Harry Houdini Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (; born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904,
Peter Weiss Name of the Law, 1957), "Was machen wir jetzt?" (What Do We Do Now?, 1958). In 1959 he directed his only full length (experimental) film "Hägringen" "(The Disappeared"). In the early 1950s, Weiss had begun to write again, producing a number of prose works, some in German, others in Swedish. Most are short, intense, surrealist text which suggest the influence of Kafka (whose work Weiss would later adapt for the stage). The most important of these prose texts is "Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers" ("The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman", 1952). It is a nearly hermetic experimental