![]() Stage-magic historians think that Houdini realized at some point that patents were public record. Intriguingly, these and similar patent applications were abandoned. Smithsonian records others were for far more obscure and revealing applications, like a watertight chest that could be locked and concealed inside a larger chest. Some of these applications were for unique kinds of locks. Houdini left a string of odd patent applications with patent offices in the US, the UK, and Germany. He also waged a career-long battle against people who would steal his ideas. It wasn't just disgust with scams that drove Houdini in his years of ascendancy as the Dumbledore of US stage magic. He danced where other performers feared to tread. He realized that the ultimate power of his act lay in cheating death. ![]() Houdini had found the secret formula that would make him unique for the rest of his performing life, and which would one day elevate him to magician immortality. ![]() He had a unique combination of skills other magicians couldn't easily plagiarize. Houdini's prodigious strength combined with his deftness with locks placed him in untouchable territory. It was unusual, it was scary, and it was an immediate audience favorite. Then, after a tense wait, he'd fling the lid aside and emerge victorious. Houdini would locked himself inside a sealed milk can filled with water. says in 1908, Houdini introduced a dramatic new escape stunt which he called (kind of unimaginatively) the Milk Can Escape. And ever the one to wriggle out of life's limitations, he set about expanding his act in ways audiences hadn't been seen before. Ehrich Weisz was gone and the Great Harry Houdini was born.īut Houdini was stubborn. He'd successfully escaped the clutches of poverty. By 1899, Houdini was an A-list Vaudeville Act. In this domain, as they say in the classics, the kid was a natural. By 1898, Houdini had reinvented himself as the Handcuff King, and the man whom no restraint could hold. However, the not-yet Great Houdini was street smart and resourceful. He hovered here, on the edge of historical obscurity, for another two years. According to Harry Houdini: The world's most famous magician, in 1896, Houdini placed an ad to sell all his tricks and props for a meager $20. Fellow practitioners of the prestidigitation arts viewed Houdini as competent at best. He tried almost every flavor of magic in those years, but he settled on card magic, billing himself (with no false humility) as Houdini, King of Cards. His majestic stage name: "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air."įirst with his friend and then his brother, Harry Houdini set about building a magic act. In 1883, at just 9-years-old, Ehrich performed his first act as a trapeze artist. Showing the first streak of chutzpah that'd serve him well his whole life, Ehrich strutted his stuff for the circus manager, and the future Harry Houdini got his first big break. ![]() One day the circus came to town, and (as all good origin stories go) Ehrich was on a mission. A natural athlete, he also picked up good acrobatic and tumbling skills. According to Houdini's biography on, at 6-years-old he could run the three cup scam well enough to fool passersby out of a few coins. Somewhere along the way, young Ehrich also acquired a few street grifting side hustles. As a child, Ehrich sold newspapers, shined shoes, and did his best to bring in whatever money he could to support his family. According to Houdini: His Life and His Art, it was not an easy life for a poor Hungarian immigrant. One of seven children, Ehrich emigrated to the US with his family in 1878. The Great Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weisz in Budapest in 1874. The story of Harry Houdini begins humbly.
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