WHO WAS HOUDINI'S FATHER? THE DUEL

Our previous posts have been leading up to perhaps the most bizarre episode in the life-story of Houdini’s father: the duel.  

The family’s version is consistent, if sketchy. It answers the question, “Why would M.S. Weiss, Ph. D., L.L.D., Harry’s father, suddenly feel forced to give up a lifetime job, a nice apartment in a good neighborhood, and, at 53 years old, set out for parts unknown?”

Harry only commented indirectly on this story. But according to Harry’s family Dr. Weiss fled Budapest to escape blood revenge. He had killed a man. That man, they say, was a royal prince.

Here’s the way Bess Houdini told it to biographer Harold Kellock:

“Dr. Weiss and his wife both came of cultured and prosperous Jewish families…. [They] were destined to settle down to a distinguished and comfortable life in Budapest. Four children were born. Then came sudden tragedy and exile. The actual events are a bit obscure…. It seems clear however, that a duel was fought between Dr. Weiss and a man of distinguished name, a gentile, trained to the use of arms. It is also clear that the slender Jewish scholar left the field unwounded, while his opponent was carried off to die. It is also apparent that in the encounter Dr. Weiss was defending the good name of his race against bitter slander…. The Weiss family left the country alone and without resources.”

Theo Hardeen, Harry’s brother, added some intriguing details in an unpublished manuscript:  he said the nobleman was a prince and that his name was Ehrich. He says his father fled first to London, then to New York, then to Appleton, Wisconsin. And he added something very strange:  “[Houdini] was named Ehrich Prach after Prince Ehrich.” We'll try to explain this important statement in a future post, after all our ducks are in a row. It's the key to Houdini's whole psychology, in our view.

The late Manny Weltman, the trailblazing researcher into Harry’s origins, debunked this tale, setting the tone for all subsequent treatment of it:

“One legend has it that Rabbi Weisz got into a duel with a Hungarian nobleman over an aspersion the nobleman cast on the Jews. It seems unlikely, however, that Weisz would have had the weapons or would have come into sufficient contact with nobility for this to have occurred….”

Following Weltman’s lead, a typical reaction was that of Ruth Brandon, normally a competent biographer, who sniffed and railed:  

“A likely story! The notion that any nobleman of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, let alone a prince, would sully his sword by duelling with a lowly Jew is only slightly less implausible than that (as Weiss family legend had it) a timid student of the Torah might react to an insult by challenging the prince and then killing him. Even less likely is it that the victorious rabbi would in his triumph, go on to name his newborn son after his victim.” (From Brandon's The Life & Many Deaths of Harry Houdini.)

As we noted in earlier posts, the newest, most comprehensive Houdini biographies do not even mention the dueling story at all.

Be all that as it may….

Our research has discovered that virtually every supposition in the Weltman/Brandon "conventional wisdom" version of the duel story is dead wrong! And the Bess/Hardeen version -- though a bit mangled -- holds water!

First, as to the likelihood of "lowly Jews" coming into contact with princes. Aside from the crude stereotyping, this shows  complete lack of knowledge of the history of Budapest after 1848. Consider this extract from The Journal of Modern History, in a 1972 article by Prof. W. O. McCagg, Jr.:

"That 346 Jewish families obtained nobility in nineteenth century and early twentieth-century Hungary provides an explanation of a most important anomaly of that epoch of Hungarian history."

That's right. There was an important Jewish nobility in Budapest at the time of Houdini's birth. Wealthy and often titled Jews provided the balance of power in a political struggle between the anti-Semitic Habsburg monarchy (which contained several princes and other nobles named Erich, Ehrich and Erik) and a powerful pro-Jewish Hungarian aristocracy (which contained a significant number of Jewish Barons).

An old engraving showing an ancient Prince Erich

A record of Baron Manfred Weiss's title of nobility

Now for two striking facts completely ignored by Houdini biographers: the wealthiest man in Budapest at this time was a Jew who originally hailed from the shores of Lake Balaton, like Houdini's father. His name was Weiss!  

Manfred Weiss started out a commoner (we're not even sure who his parents were) but he ended up a Baron. 

(Note:  It's also spelled Weisz. In German there's no difference between "Weiss" and "Weisz."  The "sz" is an alternate way of writing double-s.  For details, google "scharfes s.")

The Weiss family's canning factory on Csepel Island, Budapest

Here's a partial list of various branches of the Weiss family who were granted titles of nobility:  

Weiss de Vértes
Weiss de Csepel
Weiss de Szurda
Weiss de Polna
Weiss de Ulog
Weiss-Oláh de Oláh
Weissenegg
Weiser
Weisspracher de Kabold
Weisspriach
Weisz de Dercsény et Balazsér
Weisz de Borostyánki
Weisz de Hortensteinbáró
Weiszengel
Weiszmáhr de Kocs
Weith de Weith
Weize

(From  List of Historical Surnames of the Hungarian Nobility / nobilitashungariae. A magyar történelmi nemesség családneveinek listája Ed./Szerk. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek.) 

How closely was Harry's father related to these ennobled branches of the Weiss family? The name is very common, so it's hard to judge. But all Weisses and Weiszes appear to be at least distantly related. Manfred Weiss's family tree makes many references to relatives on and around Lake Balaton. There's even a "Weiss County" between Lake Balaton and Budapest!   (The name means "White" in English; it's "Fejer" in Magyar, the Hungarian language. Thanks to Botond Kelle in Budapest for research assistance):

We've shown in our previous posts that M.S. Weiss was a cultured gentleman, highly educated and relatively prosperous. As one of our well-informed readers notes in the comments below, there are suggestions of royal connections in family lore. We amplify all this  next time, when we learn that, far from the "timid rabbi" portrayed by ignorant biographers, Dr. Weiss was probably a skilled swordsman, as were so many of the hundreds of Jewish duelists in old Budapest.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: BUDAPEST'S JEWISH MASTER SWORDSMEN!

LATER: HOUDINI'S FATHER'S CONNECTIONS TO ROYALTY