Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin Elephant", that every magician of the 20th century was "haunted" by Robert-Houdin, "…who cast an enormous shadow over their generation." American magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (born Ehrich Weiss) was so impressed by Robert-Houdin that, after reading his autobiography in 1890, Ehrich adopted the stage name of "Houdini" in honour of Robert-Houdin. He incorrectly believed that an "i" on the end of a name meant "like" in French; but Houdini, his own career and reputation established by that time, later lost his youthful respect for Robert-Houdin, believing that he took undue credit for other magicians' innovations, and wrote "The
Hans Ehrich where the son Hans was born in Helsinki in 1942. Due to the Finnish Continuation War the family fled to Sweden in 1944. Hans Ehrich is grown up and educated in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. His German higher school examination (Abitur) he passed in Italy, at the Scuola Germanica di Roma. In early sketches from his teens Ehrich showed that he already was a skilful drawer. He created a design sketch for the interior of an open car with ergonomically shaped seats, neck rests and separated back seats already at an age of 16 years. From 1962