-1-

Young Houdini earned money by selling newspapers,
polishing shoes, chopping firewood, working as a
blacksmith's apprentice, and being a messenger boy.
One day when he was working at a blacksmith's
shop, he saw a young man being arrested for some
crime. The man tried to open his handcuffs with keys
that he had on his belt. While doing that he broke
one of the keys and could not get the handcuffs off.
That was what inspired Harry to become an escape artist.

-2-

The name Harry Houdini came when Ehrich told a
friend at a blacksmith's shop that he really liked
a famous magician named Robert Houdin but Ehrich
mispronounced Houdin. His friend replied, "You know
if you add an i to the end of Houdin it would be
Houdini!" Ehrich loved the name and decided to call
himself Houdini. Ehrich decided on Harry because of
the French nickname for him, Ehrie. Presto!
Harry Houdini was born!

-3-

Due to the vast amounts of imitators of his
Straight Jacket escape, in 1911, Houdini replaced
the Straight Jacket with hismost famous escape: The
Chinese Water Torture Cell. The original cell was
built in England, where Houdini first performed the
escape for an audience of one person as part of a
one-act play he called "Houdini Upside Down." This
was so he could copyright the effect and have
grounds to sue imitators (which he did).

WARNING
answers below

This Month's winners:

Brad@jester....
bheston@l...
jelicocrow@....

This was a really tuff one for most everyone because Houdini's life is documented so many different ways
in so many different places but there were a couple of Houdini experts out there that not only got it right but included why as well.
. #3 was mostly true except he did not replace the Straight jacket escape with water torture cell. The cell replaced
the Milk Can Escape that so many had copied. other than that it is true including the audience of one person!

Voting Results:

1 - 61%
2 - 26%
3 - 13%