Harry Houdini a boarding house on East 79th Street. He was joined by the rest of the family once Rabbi Weiss found permanent housing. As a child, Ehrich Weiss took several jobs, making his public début as a 9-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air". He was also a champion cross country runner in his youth. When Weiss became a professional magician he began calling himself "Harry Houdini", after the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, after reading Robert-Houdin's autobiography in 1890. Weiss incorrectly believed that an "i" at the end of a name meant "like" in French. In
Louis R. Ehrich of business to found the Ehrich Galleries in New York City. Located on Fifth Avenue, the galleries originally specialized in Old Masters exclusively. Ehrich's judgement was purportedly esteemed by well-known art expert Bernard Berenson. He provided art to individuals such as Samuel Untermyer, Stanford White, and Archer M. Huntington. Paintings from the Ehrich Galleries were sometimes donated to or purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or became part of private collections. Ehrich Galleries remained open after Ehrich's death in 1911. Ownership passed to his sons, Harold and Walter Ehrich, who donated some of its holdings to the Yale University