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How Houdini Made Magic: 5. Protect your brand
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When an authoritarian empire threatens to brand you a fraud and destroy your legacy, how do you fight back? Derren Brown explores the high-stakes legal battles that helped cement Houdini’s European triumph. Arriving in a hostile Berlin where the Imperial police aggressively censored entertainment, Houdini accepted the ultimate challenge, stripping naked before 300 officers to free himself from German restraints. But when a bitter policeman accused him of cheating and bribery, Houdini did the unthinkable: he sued for slander, turning the highest court in the German Empire into the ultimate theatrical stage. Houdini brilliantly weaponised the legal system, orchestrating PR campaigns and…