Theatre & dance / Film & TV
Harry Houdini
1874–1926
· illusionist, escape artist, stage and film performer
Budapest-born escape artist who played Detroit's vaudeville houses for decades, leapt handcuffed off the Belle Isle Bridge in 1906 and died in the city on Halloween 1926.
- Born
Budapest, Hungary- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 52- Birth name
- Erik Weisz
- Also known as
- The Handcuff King · Weisz Erik
- Detroit years
- 1890s–1926 (tour stops)
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Film & TV
Houdini 100 · 1926–2026
He died in Detroit, 100 years ago
Sunday, October 31, 1926, 1:26 p.m., Grace Hospital, Detroit. It was Halloween. A week earlier he was still on stage at the Garrick Theatre.
Halloween 2026 marked 100 years since his death.
times he played Detroit between 1894 and 1926
Detroit Historical Society ↗fever (40 °C) at his last show, Garrick Theatre, October 24, 1926
Michiganology (Archives of Michigan) ↗the Grace Hospital room where he died, according to Wayne State’s Reuther Library
Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University ↗Sunday, October 31, 1926: the minute he died, aged 52
Michiganology (Archives of Michigan) ↗The last eight days, and what came before
The Belle Isle Bridge jump
Handcuffed, Houdini leaps from the draw span of the Belle Isle Bridge into the Detroit River and frees himself underwater, The Detroit News reported that day. His later tale of a frozen river and a desperate search for the hole in the ice doesn’t match the reports: the river wasn’t frozen.
Michiganology (Archives of Michigan) ↗Montreal: the punches
In his dressing room at the Princess Theatre, a visitor, J. Gordon Whitehead, strikes Houdini’s abdomen several times. He plays the rest of the evening in pain and spends the next two days in constant pain without seeing a doctor.
Wikipedia ↗Detroit: the last show
He arrives by train and opens at the Garrick Theatre on Griswold Street with a fever of 104 °F. He collapses after the first act, goes back on and finishes the show, then collapses again. It is his last performance.
Michiganology (Archives of Michigan) ↗Grace Hospital
The next day he is taken to Grace Hospital at Willis and John R. Surgeons find a gangrenous appendix and peritonitis. They remove the appendix, but the infection has already spread.
Historic Detroit ↗Halloween, 1:26 p.m.
Houdini dies in room 401 of Grace Hospital, aged 52, after about a week in the hospital. The cause is peritonitis. It is Sunday, October 31, 1926.
Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University ↗New York: the funeral
His body leaves Detroit in the bronze casket he had built for a stunt. More than 2,000 mourners attend the funeral in New York, and he is buried at Machpelah Cemetery in Queens.
Wikipedia ↗100 years later
The Detroit Historical Museum marks the night with Houdini 100: Magic & Mystery, with escapes, sideshow acts and the talk Detroit Was Wild About Harry.
Detroit Historical Society ↗
Where it happened: the places today
Houdini 100: centenary events
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Radatz Magic at The Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton
The Village Theater at Cherry Hill · Canton
A Houdini centenary family show: the finale recreates Houdini’s upside-down straitjacket escape. Tickets $20–30.
Already happened
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100th Anniversary Houdini Seance
American Museum of Magic · Marshall · Tickets on the museum’s own shop
A Halloween séance for the centenary at the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, west of Detroit along I-94. Check the ticket page before you drive out.
Already happened
-
Houdini 100: Magic & Mystery
Detroit Historical Museum · Detroit · 21+ only · $125, members $100
The museum’s centenary night on the Streets of Old Detroit: food and drinks, carnival games, close-up magic and contortion all evening. From 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. in the Gallery of Culture: Detroit Was Wild About Harry with historian Brendan Roney, The Art of the Astonishing with Nathan “McScary” Wakefield (sword swallowing included), and The Impossible Returns, escapes and mentalism with Anthony Grupido. Everyone takes home a deck of Houdini playing cards.
Already happened
Sources for this section
- Michiganology (Archives of Michigan): Houdini in Detroit ↗
- Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University: History of Grace Hospital ↗
- Historic Detroit: Garrick Theatre ↗
- Detroit Historical Society: Houdini 100 ↗
- Wikipedia: Harry Houdini ↗
- Motor City Muckraker: the Houdini funeral home ↗
Checked: October 16, 2026
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Detroit was a regular stop on Houdini's vaudeville route, most often B. F. Keith's Temple Theatre on Monroe Street. During a two-week run there in November 1906 he leapt, handcuffed and tied to a long lifeline, from the draw span of the Belle Isle Bridge into the Detroit River, slipped the cuffs underwater and swam to a waiting boat. His later tale of a frozen river and a desperate search for a hole in the ice is not supported by the newspaper reports of the day. As president of the Society of American Magicians he also recruited Detroit's magic club into the national body. On October 24, 1926, feverish from a ruptured appendix, he insisted on performing at the Garrick Theatre on Griswold Street while staying at the Hotel Statler. He was taken to Grace Hospital and died there of peritonitis on October 31. His body left for New York by train in the bronze casket he had built for his buried-alive stunt.
Highlights
- Born Weisz Erik in Budapest in 1874; grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, and New York
- Nov. 27, 1906: handcuffed leap from the Belle Isle Bridge into the Detroit River
- Gave his final performance at Detroit's Garrick Theatre on Oct. 24, 1926
- Died at Detroit's Grace Hospital on Halloween 1926, aged 52
- First person to fly a powered aircraft in Australia (1910)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 7
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1906 and other visits
Temple Theatre
Demolished · 1901–1930
Keith's vaudeville house, Houdini's most frequent Detroit stage; he was playing here during the 1906 bridge jump. The site is now part of One Campus Martius.
Related place · 1906
Belle Isle Bridge (1889–1915)
Demolished · 1889–1915
On Nov. 27, 1906 Houdini jumped handcuffed from the bridge's draw span into the Detroit River. That bridge burned in 1915; the MacArthur Bridge (1923) now crosses to Belle Isle here.
Performed here · 1926
Garrick Theatre
Demolished · 1887–1928
Scene of Houdini's last performance on Oct. 24, 1926. The theater closed in 1928 and was razed in 1929; a later commercial building stands on the site.
Related place · 1926
Hotel Statler
Demolished · 1915–1975
The hotel on Grand Circus Park where Houdini stayed during his final Detroit engagement. Demolished in 2005.
Related place · 1926
Grace Hospital
Demolished · 1888–1979
Houdini died here of peritonitis on Oct. 31, 1926. The building was demolished in 1979; the site is a parking lot.
Related place · 1926
W. R. Hamilton Co. Funeral Home
Closed
Houdini's body was embalmed here and placed in his bronze stunt casket. The funeral home closed; the vacant, deteriorating buildings at Cass and Alexandrine still stand.
Related place · 1926
Michigan Central Station
His casket left Detroit for New York by train from this station. The depot closed in 1988 and reopened in 2024 after Ford's restoration.