Re-Noted: Harry Houdini's Secret Notes

"Mob waited for me + took me shoulder high..."

For his first trick, Houdini became an American. His birthplace was the most fundamental of his secrets.

The truth is that Houdini began life as Ehrich Weisz, the son of a Rabbi in Budapest. Fleeing antisemitism, the family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where Houdini’s father would become the town’s first Rabbi. But Rabbi Weiss (their name was changed at…