Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz) was a famous Hungarian-American escape artist and illusionist in real life.
In the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The Clothes Don't Make the Turtle", Houdini's escape journals were on exhibit at an event at the Magic Town House which both the Turtles and Hypno-Potamus were attending. Hypno sought to steal the journals to learn their secrets. The Turtles tried to stop him, but Hypno trapped them in a magic spell in the form of a fashion montage.