We’re standing in the back yard of Houdini’s childhood home in Appleton, Wisconsin. This statue, unveiled last week, is located on the spot where young Ehrich Weiss first began to practice slackwire-walking and other acrobatic stunts.
Right around the corner from Harry’s home at 114 S. Appleton Street - now called Houdini Plaza - there are still many buildings standing from Harry’s day, 1876 to 1883. We can easily see the town through his eyes if we just squint a little.
He would have rounded this corner onto College Avenue on his way to visit his father in the second floor rooms that served as Appleton’s first synagogue.
The building that says “Available” was once the dry goods store owned by the father of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Edna Ferber, whose charming interview with Harry we republished last week.
He would have rounded this corner onto College Avenue on his way to visit his father in the second floor rooms that served as Appleton’s first synagogue.
The building that says “Available” was once the dry goods store owned by the father of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Edna Ferber, whose charming interview with Harry we republished last week.
This doorway at 117 College Avenue is the place where Harry told Edna he came to get his spankings. He would climb up to the second floor, to Rabbi Weiss’ tiny office in a makeshift synagogue, to take his medicine. Rabbi Weiss, you may recall, was hired to lead Temple Zion, Appleton's German-Jewish congregation. But the temple building itself (still standing and beautifully restored) had not yet been built. Following an Appleton custom, funds were raised from all the town’s citizens, not just Jews. But just as the temple was built, Weiss was removed as rabbi.
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| The Rabbi's house. behind the temple. Houdini would have lived here if his father had not lost the job. |
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| How the temple looked just after it was built. |
The story in all the Houdini bios is that the congregants did not like the fact that Weiss was so old-world, and that he did not speak English. However, our researches this week in Appleton point to a different story. He may have had some sort of falling out with his patron, David Hammel, president of the congregation and a future mayor.
We know this because according to oral histories on file with the Outagamie County Museum the rabbi who replaced Weiss did not speak English either. And as soon as the new rabbi arrived from David Hammel’s home town in Germany, the Weiss family left Appleton for good.
This is the last remnant of the spot in Appleton, “in an empty lot across the railroad tracks in the Sixth Ward,” Harry told Edna Ferber, where he gave his very first public performance, in Jack Hoefler’s five-cent circus.
Though Appleton has seen its share of urban renewal, great swaths of the old skyline remain. We can still see Harry's adopted hometown as it was in his day.
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| A former paper mill on the Fox River. |
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| College Avenue, near Harry's old home. |
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| The original Temple Zion and Rabbi Weiss' office were on the second floor. |
Houdini Plaza and Harry’s name still draws a crowd, more than 130 years after he lived there. New generations of fans are being born every year. Houdini lives on!
COMING UP: TREASURES OF THE HOUDINI MUSEUM
[Thanks to Tom Boldt & Ron Fable for guidance on Appleton history & geography. Black-and-white picture of the temple courtesy of the Outagamie County Historical Society, Appleton, WI.]
Fantastic! Thank you for the tour.
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I particularly like all the new info on David Hammel and concur with you and Tom Boldt that not speaking English was an issue with the congregation; in fact, I believe Mayer Samuel Weiss got the job because he spoke German. Interesting thought that he may have lost his job because of a falling out with David Hammel and was replaced by a non-English speaking rabbi from David’s home town in Germany. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, David! It's all probably just as well that Rabbi Weiss had to leave Appleton and eventually land in New York. Houdini and New York were made for each other.
ReplyDelete