What caused Harry Houdini’s mysterious death? (PBS) Harry Houdini For 10 Years Tried the Spirit World (The New York Times) The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero (William Kalush and Larry Sloman) “Ten years is long enough to wait for any man,” she told Houdini fans. Dutifully following his instructions, she’d host a séance every Halloween, desperately trying to summon the ghost of Houdini.īut after 10 years with no appearance from her dead husband, she gave up the act. According to legend, Harry’s dying words asked his wife to look for visitations from his ghost. She opened a tea parlor in New York and began performing illusions of her own.

In 1908, she retired from the stage to manage his career (and their menagerie of parrots and other animals).īut when Harry died in 1926, Bess returned to the magical life. Their most famous performance, “Metamorphosis,” was a hit with audiences - Houdini cloaked Bess in fabric and magically changed her costume onstage. When Harry transitioned his act from illusions to escapes, Bess and their other assistant, Dorothy, would arrange the handcuffs, ropes and other accessories needed to pull off the tricks. They traveled the country together with Harry creating daring stage feats and Bess assisting him as both dancer and stagehand. The two started their own act in 1894, the same year they got married. She performed in her dancing act, The Floral Sisters, and the soon-to-be-legendary magician caught her eye. Bess Rahner first met her future husband at Coney Island when she was just 18 years old.

Mrs houdini