DETROIT – There’s an urban legend that Harry Houdini died in Detroit on Halloween after performing at the Majestic Theater.
This isn‘t true. It‘s a myth. Don’t be ridiculous. The truth is that Harry Houdini died in Detroit on Halloween after performing his last show at the Garrick Theatre. Totally different.
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The Garrick Theatre was demolished a few years later, but it used to stand where the vacant First Independence Bank Building stands now, near the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street. The theater was in the center of what is still Detroit’s financial and retail district.
There’s another myth that Houdini died after getting sucker punched in the gut. This one is a bit harder to prove or disprove.
Harry Houdini was a Hungarian immigrant who became one of the most famous people in the world as an escape artist, stunt performer and magician. There aren’t many people you can call the Greatest of all Time in their given field of work, but Houdini was absolutely on that list.
Houdini’s final show was Oct. 24, 1926.
Act one: The Pledge
On Oct. 11, Houdini was performing in Albany, New York when a piece of faulty equipment struck his leg. He finished the show, but it turns out he fractured his ankle.
Against his doctor’s orders, he continued his tour. He visited Montreal on Oct. 22, where he spoke at McGill University. He invited some students to speak with him backstage and as he was still recovering from an ankle injury, he spoke with the students from a couch.
Act two: The Turn
One of the students allegedly asked Houdini if he could withstand punches to the gut, something he spoke publicly about. When he said it was true, the student reportedly punched the escape artist in the stomach repeatedly and forcibly.
Despite visibly being in pain, Houdini acted like it was fine. He began to have stomach cramps and his condition worsened the next day, when he boarded a train to Detroit.
Act three: The Prestige
He had cold sweats and a temperature that rose to 104 degrees. Doctors told him to go to a hospital, but he insisted on performing at the Garrick Theatre.
He had scheduled a doctor’s appointment before his show, but the train arrived late and he went straight to the theater from the train.
Houdini collapsed immediately after the curtain closed and was taken to a hospital for surgery. Doctors found his appendix ruptured several days earlier.
Houdini died on Halloween night at Grace Hospital. His official cause of death listed was peritonitis, an infection and inflammation of the abdomen, typically caused by a rupture. He was 52 years old.
It‘s unknown if the punches in Montreal caused his death, or if he didn’t know he had appendicitis and assumed the pain was from the punches.
What absolutely contributed to his death was an insistence to not see a doctor until he collapsed in Detroit after his final performance.
Did he die after getting punched? Yes. Did he die because he was punched? We don’t know.
