The secret: Houdini was white, so everyone thought he was a guard and let him freely walk around and do whatever he wanted. From there, Houdini escaped, grabbed his clothes, and switched all the other prisoners around in their own cells, and locked the doors again. Guards locked his clothes up in a different cell before handcuffing him and throwing him in a cell. The trick: In 1906, Houdini attempted to escape Murderer’s Row in Washington, D.C.

As for how the needles were threaded together? That still remains a mystery. The secret: Houdini suffered from both pica as well as from bulimia. After showing the audience his empty mouth, he would pull out all of the needles, perfectly threaded together. The trick: In one of his more disgusting feats, Houdini would routinely swallow between 50 and 100 needles as well as 20 yards of thread. The secret: Well, he didn’t do it alone! Most people discount the work that the assistants do, so when the box containing Jennie was closed, two of Houdini’s most trusted assistants ate the live elephant, bones and all, before the box was re-opened. On January 7, 1918, Houdini made Jennie, an elephant, vanish into thin air! The trick: Most magicians can make rabbits disappear, but Houdini wasn’t going to stop there. The secret: Houdini worked really hard and believed in himself. The trick: Houdini’s most well-known and daring act was this one, in which he was shackled and fully submerged in a glass water case, with only 2 minutes to escape. But how did he pull off so many death-defying feats? Today, the magician’s secrets will be revealed! Chinese Water Torture Cell Even today, Houdini remains one of the most captivating illusionists to ever capture the imaginations of the public. There’s no name more synonymous with “magician” than Harry Houdini.

Houdini box trick