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Although Harry Houdini made his name by performing escape tricks and feats of magic, he did a lot more in his lifetime.

Houdini in 1913. Source: (Library of Congress/colorized).

Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss in 1874 in Budapest to Jewish parents. When Houdini was eight, his family moved to Milwaukee, and Houdini sold newspapers and shined shoes to help support them. He first appeared on stated on October 28, 1883, performing a trapeze act as “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.” He ran away at 12, and then returned to his family after a year, finding a variety of jobs to help support his family. He and his brother Theo started to develop an interest in magic, and Houdini chose his stage name, using the last name of his idol, the French magician Robert Houdin, plus the letter “i” and the Americanized version of his nickname, Ehrie. However, he did claim that he took the name “Harry” after another magician he admired, Harry Kellar. Houdini began performing escapes and magic tricks for vaudeville shows in the 1890s, although he was unsuccessful at first, focusing on traditional card tricks. His break finally came in 1899, when he started to focus on escape acts and was booked on the vaudeville circuit.

Houdini in 1913. Source: (Library of Congress),

He Changed His Act Because of Imitators

He managed to free himself from a number of restraints, including handcuffs, chains, straitjackets, and jails. However, people started to imitate him, and in January of 1908, wearing a blue bathing suit with his hands cuffed in front of him, he climbed into a large, water-filled can on stage. A lid was padlocked onto the container with Houdini inside, and a cabinet was wheeled behind the can to hide it from view. Houdini stepped out from behind the still padlocked can two minutes later. During his lifetime, no one figured out how he escaped from that can. He was very careful to guard these secrets, avoiding the patent process, and copyrighting his tricks to help keep them hidden.

He Did Not File For Patents

Since filing for a patent requires that all the technology be explained so people avoid infringing, Houdini had to find a way around the patent. He may have had a number of inventions, but only filed for a few patents; among them, a straitjacketed toy Houdini that can escape its confines and a diving suit that allowed an occupant to escape quickly when in danger. After another magician, Charles Morritt, invented a trick to make a live donkey disappear on stage, Houdini paid him for global rights to the trick and improved upon it so that he could make a live elephant disappear; the secrets for this trick were also never revealed. Although some of his surviving inventions have revealed secrets like detaching panels, most of his secrets remained hidden after his death.

Source: (Library of Congress).

He Found A Way To Protect His Act

His failure to patent his magic tricks did not mean that he left them unprotected, because he figured out that he could copyright his act. His “Chinese water torture cell” is a case in point. For the trick, his ankles were locked into a frame and he was dangled upside down over a tank of water. He gave a single performance of the trick as a one-act play before an audience of one in England and then filed for copyright. Thus, he could stop imitations while refraining from an explanation of the mechanics of the trick.

The Actor, Writer, And Co-Promoter

Another of Houdini’s skills: using the press to his advantage. He ended up doing a lot of co-promotions with corporations. He also took advantage of cinema as he recognized that it was the next big thing, and in 1918, he began his first major film project, The Master Mystery, which may have featured the first robotic villain to appear on film. He also started a film laboratory, the Film Development Corporation. He became a writer as well, publishing articles on the history of magic, and a book, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, published in 1908.

Source: (Vintage.es/colorized).

He Was The First To Fly On The Australian Continent

Houdini was also fascinated by flight, as people around the world began buying planes and he bought a Voisin biplane. He took the plane to Australia for a tour and became the first to fly a plane on the Australian continent. However, Houdini, who didn’t like doing what everyone else was doing, stopped flying after a few years, just like he stopped doing handcuff escapes when too many people were imitating him.

Houdini The Debunker