Teller says each generation, from Houdini's to today's, has discovered that there's something elemental about the great magician. 'He is the perfect teen idol,' says Teller, one half of the comic-magic duo Penn and Teller.

There once was a man who could escape from anything … The answer to that question, at least in part, lies in the nature of Houdini's legend, which was so simple that kids are still passing it around the playground. After all, how many popular performers can you name from 1902? Yet more than 80 years after his death, Houdini is still referred to as the greatest magician who ever lived.Ī new exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York, called Houdini: Arts and Magic, looks at the visual legacy of Harry Houdini and how his fame managed to survive.

Harry Houdini was known for escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets and water tanks, but his greatest trick was escaping from the dustbin of history. Born Ehrich Weiss, Harry Houdini, a rabbi's son, emigrated from Budapest to Appleton, Wis., in 1878.Ĭourtesy of The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution

Houdini in water tank