HOUDINI’S CENTENNIAL GRAVE

ERIK Weisz (1874-1926) gained fame for his daring escapes from handcuffs, chains, straitjackets, locked water-filled tanks (such as the Chinese Water Torture Cell), and being buried alive, and became a well-known debunker of supernatural manifestations of ghosts and spirits during seances (he and I shared common beliefs in that category). Nevertheless, prior to his death at age 52 by peritonitis exacerbated by repeated blows to the stomach during one of his exhibitions, he made an agreement with his wife Bess that one would try to contact the other depending on who died first. Harry Houdini took his showbiz name when he began his career as a stage magician from French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.

Houdini’s exploits are well known and he has had several biographies written about him, and several movies including two major ones starring Tony Curtis and Paul-Michael Glaser. Houdini himself entered the film industry and appeared in several silents. He was also an enthusiastic flier in the early days of aviation.

Harry Houdini was interred in Machpelah Cemetery, a little known burial ground in Brooklyn/Queens’ Cemetery Belt, a grouping of 17 cemeteries, some Christian, some Jewish, some secular, which includes National Cemetery, a resting place for hundreds of soldiers in the American (and some Confederate) armed forces. His gravesite is a short distance from the cemetery entrance on Cypress Hills Street, a connecting road between Glendale and Woodhaven, Queens. Forgotten NY has conducted two tours in nearby Evergreens Cemetery.

The gilded crest of the Society of American Magicians was placed on his grave marker since 1926, and the Society held a “broken wand” ceremony here each year on Halloween, with today marking the 100th anniversary of his death (See Comments for the current date of the memorial). In 1927 a bust of his likeness was installed atop the center of the monument: plagued by vandals and grave robbers over the years, it has had to be continually replaced.

Bess (nee Wilhelmina) Houdini passed away at age 67 in 1943. However she is not interred here, as her Catholic family insisted her remains be interred in a Catholic cemetery, Gate of Heaven in Westchester County. When the plot in Machpelah was purchased, it was expected that Bess would be interred here and so, the years of her death are left blank on her memorial stone beneath the Houdini monument.

My interest in Houdini is primarily his association with the “Ghostly Gentleman,” the horror author H.P. Lovecraft, who was hired by Houdini to ghost write some magazine pieces. Houdini and Lovecraft were in accord in maintaining that spiritual manifestations are mere fiction, and hired him to write a book, “The Cancer of Superstition,” in which Houdini would have major input. The work was never published, though Lovecraft’s notes survive. Houdini’s short story, “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs,” was also ghost written by Lovecraft, and was written as a purported true account of his kidnapping by a tour guide and deposited in a cave beneath the Great Sphinx, where he encounters the monster that inspired that 7th Wonder.

Today, David Blaine carries on Houdini’s role as premier escapologist.

Photos: Marie Carter

Check out the ForgottenBook (HarperCollins, 2006), as well as Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013). I also have a chapter in the anthology “New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg” (Reaktion, 2007). As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site, which helps in site upkeep and also aids Greater Astoria Historical Society.

10/31/26