In 1943 she said 'ten years long enough to wait for any man.' After the 1936 séance, Bess passed the torch to Walter B. At the conclusion of the failed séance, she put out the candle beside a photograph of Houdini that was said to have burned for ten years. On Halloween 1936, Bess and Saint conducted a 'Final Houdini Séance' on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood.

Bess's niece, Marie Hinson Blood, said Bess suffered from a medical condition that prevented her from having children.Īfter Houdini died on October 31, 1926, Bess opened a tea house in New York, and briefly performed a vaudeville act in which she froze a man in ice. In the 1930s she moved to Hollywood, California, and worked to promote Houdini's memory along with her manager and partner, Edward Saint. 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. Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner (Janu– February 11, 1943), better known as Bess Houdini, was the stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini.

Houdini bess