THE GREAT HOUDINI

THE GREAT HOUDINI

Chapter One Every summer, the circus came to Appleton, Wisconsin. Nine-year-old Ehrich Weiss loved the acrobats and the magicians. He wanted to be a performer. “ I will call myself ‘The Prince of the Air, " he told his brother Theo. Ehrich made a trapeze out of a broomstick and two ropes. His mother sewed him a costume. He looked like a real acrobat. Soon he was ready for his first performance!

The neighborhood kids gathered to see the show. Ehrich and Theo had made a stage. An old sheet was used as a curtain. Ehrich ran out from behind the curtain. He grabbed the trapeze and began to swing back and forth. He stood on his hands. He hung by his knees. Then it was time for his best trick. Theo stuck needles in the ground. Ehrich swung over the needles. He picked up every single one--with his eyelids!

Ehrich Weiss was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. Soon after, the whole family moved to America. His father was a rabbi. He didn't make enough money to feed his large family. Ehrich and his brothers did odd jobs to earn money. Ehrich ran errands, sold newspapers, and shined shoes.