A State of Awe and Confusion
The wild and incredible Houdini made a successful career out of surviving the impossible, which only makes the scenario of his death all the more mysterious. After decades of death-defying tricks, the 52-year-old performed for a packed house in Detroit on October 24, 1926. But after the show, he was rushed to the hospital with an apparent case of appendicitis.
Photo by Famous Players / Lasky / Kobal / Shutterstock
He died a week later, on Halloween, leaving his admirers in a state of confusion and awe. His obituary in The New York Times left readers in shock at the sudden passing of a man “who so often had seemed to thousands to be cheating the very jaws of death.”