This playlet includes a note after the curtain, which explains the illusion. To his new fiancée, he explains, “Alice, whether I did or not, everything is fair in love and war.” The father states, “The day you can walk through the brick wall that separates our houses, I’ll give you my daughter.” The next day, the father wakes up to see the young man made it through the wall. The plot of this playlet involved a father who constructed a brick wall to keep the son of his “mortal enemy” from being able to look into his garden. In 1914, Houdini registered his “Walking through a Brick Wall” trick as a playlet in two scenes. By the second act, Houdini (played by himself) accepts their challenge and, according to the script, “*HOUDINI MAKES HIS ESCAPE*” and the crowd gives “Three cheers for Houdini, Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah.” He kept doing the trick through his 1926 tour when the foot stock broke and he fractured his ankle.
The first act depicts a group of men talking about Houdini’s amazing abilities, integrity, and willingness to take on challenges. The registration describes the work as a “magical dramatic playlet” in sixteen typewritten pages.
Houdini’s first American copyright registration is for the playlet “Challenged: or, Houdini upside down” that features his famous Water Torture Cell trick, also known as “The Upside Down.” The trick, shown here, is an escape from a water-filled cabinet while Houdini’s ankles are in stocks and the lid is locked. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Houdini’s deposited playlet scripts are now held within the Reader’s Collection, Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits. The playlets were registered as dramatic compositions, which have been eligible for copyright protection since 1856.
The legendary Hungarian immigrant Harry Houdini registered three of his famous illusions as “playlets,” or short plays, with the U.S. Magicians do not always reveal their tricks, even when they register their copyright claims. The following is a guest blog post by Marilyn Creswell, Librarian-in-Residence at the U.S.
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