Born: June 5, 1872, Appleton, WI [Per death certificate, although family did not move to the US until 1878. Houdini was known to have reported this as his birthplace.]
Died: January 5, 1925, Saranac Lake, NY
Name at birth: Gottfried Vilmos Weisz
Married: Henrietta Schomberger
William "Bill" Weiss was Harry Houdini's brother. He came to Saranac Lake to cure sometime before 1925, and had been ill for four years when he died. Bill was a merchant in "ladies furnishing" who suffered from asthma. He was staying at 85 Algonquin Avenue when he died, and was being treated by Dr. Charles Trembley.
His name was changed from Gottfried Vilmos Weisz to William Weiss when the family arrived in the United States in 1878.
Harry Houdini came to Saranac Lake while Bill was curing to show him his new routine. Houdini was fascinated by Spiritualism, so when Bill's condition worsened, Houdini had a phone installed so that he could speak to his brother at his moment of death. The nurse phoned Houdini so he could instruct Bill to communicate with him from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, no otherworldly message was ever received.
Behold This Dreamer! by Fulton Oursler, 1964. p. 189-190
"When another brother of his lay dying of tuberculosis in Saranac, Houdini went up into the mountains and stood on the front porch in a snowstorm, without props, and went through his entire new show so that his brother would know what he was doing. As his condition grew worse, Houdini installed a telephone at the bedside and gave strict instructions to the nurse to call him the moment she was sure the brother was dying. The call came, and with the nurse holding the receiver against the dying man's ear, Houdini kept shouting over the long distance: "Remember our compact. After you die, communicate with me." A moment later it was all over. Houdini locked himself in the fourth-floor room of his house on West 113th Street and remained there without food and water for twenty-four hours, waiting for the sign that never came."
The Secret Life of Houdini, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, 2007. p.446
"While he was sparring with the Spiritualists, his own investigations into the mysteries of life after death continued. Repeated exposure to fraudulent mediums hadn't made him lose hope of contact with the dead. His brother Bill had been fighting tuberculosis for years and had been living at a sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York. During a heavy snowstorm, Houdini drove up to the mountains and stood on Bill's front porch and performed some new effects for him. As Bill's condition worsened, Houdini had a phone installed at his bed and instructed the nurse to ring him when the end was imminent.. Shortly after the New Year [1925?], the call came and with the nurse holding the receiver to his brother's ear, Houdini shouted, "Remember our compact. After you die, communicate with me." A minute later, Bill was gone. Houdini holed himself up in a room on the top floor of his house and waited for twenty-four hours, going without food or drink, for the message that never came."
Information obtained from William J. Weiss' death certificate on file with the Village of Saranac Lake, 2021.
