Bess also looked after their menagerie of pets, collected dolls, and made the costumes for Houdini's full evening roadshow. The Houdinis remained childless throughout their marriage. But he and Bess continued to occasionally perform their signature trick, Metamorphosis, throughout his career. But it was the older Houdini brother, Harry, that she fell in love with and married on June 22, 1894. Bess and Harry worked as The Houdinis for several years before Houdini hit it big as The Handcuff King. in 1876 to German immigrants Gebhard Rahner (a cabinet maker) and Balbina Rahner (née Bugel).īess was working at Coney Island in a song and dance act called The Floral Sisters when she was first courted by Houdini's younger brother, Theo (aka Theodore Hardeen). Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner was born in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. It is arguable that Dunninger was one of the most important figures in what has become a never-ending interest in the life and career of Houdini, so many years after the escape artist’s death.Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner (Janu– February 11, 1943), better known as Bess Houdini, was the stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini. A revealing if brief letter, showing not only the chain of events after Houdini’s death, and the fate of his many props and illusions (which were said to be controlled almost exclusively by his brother, Hardeen), but also Dunninger’s persistent nature and interest in attaching himself in some way to the Houdini legend, a feat he would accomplish in spades later in his career. SIGNED in ink, “Beatrice Houdini.” A historically significant document. Each time you have written I have forwarded the letter and really thought he had taken care of same … I suggest you get in touch with him personally… “ One 4to sheet, with old folds from mailing. Hardeen inherited the entire show and everything that was in the warehouses, therefore, I haven’t permission to look through the things. Dated April 21, 1927, Bess writes on Houdini’s own engraved mourning stationery to Joseph Dunninger which reads, in part, “Mr. One-Page TLS to Dunninger Regarding Houdini’s Apparatus.
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