediums and spiritualists as fakes. Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publicly disagreed about seances and the existence of a spirit world. On February 7th of 1925, the Los Angeles Daily News wrote that Houdini was to sue the author for slander after Doyle called him "a menace to mankind." 

A century after his death, Harry Houdini's legend lives on. Countless books have been written about his life and career, and many of them are children's books. His story is a classic American one—Houdini was an immigrant who overcame poverty and hardship. He established a dazzling and unrivaled career as a magician, but was always a seeker of truth. The stories of his life and adventures are tailor-made to engage readers, young and old. Explore Houdini’s life and exploits through books and articles in our electronic newspaper archives at the Los Angeles Public Library.