Here is yet another poem I had to do for the same project. Please comment!


The Great Houdini
By ME!
Based on the biography "The Great Houdini"
By Beryl Williams and Samuel Epstein


Harry Houdini was widely known.
He did great tricks and escape acts.
People admired a lot that he did,
This certainly is a fact.

His birth name was Ehrich Weiss,
And he was just a regular kid.
But when he saw a magician the first time,
He started to do what that magician did.

He copied the Great Merlin's hobby,
And turned out to be great!
But in his small town of Appleton, Wisconsin,
He realized he had to wait.

His father, Rabbi Weiss,
Was a very poor man.
His mother was Cecelia Steiner,
Who did everything one can.

She took care of the Weiss brothers
And the one baby girl child.
Ehrich helped her out a lot,
Though he was one of the youngest, but less wild.

He tried tons of magic tricks,
But baby brother Theo could see they were bogus.
So he tried another thing
To get him into the circus.

He tried tightrope walking,
And broke bones and five teeth in the process.
He tried and tried
Until he had some success.

When Jack Heffler's circus came again
Ehrich was hired at the age of nine.
He called himself "Eric, Prince of the Air"
And performed on a high wire line.

When the circus was leaving,
He wanted to go.
Instead he listened to his parents
And decided to stay home.

He started to play around and take apart
All the mechanisms he had found.
He could figure out how things worked,
Which helped him out when he was bound.

He figured out how locks worked,
And soon he made a lock pick.
It was a thin wire bent to work for different locks.
It helped him escape handcuffs real quick.

His father took him to see Dr. Lynn perform magic.
The man impressed Ehrich so much
That he decided to do magic again,
And showed people how he could escape handcuffs.

Young Ehrich started to get bored of Appleton.
He left the town for the first time.
Performing in circuses and working small jobs
Got him money after he left his home behind.

His dad sent him a letter when he was thirteen
Saying he was alone in New York.
So to help raise money for his family to come,
Ehrich aided him with his work.

Finally his family came
And everyone was full of joy!
So he decided to stay this time
Because he was still a young boy.

He started to work on magic with his friend Jack.
Thay thought "Eric, the Great" was boring.
Jack named him after their idol magician,
And got "Houdini" from "Robert-Houdin."

Theo, Jack, and Jack's brother Joe
Started to assist Houdini,
Until he fell in love with Beatrice Rahner,
Then Bessie became his partner when they married.

The Houdini's were hired a couple of times,
And started their own show after they got tired.
It turned out very bad,
So they went back to being hired.

A detective wanted to embarrass him
And put broken handcuffs on his wrists.
But he got out of a jail cell easily,
So that incident was fixed.

Martin Beck of Orpheum Circuit
Got him a big time job.
When the circuit was over,
He wanted to be "imported talent," so he went to Europe.

They got one tryout, but before they started
The man told them they were done.
But when Houdini got out of some of the best handcuffs,
The Houdinis signed a contract for London.

Harry Houdini promised his father
To take care of his mother when he died.
When that day came, he kept his promise.
What he did may make you surprised.

Days after Queen Victoria died,
He had purchased her gown.
Harry gave it to his mom
When she came to town.

Work was getting busy in London.
People would always challenge him.
He accepted every bet,
And he would always win.

One of the challengers, Klepinni,
Was an escape artist from Germany.
He lied to that guy’s agent about his secrets.
Houdini can be pretty tricky.

In 1904 he went to America, but went back
After buying his family a New York house.
He did not like the American agents,
And neither did his spouse.

In 1905 America finally wanted him,
But his work in England had them wait.
When he came back in July,
The Americans thought he was great!

Many came for the horror
Of his dangerous escapes.
He always made it out alright,
But maybe with a few cuts and scrapes.

Cecelia had a stroke in 1913.
She died before Harry got to her.
The death had an impact on him,
And he decided to limit the danger.

He started doing more magic.
He could walk through brick walls.
He even made an elephant disappear,
Tail, trunk, ears, and all.

Houdini started studying spiritualism.
He made a brief lecture tour in 1924.
He exposed a lot of fake spiritualists.
At one time he even exposed four.

In October of 1926
Bessie got severe ptomaine poisoning.
And Houdini discovered he had a broken ankle
When he had felt a sharp pain.

He was feeling discomfort,
Though he did not want medical care.
Harry collapsed on stage at the end of an act,
But in the hospital with him, Bessie was still there.

He died on October 31, 1926,
And was buried near his mother.
Bessie died in 1943,
So near their bodies came another.