Harry Houdini was a master illusionist and escape artist. He was able to perform seemingly impossible feats. He was the first to make an elephant disappear, and escaped from such death traps as sealed boxes underwater. He once escaped from inside a paper bag, without tearing the paper.

But Houdini did it, not with supernatural powers, but with strength, agility, and brains--and lots of practice (one of my favorite "Houdini moments" is a story that, during a visit by a friend, he was casually tying and untying knots in a piece of strong--with his toes!) Far from being a "real" magician, he was a tireless debunker of spiritualists and other magical con artists, a tradition continued to this day by magicians such as James Randi.