Watch Houdini's historic Australian flight

Here's another excerpt from 'High Lights in the Strenuous Career of Harry Houdini, Edited and Compiled by Houdini's Brother Hardeen'.

Film of Houdini's history making flights in Australia is widely available. But it's nice to have it collected here in sequence instead of just fragments. Also, the final shot is entirely new to me. So even though it's brief, this clip does appear to offer footage of a Houdini flight that has never been seen before. Enjoy.

Notice that the date is shown here as March 16, 1910. The true date of Houdini's first Australian flight was March 18. But Houdini adopted the March 16 date in publicity, and speculation is that he was concerned about a claim from Fred Custance that he had beat Houdini into the air by a day.

Thanks to escape artist Rick Maisel for allowing me to share this rare footage. A playlist of these clips can be found on the WILD ABOUT HARRY YouTube Channel.

Related:

• Houdini's LAST Australian flight was the wild one
• 100 years ago Houdini showed Australia that a man can fly
• Houdini flies again in 1926