Houdini learned how to hold his breath in the Milwaukee River

When journalist Joe Posnanski decided to write a book about the great magician and escape artist Harry Houdini he created a Google Alert to ping him when Houdini was mentioned somewhere.

That was three years ago and not a day, literally not a single day, has gone by without a mention of Houdini somewhere in the world, whether it's a dog escaping from a kennel or some sports and political reference.

"Here's a guy who was a star 100 years ago, and we still talk about him today. We still think about him today and that's pretty rare," Posnanski said in a recent phone interview. "When we talk about anybody who escapes we call them a 'Houdini.' That's fascinating to me."

Posnanski will speak about his recent book "The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini" at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Jewish Museum Milwaukee which opened a temporary exhibit on Houdini in September.

The difficulty for any Houdini biographer — and there have been many — is separating fact from fiction. Houdini was a master promoter and invented much of his life story. Though he was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, Houdini frequently claimed Appleton as his birthplace.

He moved to Appleton when he was 4 after his father was hired as a rabbi at Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. The family changed their name to Weiss and he changed his first name to Erich. He spent four very happy years in Appleton until his dad was fired and the family moved to Milwaukee in 1882 where his father was unable to find a good job.

To help his parents and siblings, Houdini dropped out of school to work, selling newspapers, shining shoes and getting delivery jobs. He was a delivery boy for the precursor to this newspaper, The Milwaukee Daily Journal, and claimed to have sold the first edition of the paper when it began publishing in 1882.

Whether that's true or not, no one knows because Houdini famously said of his years in Milwaukee "such hardship and hunger became our lot that the less said on the subject the better."

Since he didn't say much about his Milwaukee childhood, it was difficult for Posnanski to piece together his biography.

"Literally everything you hear about him may or may not be true. There's no possible way of knowing whether the story is true until you dig a little deeper, then dig deeper than that," said Posnanski, a former Sports Illustrated columnist who is now a senior writer for The Athletic and writes a blog, joeposnanski.com

"Because this was not a typical biography, I could use all those stories to tell a larger truth. The myths about Houdini are just as meaningful as the actual stories."

Jewish Museum Milwaukee's exhibit "Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini," which is open through Jan. 5, points out that Milwaukee was integral to the creation of Houdini because it was here that he became fascinated with magic and learned to hold his breath while swimming in the Milwaukee River.

His time in Milwaukee, from roughly ages 8 to 12, most likely led to the creation of the escape artist who claimed he could get out of any handcuff, straitjacket, chained box dumped into a river or locked glass cabinet filled with water.

"I think the rough years in Milwaukee were formative. They were incredibly poor and Harry had to drop out of school and find jobs to help the family. He was Erich Weiss then, a poor Jew who couldn't see his future," Posnanski said. "I think that's what created the ambition that drove Houdini."

Houdini ran away from home in Milwaukee at the age of 12 and returned two years later, before moving with his father to New York, which would be his home for the rest of his life. Initially, he called himself the King of Cards but was mostly a failure as a straight-up magician and considered giving up the profession, Posnanski said, until he concentrated on escape tricks.

What made Houdini a superstar was his astute understanding of what crowds wanted to see and his brilliance at promotion.

When he came to a town he'd ask how many tickets had been sold and if it wasn't a full house, Houdini would get into a straitjacket and hang over a bridge to draw a big audience anxious to see him wriggle out within minutes, or lock himself into a crate dumped into a river. 

He was suspended in a straitjacket from The Milwaukee Journal building in March 1916 and two days later gave a free matinee performance of his act for Milwaukee Journal newsboys.

Though his Milwaukee childhood was difficult, Houdini frequently returned to the city to perform between 1896 and 1923, escaping handcuffs at a police station, performing his milk can escape and lecturing at Marquette University.

Houdini died on Halloween 1926 from peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. While performing in Montreal a college student came to his dressing room, asked if it was true that Houdini could withstand punches to his stomach and then punched him several times. As the story goes, Houdini was not prepared for the blows and was in great pain but continued to perform for several nights.

Eventually, a high fever sent Houdini to a hospital in Detroit where he died. Though some claim Houdini was murdered, Posnanski suspects the escape artist was probably already suffering from appendicitis when he was punched. Houdini could have sought medical treatment in the days after the blows but refused because of his busy performance schedule.

When he began researching Houdini's life, Posnanski said, "I knew the basic story, but I did not appreciate just how hard he worked. How much he wanted to be remembered forever.

"That to me is his greatest trick — he's still remembered all these years later and his name is synonymous with escape," Posnanski said.

If you go: Joe Posnanski will talk about his recent book "The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini" at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 1360 N. Prospect Ave. The cost is $9 which includes admission to the museum and a complimentary Broken Wand Cocktail.