With Houdini’s 152nd Birthday coming up on March 24th, thought I would share my issue of Magie, no. 12, December 1932 that provides early published evidence that Houdini was not born in American on April 6th, 1874, but in Hungary on March 24th, 1874.
Page 165:
Page 165 Translation (courtesy of Patrick Culliton):
Page 166:
Also of interest is page 167, where Ottokar Fisher writes:
Page 167 Translation (courtesy of google translate):
On the question: “Houdini’s Birthplace”
When I began reading Harold Kellock’s book Life-Story, published in 1928, I was extremely surprised to find that the city of Appleton, Wisconsin, was listed as Houdini’s birthplace. On the occasion of his guest performance at the Ronacher Theater in Vienna in March 1902, Houdini himself told me that he was born in Hungary and came to the United States with his father at the age of two. I also know that he traveled to Budapest during Easter week, on Good Friday, a day which there were no performances, to visit his relatives. For me therefore, there has always been no doubt that Houdini was a native, Hungarian, which I also expressed in my obituary, which appeared after his death in the artist magazine “Das Programm.” I personally find it incomprehensible what purpose Houdini’s successors are pursuing by claiming he was born in Appleton! Such a claim is, in my opinion, absolutely incorrect and hardly verifiable. This is all the more so since the president of the Association of Hungarian Amateur Magicians (M.A.M.E.), Dr. Vilmos Lenard, through his thorough research in the birth registers of the Budapest Jewish Community and through contact with Houdini’s relatives who still live in Budapest today has clearly and irrefutably established Budapest as Houdini’s true birthplace and is able to substantiate the accuracy of his research officially certified documents.
After waiting 5 months, a box arrived at the house, and to my surprise, it received a 9.8 grade, which far exceeded my expectations.
