I had always thought he had been hit in the stomach area and suffered appendicitis. In fact, I thought he had told folks that he had very strong abdomen muscles and a kid came up and took the chance to punch him…when he wasn’t ready. That burst his appendix and he died later from the injury.
Snopes now claims that is legend.
Are they wrong on this? Has anyone else heard that this is not the basic story?
If you’re interested in accounts of Houdini’s death, check out The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. In addition to being an excellent biography, it goes into several interesting (but entirely speculative) theories about his death.
[sub]Disclaimer: I was peripherally involved in the research for the book.[/sub]
I think it’s been well established that a punch to the stomach did not cause the appendicitis, or the the rupture. Houdini was a great showman and self-publicist, and many of the accounts of his life are difficult to establish as fact, because that’s what he wanted. As an example of his style: Early in his career he would travel to towns to put on a show and then issue a challenge to the local police dept. saying he could break out of their jail or any of their handcuffs. When the police agreed to the challenge he would issue a press release stating that he accepted* their *challenge. The Snopes article seems to reflect the current opinion on this subject from those who studied it.
I’ve seem other conflicting accounts about Houdini as well. His ability to regurgitate lock picks is disputed, as well as how many of escapes required rigged equipment. None of this diminishes his reputation at all, quite the opposite since the greatest part of his reputation is his showmanship.
I don’t think there’s any question that he died of peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. The only question seems to be how the appendix ruptured, and it is as likely as any other explanation that it was the normal course of the infection that caused the rupture. He was evidently ignoring the pain, whether because he believed it was from a physical injury (the punch), or afraid of going to the hospital (how typically male) or just sheer macho, something he had no shortage of.
But the short answer to the OP is “peritonitis in the pre-antibiotic era.”
He died of being too awesome for this world.
From Wikipedia:
“Even the circumstances of his death in 1926 were dramatic and mysterious. According to one version, a student in Montréal asked him if his stomach was hard enough to take any blow, to which he replied that it was, whereupon the student rained a series of blows on it before Houdini had time to tense up. A few days later, he died of peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. This may have been unconnected, as he had already been suffering appendicitis and refusing to seek medical attention.”
And the section of that entry entitled Death ends:
**"Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 on October 31, aged 52. In his final days, he optimistically held to a strong belief that he would recover, but his last words before dying were reportedly, ‘I’m tired of fighting.’
“After taking statements from Price and Smilovitz, Houdini’s insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing-room incident and paid double indemnity.”**
so how many gut punches could you take?
I believe by most accounts today he had appendicitis before the day of the fabled punch. Imho, the part of that story I find hard to believe is some stranger in the crowd would be allowed backstage. Unless one of them was a relative or a worker or “knew someone,” I think it stretches reason that two kids would manage to not only sneak backstage but be allowed into the dressing room of a star of the caliber of Houdini.
First no one here has mentioned now is the 100th anniversary of his death. And there are new theories of how he died:
Houdini’s centennial spotlight: A newly published essay and a fresh fight over when and how he died
In “Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice,” author Larrian Gillespie draws upon medical records, his death certificate and other materials to challenge the official diagnosis and to contend that he actually died Oct. 30.
The real cause of death, she writes, was intestinal blockage, caused by a doctor’s fatal decision to allow Houdini to eat a bowl of vegetables and sour cream while he was recovering from surgery. She also cites conflicting records of his date of death: a doctor’s affidavit among other documents lists it as Oct. 30, while the state death certificate — which she found highly flawed — has him dying on the 31st.
Houdini’s inner circle wanted his death to be on Halloween “so he would always be remembered,” says Gillespie, a forensic medical researcher who has also written books on menopause, dieting and cystitis.
Gillespie’s theories are controversial among other historians.
Max Miller covered this in an episode of his outstanding YouTube series, Tasting History. (Seriously, check it out – he’s brilliant! The show is fascinating and Max has a cookbook out, too.)
According to Max’s account, the student did indeed punch Houdini in the stomach, several times in fact, but Houdini was lying down at the time, which is why he couldn’t brace himself against the blows. He felt ill for several days but refused urgings of his doctor and wife to go to a hospital. Eventually he did and was discovered to have peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. It has not been determined if the punching ruptured the appendix or not, but probably not.
Sour cream will do it to you every time.
There’s now a Tasting History board game Kickstarter. Max is involved.
It’s like the man had a death wish. Sour cream and vegetables? Ick. I’d sooner be placed upside down and straight-jacketed in a tank of water.
Welcome to Hungarian cuisine.
interesting that in the movie “Valentino” with Nureyev, he died the same way