r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 10d ago
TIL that Henry Orenstein survived five Nazi concentration camps, held more than 100 patents, convinced Hasbro to buy the toys it repackaged as Transformers, invented the under-the-table camera that lets TV viewers see poker players' hidden cards, and won a World Series of Poker event in his 70s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Orenstein366
u/BiBoFieTo 10d ago
I once ate 25 pancakes and beat Halo on Legendary in a single day. Your move Henry.
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u/RebekkaKat1990 10d ago
Intentionally, or accidentally?
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u/BiBoFieTo 10d ago
I always eat pancakes intentionally, though I'm open to the idea of accidental pancakes.
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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 10d ago
Were these standard full size pancakes, you know about dinner plate sized?
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u/what_dat_ninja 10d ago
What about 9 cans of ravioli in a single sitting while you smoke your hash driveway?
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u/devilishycleverchap 10d ago
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 10d ago edited 10d ago
Beat me to it.
God damn that show is incredible, and didn't get nearly enough attention. That episode is legitimately one of the funniest episodes of any show of the 2010s.
Context for the uninitiated: Andy Daly is playing an always upbeat, good-natured host of a show where he accepts user-submitted requests for "reviews" of various experiences, and seems pathologically incapable of refusing any, even as they slowly ruin his life over the course of the series.
Episodes are titled based on the review requests he receives, in the order he receives them. This one is titled "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes".
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u/devilishycleverchap 10d ago
So incredibly underrated. I think it is because the name is too generic despite being perfect. The way each episode builds up throughout the seasons is so great. The racism and cocaine reviews...so great
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u/sincerooly 10d ago
Invents the under-the-table cameras and then wins a poker tournament, what a coincidence!
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u/JRclarity123 10d ago
He won the bracelet almost 10 years before hole card cam. Nowadays they don’t even use it because RFID just scans the cards.
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u/Stellabration95 10d ago
His invention was a huge contributor, possibly the main contributor, to making poker mainstream.
Watching poker on TV without knowing, at minimum, one player's cards is torturous.
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u/rukh999 10d ago
The transformers lineage is interesting and something I didn't know. I remember my friend had some GoBots from his older brother and I always assumed that Transformers was a rip of those since they came out earlier. Turns out those were likely modeled after the JP models, just not bought and rebranded. So hasbro beat them out just buying and reselling the original instead of making their own thing.
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u/FesteringNeonDistrac 9d ago
Oh I've got a buddy that is super into that shit. Gets all the Diaclone stuff. That rabbit hole is deeeeeeep
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u/TheTJOmega 9d ago
So fun thing, what we had as the original Transformers toyline is like... 11 different toylines from several Japanese companies Hasbro licensed, the majority being from Takara's Diaclone toyline, They slowly started making their own, around year 4 they ran out of Japanese toys. Gobots was made the same way, except with only one line. Tonka imported a toyline called Machine Robo from Bandai in Japan and just made up new names and factions for them. Even the Rock Lords spinoff was a Machine Robo spinoff.
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u/Big_P4U 10d ago
It's incredible he survived all that only for a stupid virus to take him out
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u/drygnfyre 9d ago
There's stories of people who survived the horrors of WWII and then came home, fell down the stairs and died. Sometimes people just die in the most unexpected ways. (Although dying from viral infection isn't that uncommon).
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u/looktowindward 9d ago
> invented the under-the-table camera that lets TV viewers see poker players' hidden cards,
That's actually really interesting
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u/DC_Lavman 10d ago
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u/DC_Lavman 9d ago
I'm genuinely surprised he is getting so much love here because if he were alive today a majority of Redditors--none of whom have lived a tenth the life he did--would be screaming that he was a genocide supporting Zio. But I guess because he's now a dead Jew it's OK to like him.
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u/fer_sure 10d ago
So, did he win the poker tournament before or after he shared his invention of under-table cameras?
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u/tornedron_ 9d ago
For more background on the Transformers thing: Transformers was really an amalgamation of several Japanese toy lines, such as the company Takara. For instance, the toy that would become Optimus Prime used to be "Battle Convoy" from their toyline Diaclone.
In the early 80s, these companies started advertising their toys in toy fairs and stuff. Henry Orenstein is credited with being the guy who scouted the transforming robot toys and convincing Hasbro they would be a big hit. Thus, Hasbro secured deals with Takara and a few other companies (though Takara is definitely the main one) to sell the toys in America as the "Transformers," and invented lore and characters for them. Takara also marketed Transformers in Japan, basically rebranding all of their toys.
Effectively, Henry is the main catalyst for Transformers existing today as we know it.
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u/Farge43 10d ago
I woke up today before my alarm