With a fever of 104 F, Houdini completed two acts before succumbing to the pain. Another doctor was summoned. But only after phoning his personal physician, William Stone, MD, did Houdini go to Grace Hospital. There a Dr. Kennedy performed two operations, but Houdini's advanced peritonitis had worsened. He died at 50 on Halloween the showman even in death.
Audiences view it as courage nonetheless.
The denial of pain was Harry Houdini's stock in trade, and is David Blaine's as well. And as their physicians have discovered, it is difficult to reason with a myth. Blaine is rumored to be considering a jump off the Brooklyn Bridge for his next stunt, or taking a bullet in the chest. Ruden has advised against those feats. Houdini's physicians may have been anxious, as Ruden claims to be, but it's hard to believe they weren't thrilled to be at the bedside of the greatest mystifier of their day.