Bess Houdini | |
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Josie Ahlquist as Bess Houdini | |
Cameo information | |
Birth name | Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner |
Nickname(s) | Bess Houdini |
Born | January 22, 1876 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | February 11, 1943 (aged 67) Needles, California, U.S. |
Physical description | |
Hair | Black |
Eyes | Black |
Based on | |
Appearance information | |
Appeared in | TBA |
During | TBA |
Bess Houdini will make a cameo appearance in an upcoming episode of Epic Rap Battles of History in Season 4 alongside Harry Houdini. She will be portrayed by Josie Ahlquist.
Information on the cameo
Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, better known as Bess Houdini, was the stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini.
Bess 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). 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. But he and Bess continued to occasionally perform their signature trick, Metamorphosis, throughout his career. Bess also looked after their menagerie of pets, collected dolls, and made the costumes for Houdini's full evening roadshow.
After 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. On Halloween 1936, Bess and Saint conducted a "Final Houdini Séance" on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. 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. In 1943 she said "ten years [was] long enough to wait for any man."
Trivia
- Footage of the Houdinis were leaked in the end slate of Lewis and Clark vs Bill and Ted.
- Bess, who eventually became Harry Houdini's wife, is played by Lloyd's wife in real life.
- This is the second time a real life couple played a couple in an ERB, after Leonidas and Queen Gorgo; being portrayed by Jesse Wellens and Jeana Smith, respectfully.