For long Halloween was believed to signify the coming together of the spiritual and physical worlds, facilitating communication with the dead. A sharp critic of this theory was Harry Houdini, the great 20th century illusionist, stunt performer and escape artist, who departed from the earth 80 years ago on Halloween night.

In his view "spiritualism" was a turn-of-the-century American religious movement, whose practitioners posed as mediums or communicators with the dead.

Houdini was born as Ehrich Weiss or Ehrich Weisz, on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family. From 1900 onwards Houdini claimed in interviews to have been born in Appleton, Wisconsin on April 6, 1874, but his Hungarian birth certificate was uncovered by researchers after his death. In 1878, his family moved to the United States. He was called "Erie" or "Harry" by friends.

Houdini initially focused on traditional card acts. At one point he billed himself as the King of Cards. His "big break" came in 1899, when he met the showman Martin Beck. Impressed by Houdini's handcuff act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit.

Houdini and his acts still have a cult following and that group includes some of worlds greatest magicians. Houdini's antipathy to commercial spiritualists translated into practice. Before he passed away, he arranged with his wife Bess to conduct her own séances. The plan was that he would try to contact her by using a secret code of which only the two were aware. However, after 10 years of these Halloween night séances, Bess never heard the secret words.

At the peak of his career, Houdini authored a 300-page book titled A Magician Among the Spirits which featured his scepticism of the spirtualists, who he believed were able to perform feats not through supernatural powers but sleight of hand and psychological manipulation.

Preserving the legacy of Houdini is the privately run Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the world's only museum devoted exclusively to Houdini memorabilia. The ancient home houses the late magician's letters, props and other artefacts.

Houdini's last performance was at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 1926. The next day he was hospitalised at Detroit's Grace Hospital. Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at the age of 52 on October 31. The most widespead account is that Houdini's ruptured appendix was caused by multiple blows to his abdomen from a McGill University student, J Gordon Whitehead, in Montreal on October 22.

Even after his departure from the material world, enigma surrounds the illusionist's life, career and the cause of his death. A new biography of the legendary performer suggests that Houdini worked as a spy for Scotland Yard, monitored Russian anarchists and chased counterfeiters for the US Secret Service -- all before he was possibly murdered.

The book The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero was released on Halloween.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent