Characteristics Of Harry Houdini And David Copperfield

Superior Essays
Register to read the introduction… His father was Hyman Kotkin and his mother was Rebecca Kotkin. Unlike Harry Houdini, David Copperfield was an only child. Like Houdini, David Copperfield started doing magic at a young age; only he started when he was about twelve years old. About four years after he started doing magic, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University. Copperfield was engaged to Claudia Schiffer for about six years, but unlike Houdini he has not gotten married, he broke it off with Claudia a short time before they were going to have the …show more content…
Houdini has escaped from handcuffs, while on stage and submerged under water. He has also escaped from being in locked chests and creates, being chained or tied up. What’s more he also has escaped from giant milk cans filled with water and then padlocked. Lastly he was able to escape from strait jackets. David Copperfield is known as one of the greatest illusionists to walk this earth. Copperfield’s most famous trick was when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of a live audience. He has also walked through the Great Wall of China and levitated over the Grand Canyon. A couple more of his tricks include flying without wires, transportation of him and a guest from on an elevated platform on stage to somewhere else like Hawaii, and cutting his assistant or himself into two or more parts and starts walking. Harry Houdini made more than $2,000 per week in Europe in 1900. In today’s dollar, adjusted for inflation, it would be approximately $2.7 million dollars. Houdini decided to stop doing magic from 1916 to 1923 to get into the movie business. Houdini was not very successful with that career. Houdini was not given any special awards or any honorable titles. Houdini had performed in Europe and Asia, the United Stated of America and …show more content…
Scranton's Houdini Tour, Museum & Magic Show. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. http://houdini.org/houdinimagic.html King, Robert R. "Untitled Document." Houdini | Harry Houdini. Houdini Tribute. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.houdinitribute.com/biography.html>. Sahlman, Rachel. "SPECTRUM Biographies - Harry Houdini." IncWell. SPECTRUM Home & School Magazine. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Houdini.html>. Sevilla, Julio. “David Copperfield (Illusionist) – Biography | All About Magicians.com. “Magicians: Who’s Who In The World Of Magic | Magician Biographies. 2011. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. <http://www.all-about- magicians.com/davidcopperfield.html>. "Top 10 Greatest Modern Magic Tricks." Top 10 Lists - Listverse. WordPress.com VIP, Hutt Property, and House Painters, 17 Apr. 2010. Web. 04 Oct. 2011.

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Al Capone Al Capone was a crime boss and his success flourished in the 1920s. He owned towns, and almost owned the nation. Throughout the years, he has been a subject of many art forms such as movies and books. Even though he was responsible for many violent murders, Capone was still a celebrity during the 1920s. Capone caused the people that knew him to shrink in fear, while still making America awe at him.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All great Wizards started as a student, as did Harry Potter. He started his journey clueless about the wizard world, but now he is known as a great wizard in fact a hero, but Harry Potter reached the point of becoming a hero by going through the 5 stages of a hero’s journey; departure, Initiation, the road of trials, the innermost cave, and finally the return and reintegration with society. Specifically, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the hero, Harry Potter follows these essential steps to become a hero. Harry, like most other heroes had an unusual upbringing.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mara Leveritt writes a fascinating tale of the American justice system gone terribly wrong in her book Devil’s Knot. On May 5, 1993, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steven Branch went missing from their homes in West Memphis, Arkansas. Subsequently, their bodies were recovered in a body of water by their homes with signs that they had been ferociously beaten and murdered. The evidence showed that Christopher Byers had been castrated before he was killed. Quickly, the town found out about the boys and the way they had been treated before they were murdered.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Color Guard

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    While performing a show you have to know what work comes next, exactly what plane your fingertips should be on and how much effort is put into each toss. This memory skill transfers to almost every subject, from math formulas to history dates. The amount of time you spend on a field results in having eminence concentration to do one thing for a long period of time. During one second of a show you have to be focused on multiple things at once, the angle of your chin, the bend in your elbows, and all the way through the tips of your toes. It takes intense and ultimate concentration and determination.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harriet Tubman Dbq

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Harriet Tubman was born a slave and grew up working as a servant on the plantation. She escaped from the South to the North with thousands of other slaves using the Underground Tunnel, a network of secret routes and safe houses used by southern slaves in efforts to escape to free states. Tubman became a conductor who assisted the slaves to escape from the south using the tunnel. She made 19 trips into slave-owning states of the South, rescuing some 300 men, women, and children just before the Civil War. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney in Document E states, “Altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Shaara, Michael. "Chamberlain." The Killer Angel. New York: Ballantine, 1987. 172.…

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    John Gotti Research Paper

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Born on October 27, 1940, in the South Bronx, New York, John Gotti would face run-ins with the law several times, including a four-year prison term for manslaughter, before becoming head of the Gambino crime family. Nicknamed "Teflon Don" for his ability to remain free, Gotti was eventually convicted on multiple criminal counts and sentenced to life in prison. He died on June 10, 2002. (1940-2002)…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    We all wish we could disappear at times. When life throws a curveball, we wish we could fall off the face of the earth, to avoid all of life's confrontations. But since our youth, we are told to be careful of what we wish for. We never know when our facetious comments, are going to become reality. An incident occured to politician named James Hoffa, who in simple terms just disappeared.…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    ergeant Alvin York, an American war hero, receives the Medal of Honor. York was born December 13, 1887 in Pall, Tennessee, third oldest child out of 11. He spent a total of nine-months at a Scription School during his childhood. Then, at a very young age he became a competent marksman. Around in his early twenties he became a day laborer at a railroad near him.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hh Holmes Essay Outline

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages

    H.H. Holmes In the United states there are an estimated 16,212 murders per year. This comes out to near 44 murders per day, ("Deaths and Mortality.") sounds pretty bad huh? Though serial killer 's victim only account for an average of 1% of these murders, that still adds up to around 160 killings in the U.S. alone.(Scott Bonn) I have personally researched one serial killer in particular, one known as the notorious H. H. Holmes. You will, by the end of this, know more about the mind behind the murder than any would need know.…

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Most Infamous Cases of the FBI The Federal Bureau of investigation was formed in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during president Roosevelt’s presidency. The duties and responsibilities of the FBI were originally ill-defined. The FBI started out with fewer than 60 agents. When the FBI was first established, there were few federal crimes (Schlesinger 19 and 20). Now, the FBI has many very important cases, including cases involving terrorism, Espionage, public corruption, civil rights, organized crime, and white collar crimes.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prohibition was the act that prohibited the manufacture, transportation and selling of alcohol, played a major role in the Roaring Twenties. It provided a great deal of opportunities to criminals for a lifetime of organized crimes such as running speakeasies and transporting alcohol. People often used religion and medicine as an excuse to drink, legally that is. Capone was one of many who took the 18th amendment to his advantage. Although it was ratified by the end of the year, it made a large impact on society.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    John Gotti Biography

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Gotti Net Worth Introduction Powerful Italian-American gangster John Gotti is also famous as the head of Gambino Crime Family of New York. Also famous as Teflon Don, John Gotti had a net worth of around $10 million at the time of his death. Biography & Wiki John Gotti was born on 27th October 1940 in South Bronx, New York. His father’s name was J. Joseph Gotti and his mother was Fannie who were Italian immigrants. His father works as a day labor and finds it pretty hard to run a family of 13 children.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maryam Poonawalla Sadia Warraich Essay The Odyssey Every hero is composed of exclusive characteristics that defines them in a unique way. In today’s society heroes are often described by their significant character traits such as; courage,loyalty and great strength. In the epic poem, The Odyssey the main character Odysseus fulfills all these characteristics by defeating his enemies with the help of his crew.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Heroes have never been a shortcoming in stories. This includes the Babylonian Myth The Epic of Gilgamesh. However, the type of heroes in modern day culture compared to the one in 1200 BCE are a tad different. When comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh to The Dark Knight version of Batman, the story lines share a lot of similarities. Even with three centuries between the time the tales were told, the themes are parallel.…

    • 1625 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays