After an afternoon show at the Princess Theater in Montreal in October 1926, three students visited Houdini in his dressing room. Houdini was lying on a sofa reading his mail.
One of the students, a college boxing star at McGill University, asked Houdini if it was true that he was in such good shape that that he could take a blow to the stomach without injury. Houdini was going through his mail and not really listening. He said it was true. The young man asked if he could try to punch him and Houdini absentmindedly agreed.
As he stood up, the student quickly delivered three hard blows to Houdini’s abdomen before the magician had a chance to tighten his stomach muscles.
Houdini dropped the letters and clutched his stomach. The youth was surprised. “Hold on,” Houdini gasped, his face white. “I have to get set for it.”
He stood, set his muscles, and the young man swung again. This time, his fist felt as if it had hit an oak plank.
Although he felt pain, Houdini didn’t realize at the time that the blow had ruptured his appendix.
On the train to Detroit the next day, Houdini’s temperature rose to 102 degrees. But he insisted on giving his show for the Sunday night crowd at the Garrick Theater. “They’re here for me,” he told his wife Bess. “I won’t disappoint them.”
After the show, Houdini collapsed and was taken to Grace Hospital. On Monday afternoon the doctors operated on him and removed a torn appendix .
Twice a day the hospital gave out news stories on Houdini’s condition. Newspapers across the United States published the stories. By Saturday morning the hospital was saying that his condition was “less than favorable.”
On Sunday morning, he whispered to Bess, “I’m tired of fighting…. I guess this thing is going to get me.” On October 31, 1926—Halloween—Houdini died at age 52.
Houdini was buried in Brooklyn, New York, in a grave next to his mother’s.
Harry Houdini is remembered as a hero, giving people something to hope and cheer for; was truly the embodiment of the American Spirit, remains an inspiration to magicians and others, and was just gol-dern the best Showman to cross this Earth.
