Los Angeles ? When the magician and escape artist Harry Houdini died 80 years ago, he was as famous as screen stars Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin.

For most of 20 years, Houdini had been repeatedly in the nation’s headlines with seemingly miraculous escapes from being shackled to confined in a box to immersed in water. He also astonished theater audiences by walking through walls and making an elephant disappear.

The 80th anniversary of his death on Oct. 31, 1926, was marked this year with the publication of the biography “The Secret Life of Harry Houdini, The Making of America’s First Superhero,” by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.

Ever the illusionist, Houdini maintained in his professional years that he had been born in Appleton, Wis., on April 6, 1874. In reality, he had been born March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary, and was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

William Kalush, himself a magician, said that he and Sloman, an author, devoted an intensive two and a half years to researching and writing the book. They were able to find “circumstantial evidence” that Houdini had spied for the United States and England in the early 20th century.

Spiritualistic beginnings

Houdini, whose father had a first cousin who was a famous magician in Europe, started early in magic. He realized that his name – Erik Weisz at birth, changed to Ehrich Weiss by U.S. immigration – lacked theatricality. He became Harry Houdini, the last name in honor of Robert Houdin, the pioneering French magician.

“At first Houdini had success as a fraudulent spiritualist,” Kalush said. “But he realized that he wasn’t honoring his oath to his (deceased) father. He was taking care of his mother with his money, but he didn’t feel right. He gave up spiritualism; he’d rather fail than take this so-called dirty money.”

While traveling with a circus, Houdini discovered a surefire way to attract publicity in the cities where he appeared. He would visit a police station and offer to escape from any handcuffs they could provide. He disappeared in an enclosure and emerged a few minutes later without cuffs. “Amazes the Detectives,” headlined a Chicago newspaper.

Houdini also knew that the emerging film medium was powerful. His first film was a short made in France in 1902. He often photographed his stunts, but not until 1916 did he start writing movie scripts. Between 1919 and 1923, Houdini appeared in and sometimes produced seven features and serials with such titles as “The Master Mystery” and “The Man From Beyond.”

“The films did extend his fame,” said Kalush, “but by the time his first film was released, his fame transcended being a normal, formal entertainer in the culture.”

Shrouded in mystery

Houdini was a commanding figure with piercing eyes, full lips and shock of black hair. It was only natural that women would fall for him. “He had what women wanted: He had power, and he didn’t have to go by the rules of everybody else,” Kalush said. “He was an attractive man.”

He also had a “strange relationship” with his wife, Bess. They married young, and Bess became not only his wife but his partner, assisting him onstage and being the foil in his stunts. As his success grew, he often was gone on long tours that provided opportunity for affairs.

It seemed only natural that Houdini’s death in 1926 would become shrouded in mystery. To this day Houdini enthusiasts are at odds over what killed him.

While in Montreal for appearances, a mysterious young man punched him in the abdomen with four or five powerful blows. Houdini, who prided himself with being able to withstand such blows, was unprepared and suffered great pain.

A few days later, he was reading a newspaper in the lobby of his Detroit Hotel when three muscular young men approached. One of them delivered a savage blow through the paper to Houdini’s belly.

Houdini was hospitalized against his will, and after two abdominal operations, he died on Halloween 1926.