History of Magic, by Tony Hassini

 

Chapter 1

I’ve done a lot of soul-searching before deciding to write this portion of the history of magic. At the time I am writing this book, I am over 80 years old and have been involved in magic since I was 16.

 

I founded the International Magicians Society (IMS) in 1968. For over 60 years, I have met some of the greatest magicians of our time, having breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them, and discussing magic in depth. As always, I tried to learn as much as I could from them, especially the older magicians whom I hold in the deepest admiration and respect. With that, I believe this qualifies me to write this book. You and history will judge whether I did a good job or not.

 

My decision to write this book is simple. Like anything else I do in life, I keep it simple so that even a beginner or newcomer will learn and understand this amazing art we call magic.

 

By studying the past, we can better prepare for the future, gain a better understanding of history, and learn from it.

 

Before jumping into the history of magic, I would like to describe what magic is and what a magician does. Without a doubt, magic creates mystery. When a magician takes a shiny metal ball, makes it float in mid-air, and makes it move all around, and when he takes a shiny metal ring and passes it around the ball to prove that there are no strings supporting the floating ball, people gasp. They wonder, "How could this be possible?"

 

I just described one amazing trick. By doing so, I wanted to highlight how magic is a visual art. When people actually see magic being performed, they are mystified and amazed.

 

Here’s another mystery that is greater than any magic a magician can perform. Because people do not see it, they hardly react to it. I’m talking about the Earth being suspended in mid-air with no strings attached. It rotates on its axis to create day and night and orbits the sun to create the four seasons. Yet very few people talk about it, and nobody is impressed, mesmerized, or mystified.

 

This proves that people need to see something to feel the emotions and experience the magic. Since they cannot see the Earth totally suspended in mid-air and moving, they don’t react to it. This is my simple explanation of how magicians capitalize on visual effects.

 

There is another element of magic that most people do not consider. For example, when a child sees a magician performing a simple trick, it seems like a miracle that only the magician can do. When you show the child the working principle of the trick—the simple secret—for the first time in their life, they realize that what seemed impossible has a simple solution. With this understanding, they grow up and become better at whatever they do in life. Whenever something seems impossible, they know there is a simple solution.

 

Magic also helps children overcome shyness, gain self-confidence, learn hand-eye coordination, and, above all, become very good public speakers. This is because each time a child performs a trick, they tell a story that goes with the magic. For every new trick, they create new stories.

 

Did you know? For every professional magician, there are over 100 amateur magicians and hobbyists. They collect magic, visit magic shops and conventions, have regular jobs from all walks of life, and sometimes perform magic better than the professionals, but they choose not to become professionals.

 

Magic is a mystery that creates wonder and excitement. How many times do we hear the word "magic" used to describe something amazing? How many products, services, and corporations use the word "magic"?

 

When Walt Disney built his first theme park, he named it the Magic Kingdom.

 

Filmmakers in Hollywood often refer to their work as “the magic of Hollywood.”

 

Newscasters may say “it is so magical” to describe something visually attractive or emotional.

 

Many products have names like “magic coffee maker,” “instant magic,” “works like magic,” and many others. So we know and understand that magic describes the impossible, the mysterious, or something spectacular.

 

So let’s now jump into the history of magic. Magic is as old as the human race, yet it’s new to a newborn child. But how did all this start?

 

Let’s go back all the way to the Stone Age. The very first person who discovered something that no one else knew was the magician. He was the person of the moment. People looked up to him and were amazed by his discovery.

 

As the centuries went by, more discoveries and mystifying objects accumulated in the magician’s toolbox. Over time, magicians were known as magi, as well as medicine men with their discoveries. Magi also experimented with various oils and herbs. They were able to create ancient medicines believed to cure diseases. Rulers began seeking the magi’s advice. Eventually, the magi became advisers to kings, queens, and warriors.

 

Magical secrets were passed down from grandfather to grandson and sometimes from mentors to their students. Later, magic fraternities would pass on secrets to their members. Becoming a member of a magic fraternity was not easy; you had to be chosen by two of the fraternity members.

 

As various religions appeared and gained power, their bishops and priests began to see magic and magicians as competition. The religious leaders did not like the idea of some newcomer claiming mystical powers while performing magic.

 

As a result, there was a smear campaign against magicians. They were called “devil worshipers,” “voodoo practitioners,” “witches,” and “black magic users.” Scare tactics were used to suggest that magicians could put curses on people and possibly cause their deaths.

 

The smear campaign by religious leaders against magicians was deep and ugly. Just in the United States alone, the Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, and thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging.

 

Overall, magic and magicians learned to survive the smear campaign. Some magicians were forced to reveal their secrets to avoid persecution.

 

Going back thousands of years, India was the land that produced two of the largest leading religions—Buddhism and Hinduism. India became very famous as a land of magic. You often hear about the Hindu basket, ever-growing mango trees, producing live animals in open marketplaces, and Indian levitation, which I witnessed in Mumbai and Delhi. I’ve never seen the famous Indian rope trick and suspect it was a myth.

 

Egypt also has its share of magic and mysteries. The oldest recorded trick, known as the cups and balls, is found in Egyptian hieroglyphics.  And Egypt had its share of magicians serving as advisors to pharaohs.

 

As the centuries went by, many mysterious performances popped up and became part of the magic family.  Just to name a few, there is juggling, spinning plates, blowing fire from the mouth (known as fire-eating), ventriloquism (where a person can speak without moving their lips and throw their voices to make it sound like their voices are coming from somewhere else, such as a box in a distance), sword-swallowing, swallowing goldfish and regurgitating the goldfish, etc.  Along the way came animal trainers who managed to train horses, dogs, pigs, and other animals, seemingly doing magic, such as a dog finding a chosen object.

 

90% of magic was performed outdoors, mostly in marketplaces and state fairs.  Only about 10% of the performances were inside, such as taverns, assembly rooms, and a very small percentage in wealthy homes for private parties.

 

It wasn’t until 1584, where the first English book that actually taught magical secrets was written by Reginald Scott.  The title of this book was “The Discoveries of Witchcraft”.  Scott’s intention was to expose some secrets of the trade and suggest that not everyone doing mysteries are witches.  For those who wanted to learn magic, this book was a good place to start.

 

In 1612, Mr. Sa Rid published his book “The Art of Juggling”.  This was the beginning of publishing magic books for those who wanted to learn magic.  Thereafter, many books were published, making it easier for those with a passion for magic to learn magic.

 

In 1876, Professor Hoffman published the book “Modern Magic”, which became the most read magic teaching book.  Many famous magicians started with this book.

 

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Chapter 2

Baron Wolfgang Von Kempelen

Up until 1768, almost all of the magicians were using small and medium-sized magic apparatus.  Probably the very first large illusion was invented by a Hungarian baron, Wolfgang Von Kempelen.  His invention was the automaton chess player “The Turk”.  This almost human-like figure played chess with the best chess players of the time.  And no one could beat The Turk.

 

Baron Wolfgang first introduced his mechanical wonder in 1769 to the empress Maria Theresa and her guests at the palace.

 

The news spread all over Europe.  The machine that can think and play chess.  It was the artificial intelligence of its time.  Everyone wanted to see this mechanical wonder. 

For the next 50 years, this was the most controversial subject in Europe.  There were skeptics who believed it was a magic trick.  And there were those who believed it was a mechanical wonder.

 

Here is a brief description.  A large cabinet with doors and drawers on the front and on the back was wheeled in and turned around, so everyone can see the front and back.  Behind the cabinet was an almost human-like half torso of a doll dressed with Ottoman Turk cloths and a turban.  Before The Turk began playing chess with the guests, Baron Wolfgang opened one of the doors in the front of the cabinet.  Then he opened the back door, where light can be seen passing through the cabinet.  Inside the cabinet can be seen filled with mechanical gears, springs, and rods.  He then closed the front and back doors.  He then  swung the cabinet around.  He opened the back doors and also picked up The Turk’s clothing to show that there was no one hiding in The Turk’s body.  Again the cabinet was swung around showing the front and opening the two front doors.  Once again the lights can be seen going through the cabinet.  And inside the cabinet can be seen mechanical gears, rods, and springs.

 

The observers can see that there is hardly any room not even for a small rabbit to hide inside the cabinet.

 

Baron Wolfgang finally closed all the doors.  And now he opened the bottom drawers, takes out the chess pieces black and white, and set the pieces on the chess board.  Up until now, The Turk’s arm was resting on a pillow.  Between his fingers, there was a fancy smoking pipe.  Baron Wolfgang gently lifted The Turk’s arm up and took away the pillow.  Also, he took away the smoking pipe, leaving The Turk’s arm suspended waiting to start the game of chess.

 

From the other drawer, Baron Wolfgang takes out a mysterious black box, which will control The Turk.  He places the black box on a small table nearby.  He opened the black box and took out a large key.  He then pushed the key into the cabinet and began winding the machinery.  He then invites the challenger, one of the guests, to sit down in front of The Turk and begin the game.

 

The Turk’s hand moves up, his arm crosses over the chess board, and picks up one of the chess pieces, and places it down to start the game.  The Turk’s eyes moved side to side, following the moves of his opponent. Hardly anyone could defeat The Turk.

 

Baron Wolfgang set up a special room in his house and began demonstrating his amazing mechanical wonder to his special guests of about 30 spectators for each showing.

 

Baron Wolfgang got another invitation, this time from the Emperor Joseph II to come to the palace in Vienna to demonstrate The Turk to Russian grand duke Paul and his family.  To the total amazement of the Russian grand duke, right before the Turk checkmated his opponent, The Turk picked up his head, looked side to side, rolled his eyes three times, and checkmated his opponent. 

All of the opponents who played against The Turk tried extremely hard, but almost no one won.

 

Baron Wolfgang traveled throughout Europe demonstrating his automaton chess player.  

Baron Wolfgang died on March 26, 1804.  His ingenious invention The Turk was at his home with his other valuable collectibles.  So according to my calculations, he did invent the very first large stage illusion.

 

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Chapter 3

The Davenport Brothers

Perhaps the second largest stage illusion was the Spirit Cabinet, built and introduced by the Davenport Brothers from Buffalo, New York.

 

Ira Erastus Davenport and his brother William Henry Davenport introduced their Spirit Cabinet in 1854.  This was during the height of spiritualism.  Six years earlier, in 1848, the Fox sisters from Hydesville, New York popularized spiritualism.  However, the Fox sisters did not have the big cabinet as a large stage prop to attract a large audience.

 

Here is the brief description of the Davenport brothers’ Spirit Cabinet.  The brothers will invite audience members to come up onto the stage and tie them securely with ropes inside the large cabinet.  Inside the cabinet, there were many musical instruments hanging from above.  Once the lights were dimmed and the doors were closed, the brothers claimed that the spirits manifested themselves and got into the cabinet to play the instruments and opened the doors slightly to throw out the musical instruments onto the stage floor.  When the lights came back up, the musical instruments were all over the stage floor.  And both brothers were securely tied with the ropes in the cabinet.

 

There was a lot of controversy about spiritualism.  Some called it trickery.  Others believed that it was real.  As a result, the Davenport brothers got lots of publicity in major newspapers.  This attracted people to the theaters to watch them perform the spirit cabinet and other spiritual effects.

 

The Davenport brothers made a great deal of money traveling throughout the United States for the next ten years.  Then they went to Europe and toured Europe.  After Europe, they sailed to Australia, where they toured Australia.

 

Their show came to an end, when William Henry Davenport died on July 1, 1877 in Sydney, Australia at the age of 36.  The cause of death was tuberculosis of the lungs.  Without any doubt, the Davenport brothers were the most successful spiritualism show of the 20th century.  Their influence on two of the future greatest magicians is indisputable.  The future greatest magicians that I am referring to are John Neville Maskelyne, who became the greatest magician in England and Harry Kellar, who became the greatest magician in the world.

 

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Chapter 4

The Great Lafayette

I will now begin to present each magician who in my opinion deserves to be in this book.  I will not present them in chronological order or any alphabetical order.  As I wrote in the beginning of this book, I would like to keep it simple and entertaining.  I'm going to start with the Great Lafayette.  This is because there are parallel historical similarities between Siegfried & Roy and The Great Lafayette.  Their careers were almost one hundred years apart.

 

They were Germans from Germany.  They worked with exotic animals.  And they had love for their animals.  They had great visions building large show extravaganzas with very original ideas.  And unfortunately, neither one of them had the opportunity to say farewell to their audiences before closing down their shows.  Both of their careers ended in tragedy.

 

The Great Lafayette was born February 24, 1872 in Munich, Germany.  His birth name was Sigmund Neuberger.  He later adopted the stage name “The Great Lafayette.”

 

As a youngster, he watched a local magician and fell in love with magic.  In his teenage years, he managed to work with traveling magicians as an assistant.

 

By the time he was 20 years old, he was working as a professional magician in variety and vaudeville shows with his stage name The Great Lafayette.

 

Eventually, he saved enough money to invest in his own shows and became better and better with each passing year and finally became a superstar in magic.

 

He was a multi-talented and extremely creative artist.  Each of his acts were a well planned skit of storytelling.  Each act was full of exotic props, rich decorations, and elaborate costumes.  He had lots of animals that were used during the show, including a lion, horses, goats, ducks, rabbits, pigeons, turkeys, doves, swans, and a dog.

 

His first half of his closing act was better than anyone’s final closing of any show in Europe.

 

I will describe one of his acts in detail, so you can visualize the magic and mystery.  “The Lion’s Bride” was designed to take place on the stage in a large Arabian tent. The front and the sides of the tent were pulled up, so that it will be open for the audience to see inside the tent.  The interior of the tent was designed as if you are watching the grand sultan’s elegant party.

 

With great fanfare and music, dancers, acrobats, fire-eaters, and snake-charmers will enter into the tent and begin performing their specialties.  Then, the assistants will roll into the tent.  A lion’s cage, with a real lion inside the cage, the assistants, will turn the cage all around showing the lion is real and roaring.

 

The audience sees way on the other side of stage right, the beautiful bride in a white wedding gown will be brought into the tent by the slave-masters against her will.  They will pull her to the front of the lion’s cage.  They will roll the cage door sideways and push her into the lion’s cage.   The lion roars and the bride screams with fear.  When her wedding gown covers the lion for about four seconds, the magic will take place where the lion will turn into the Magician: The Great Lafayette, who will open the cage door and gently take his bride and walk off the stage to the thunderous applause from the audience.

 

The Great Lafayette introduced his Lion’s Bride illusion to the United States in 1901.

 

On stage, he was able to do a costume change, which is known as quick-change, so rapidly and quickly that his audience was amazed.

 

Quick-change costumes were not just for showing off. It was for a purpose.  Each quick-change costume was for a different act.  For example, he will walk on the stage with normal magician’s clothes and proceeds to catch invisible doves from mid-air using a small fishing net.

 

Next, he shows a square tablecloth.  He shakes it and shows both sides of the cloth empty.  And he instantly makes eight more doves appear from the cloth and the doves fly to a nearby perching tree.

 

He again will show the cloth front and the back empty and produce a goat.   At this point, when the audience thinks it’s over, he’ll do a quick-change into a Chinese costume.

 

Then he will perform Chinese magic, including producing large bowls of water with goldfish, produce a whole bunch of pigeons, then produce a large turkey, followed by producing a young negro boy.

 

And then he’ll change from a Chinese costume to a well-dressed army general uniform.  Then the next skit will begin, where cowboys, Indians, and horses are on the stage, creating the drama for the next illusion, where the Indians will capture the great Lafayette still dressed as a general and they are about to hang him.  At that point, Lafayette vanishes.

 

He was very eccentric on and off stage.

 

In London, at the Hippodrome, he was driven by a chauffeur in a big beautiful car across the arena to the stage. What a brilliant way of entering the show.

 

Lafayette was the highest paid magician of his time, just like Siegfried & Roy were the highest paid magicians of their time.

 

He loved his animals, except the lion.  There was a love-hate relationship between him and the lion. More than once, the lion sent Lafayette to the Hospital.

 

In 1903, at the Grand Opera House in Indianapolis, USA, the lion got hold of Lafayette’s pet dog, which was named Beauty.  Lafayette immediately took out his pistol, which was loaded with blank ammunition.  The lion knew what was about to happen. The lion dropped the dog.  When Lafayette bent down to pick up the dog, the lion knocked Lafayette over and bit his shoulder.  This was one of the incidents that sent Lafayette to the hospital.

 

Lafayette loved his dog Beauty.  The dog was given to him by his good friend, Harry Houdini, the famous escape artist.

 

Lafayette, took his dog everywhere he went. Beauty traveled in his private railroad car with his master, as well as Lafayette’s limousine.

 

Before making reservations to high class hotels, both in Europe and the USA, Lafayette made sure that the hotels will accept Beauty and that the dog will sleep in the presidential suite with his master.

 

In another skit, Lafayette will vanish one of his assistants and make her appear in a basket that was shown empty and in full view from the beginning.

 

In another skit, Lafayette will show a statue of a lady and a swan and magically transformed the statue into a real swan and a real lady.

 

In another skit, he enters the stage on a white horse.  Following the horse are 18 musicians. Lafayette gets off the horse and becomes a conductor for the musicians.  As they are marching and playing music, the conductor quickly and magically changes clothes 6 times.   This was an amazing six quick-changes. And that was just a few of his amazing pieces of artistry and showmanship.

 

On May 1, 1911, Lafayette opens his show at the Empire Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

Four days later, on May 5, his dog Beauty died.  Lafayette was heartbroken.  He cried the entire day.  Tears poured down his cheeks during the entire performance.

 

Lafayette wanted to bury his dog at Pierhill Cemetery.  But the management refused to bury the dog in a human cemetery.  Lafayette signed an agreement with the cemetery and paid $2000 in advance. So that when he dies, Lafayette will be buried next to his dog under the weeping willow tree.  (Just as a point of reference, $2000 in those days was like $20,000 today.)

 

4 days after Lafayette buried his dog, the Empire Theatre was sold out with over 3000 people.

 

During the Lion’s Bride act, a large lamp over the Arabian tent burst into flames.  And within minutes, the stage was engulfed in an inferno.  Lafayette ran down to the basement to save his animals.  There was a ramp for taking the animals in and out of the building from the basement.  Unfortunately, the ramp door was locked from outside.

 

On May 9, 1911, Lafayette died at age 40 with his animals.  And an additional 10 other performers died from this disastrous fire.

 

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Chapter 5

Buatier de Kolta

I will now introduce one of France’s most famous magicians with an incredible creative mind, Buatier de Kolta.

 

Buatier de Kolta  was born in Lyon, France on November 18, 1845.  His birth name was Joseph Buatier.  His father was a silk merchant.  As a result, Joseph Buatier knew everything there was to know about fine silks, which came in very handy in his later magical career.

 

At young age, Joseph Buatier learned sleight of hand magic and practiced day and night. He was obsessed with it and eventually developed his own style and his own tricks. He could take full-size cards and shrink them down slowly until they disappeared.

 

Joseph was performing his magic at the local coffee shops when he met a Hungarian show producer and manager by the name of

Julius Vido de Kolta and they became good friends.  Eventually,

Julius Vido de Kolta convinced Joseph Buatier that they can travel all over Europe and make tons of money together.  They traveled to Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, and Holland.

 

During their travels Joseph Buatier invented his first amazing invention: The Vanishing Birdcage.  He will have a small birdcage with a canary inside it held between his hands away from his body.  Within a split second, both the cage and the canary vanished instantly, leaving his hands completely empty.  This invention brought Joseph instant success.  Even the magicians of the time couldn’t stop talking about it.

 

Joseph Buatier felt very strongly that on the strength of this amazing trick, he could get a show in London, England.  He asked his manager, Julius Vido de Kolta, to negotiate a deal with the British show buyers in London.  And so he did negotiate a good deal.

 

Upon arriving in London, when Joseph Buatier found the posters already printed to promote his show, he realized that the British confused his name with his manager’s name and they called him “Buatier de Kolta”.   Rather than arguing with the show buyers and having them reprint the posters, Joseph decided to let it go.  And from that day on, he became known as Buatier de Kolta.

 

He opened up his show in May 1875 at the Egyptian Hall in London.  When the other magicians began copying his vanishing birdcage, he invented his next grand illusion.  He will have the audience examine a small wooden platform.  Then he place the small wooden platform onto the stage.  Over the platform, he placed a large birdcage.  A female assistant ,dressed up in a yellow canary costume, will enter the cage.  Then he will cover the cage with a beautiful silk cloth.   At the count of three, the cage, the female assistant, and the  cloth will all vanish instantly.   Bautier de Kolta was definitely ahead of his time.

 

(For those of you magicians who are reading this, and you know how you can vanish an assistant or the cage, you may be scratching your head wondering how de Kolta vanished the silk cloth covering the cage.  He used the hold-out principle.  And if you don’t know what the hold-out principle is, I’ll suggest you look it up.  You can also get in touch with me, if you are a member of the International Magicians Society.  Just send me an email to Tony@IMSmagic.com.)

 

By the 1880s, Buatier de Kolta invented one of his most famous Illusions, The de Kolta Chair. On the stage floor, he will place a bunch of newspapers. Then he will place a chair on top of the newspapers.  A female assistant will sit on the chair.  De Kolta will cover her with a beautiful silk cloth.  He will then pick up the cloth to show her legs up to her knees.  He will then grab the lady with the cloth and throw her in mid-air, where the lady and the cloth will vanish instantly.

 

Among many of De Kolta’s contributions to magic was to improve Black Art Magic, both in the presentation and the techniques.  De Kolta introduced Black Art Magic to England in 1888  at the Egyptian Hall in London.

 

Now we have to give credit where credit is due. Black Art Magic was invented by Max Auzinger, a German magician went by the stage name of

Ben Ali Bey.

 

(For those of you who are not familiar with Black Art Magic, let me give you a short description. This is where the possibilities are endless. You can change small objects visually into large objects. You can vanish objects from one end of the stage and make it appear on the other side of the stage immediately.  You can decapitate a person by removing their head, walk to the other side of the stage, and place the head on a table.  The head is still alive and talking, while the head is being moved from one side of the stage to the other.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.)

 

(If you’d like to learn more about Black Art Magic, you will find it at the International Magicians Society’s Magic Academy volume 38.  The Black Art specialist, Dondrake, teachers Black Art Magic from A to Z.)

 

Another of de Kolta's amazing Illusions was The Expanding Cube.  He introduced this extremely visual illusion in 1903 in New York at the Eden Musee.  He will walk on a stage with a square cube about 8 inches in diameter.  And he will tell the audience that he is carrying his wife in this little box.  He will then place the cube on a table.  And when he claps his hands, the 8 inch coop will immediately expand to about a 40 inch square cube.  He will lift the cube up to reveal his wife.  He always got a standing ovation for this amazing illusion.

 

A couple of weeks later, he traveled to New Orleans to perform.  Unfortunately he died suddenly from acute Bright’s disease on October 7, 1903 at the age of 55.  Since his death, just about every professional magician used one of De Kolta’s inventions.

 

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Chapter 6

John Nevil Maskelyne

John Nevil Maskelyne was one of England’s great magicians and a show producer.  He was born on December 22, 1839 in Cheltenham, England.

 

Maskelyne’s father was a saddle-maker.  Growing up, Maskelyne helped his father and learned to work with tools and all kinds of different materials.

 

As a teenager, Maskelyne got a job working in a clock shop as an apprentice to a clock-maker.  But his heart was in entertainment.  He loved dancing and singing.  He sang at the church choir every Sunday.

 

Along the way, Maskelyne discovered magic.  He learned some tricks and how to spin plates on a tabletop.  Maskelyne practiced his tricks until he was good at them.  He entertained his friends and had fun.

 

On March 7, 1865, Maskelyne went to see the Davenport brothers’ seance show at the Cheltenham Town Hall.  He was unlucky. He couldn’t get a good seat.  He ended up sitting way on the left side of the hall, almost parallel to the makeshift stage.  This was an afternoon show.  Because this was a seance show, the entire room needed to be dark.  Therefore the Davenport brothers covered all of the windows with heavy black cloth to prevent sunlight from coming in the windows.

 

On the makeshift stage was a large cabinet with three doors.  Inside the cabinet was a long piece of wood nailed on each side of the cabinet, creating a place for the brothers to sit facing each other.  Hanging from above were many musical instruments, such as a guitar, violin, bells, whistles, and tambourines.

 

The presenter introduced the Davenport Brothers.  Then he asked audience members to come up on  stage and examine everything to verify that everything was normal and legitimate.  The presenter then asked the volunteers to tie the brothers’ hands behind their backs and tie their ankles to the floor.

 

Half a dozen men ran to the stage.  One of them was Maskelyne.

 

After tying the Davenport Brothers securely, the volunteers went back to their seats.  The presenter signaled for the lights to be turned off and the show began immediately.  The violin began playing, then the trumpet, followed by the other musical instruments.  At one point, one of the windows, which was covered by a black cloth, must’ve been slightly open and a little bit of wind caused the black cloth to move a little, letting the sunshine seep in.  From way on the left side of the hall, where Maskelyne was sitting, he could see inside the cabinet from the slightly open door and realized that Ira Davenport was ringing the bells vigorously.  Then the beam of sunlight vanished, as the black cloth covering the window stopped moving.

 

(Keep in mind that during this time, there was a great deal of controversy about how the Davenport brothers might be fake mediums.)

 

After the show, Maskelyne told the audience what he had seen and no one believed him.  As a result, Maskelyne wanted to prove that seance shows can be performed as entertainment and that there was no need for the ghost manifestations.  Maskelyne asked his friend, George Alfred Cooke, to help him build the cabinet, so that together they can perform the Davenport brothers’ act.  Maskelyne figured out that the brothers were able to slip their hands in and out of tightly-knotted ropes.  The rest was easy.

 

After four months of practicing, both Maskelyne and George Cook performed the Davenport Brothers’ act on June 19, 1865 at the Jessop’s Gardens, demonstrating that seance and spiritualism can be done without the manifestation of the spirits.  Basically, it was presented as well-done tricks for entertainment purposes.

 

The local newspapers ran with the story.  Soon after, Maskelyne was famous.  These newspaper articles caught the attention of a young show promoter, William Morton, who booked Maskelyne and Cook at the London’s Crystal Palace in 1869.   Over the next four years, Maskelyne invented many illusions, including the incredible levitation where he could levitate his assistant vertically, which has never been done before.

 

Maskelyne signed a lease in 1873 to one of the exhibition halls of the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. The Egyptian Hall originally was a museum with several exhibition halls.  After many years, it lost its attraction and became available for rent.  Maskelyne spent his own money to build a stage and turn the exhibition hall into a theater and began performing nightly with his friend George Alfred Cooke.

 

Each year, Maskelyne added more new illusions to his shows,  Along the way, he invited other magicians to come and work at the Egyptian Hall Theatre, making it possible for magicians from England and other countries to come and work in England.

 

On March 1875, Maskelyne introduced his amazing automaton “Psycho, the mechanical doll”.  Psycho was about 22 inches tall and seated on a small square cube about 7 inches x 7 inches square. The cube was placed on a glass table, so there were no visible wires running from the floor to Psycho.

 

Because the glass table was transparent (and back in 1875, there were no remote controls),  Psycho could still accomplish miracles.  Audience members can name any card from a freely shuffled deck of cards.  Maskelyne placed the cards in front of Psycho.  And Psycho will reach over and remove the selected cards.  That was just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Psycho could do difficult mathematical equations.  By placing cards with numbers in front of Psycho, Maskelyne will ask the audience members to name different numbers.  Then there will be mathematical equations.  Yet Psycho will duplicate the mathematical equations by picking the correct number cards.

 

Psycho will also spell out words from cards that had the Roman alphabet on them.

 

This small mechanical wonder was so small that not even a rabbit can hide inside of it.

 

London newspapers wrote lengthy articles about Psycho.  People were waiting on lines to buy tickets to go into the Egyptian Hall to see Psycho.

 

Maskelyne continued his shows at the Egyptian Hall, up until the end of 1904.  Then Maskelyne moved his show to St. George’s Hall in Langham Place.

 

Maskelyne’s new theater was opened on January 1905.  Up until the First World War in 1914, Maskelyne hired many different magicians and novelty acts to perform at his new show.  And from time to time, Maskelyne himself appeared on the stage.

 

During the war years, business was bad.  Maskelyne closed the theatre and continued developing new magic and illusions, as well as writing magic books.

 

Maskelyne reopened the theatre in February 1916 and began performing again.

 

By May 2, 1917, Maskelyne’s health began declining.  And on May 18, 1917, Maskelyne, the great magician and show producer, died at the age of 77.  The cause of death was pneumonia. He will be remembered as the longest-running magic show in Great Britain.

 

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Chapter 7

Anderson, the Great Wizard of the North

John Henry Anderson, the Great Wizard of the North, became one of the world‘s most famous magicians at his time.  Anderson was born on a small farm in Scotland.  There was no chance of traveling any distance, other than the nearest city near his parent’s farm.  Yet he traveled the world, wining and dining with kings, queens, and emperors.  Anderson had an amazing life.

 

John Henry Anderson was born on July 16, 1814 to farming parents near Aberdeen, Scotland.  As a child, he had seen some traveling magicians that performed magic shows in Aberdeen and that ignited the flames of desire in him to pursue magic.  And this caused the persistence in him to become a magician.

 

At first, Anderson began learning magic and practicing.  By 1837, he began working as a professional magician.  He spent some of his earnings buying better magical equipment.  And he spent most of his money on advertisement. He was probably the pioneer of creating very creative and eye catching magical posters.

 

On some of these posters. people saw his title “Wonder of the World.”  On other posters, it simply said “Anderson is coming.”  A week later, a new poster said “Anderson is here.”

 

And on large posters, the kings, queens, and emperors bowed at him with approval, just as if he was approved by the world’s most powerful people.  He actually invented hype on posters.  It is possible that P.T. Barnum got his ideas for his promotions from Anderson.

 

The other performers had only a handful of posters near where they performed.  On the other hand, Anderson plastered his posters all over the city’s walls “Anderson is coming” or “Anderson is here”.

 

I am not surprised that later on he changed his title to “The Great Wizard of the North.”

 

Anderson’s early success started in Aberdeen, where he placed his beautiful posters all over the city.  He managed to sell out in small theaters and assembly rooms.

 

After his tour of Scotland, Anderson moved the show to Ireland.  In Belfast, he used the same promotion technique by placing large and beautiful posters all over the city.

 

Anderson then moved the show to Dublin, where he perform over 200 sold-out shows before moving back to Scotland and began performing in Glasgow.  Within two months, Anderson created his own theater near the Scottish annual fairgrounds.  He named his new theater “The Palace of Enchantment.”

 

During the 1838 annual fair, Anderson sold out over 100,000 paid tickets.  The following season, he sold out over 200,000 pay tickets. One of the main attractions in his show was the bullet-catch.

 

In 1840, Anderson moved his show to London, England, where he began to bill himself as “The Great Wizard of North.”

 

Anderson took his show all the way across Europe.  Along the way, he entertained the King of Denmark  Christian VIII and King Oscar The First of Sweden.

 

In 1847, Anderson traveled to the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, where he entertained Czar Nicholas at the Winter Palace.

 

On August 27, 1849, upon returning to England, Anderson was summoned by Queen Victoria to perform his amazing magic at the Balmoral Castle.

 

Anderson was a great promoter who made very good use of his royal performances.  Upon returning to Scotland, he promoted to the audience that they will see a new amazing magic show with new and improved magic and that this is the same magic show that entertained Queen Victoria and the royal family.

 

In 1851, Anderson sailed to the United States.  He opened at the Broadway Theatre in New York.  He was a genius at advertising with billboards and handing out leaflets.  This made him the biggest success on Broadway.  Within his first 100 nights, he sold over 250,000 tickets.  After New York, Anderson began to play other cities in the United States.

 

In 1855, Anderson returned to England.  After touring England and the British Isles, he decided to go on a world tour.

 

On March of 1858, Anderson sailed from Liverpool to Australia.  In June, he arrived in Melbourne again with his clever advertising.  Anderson sold out at the Melbourne Royal Fair for the next two months.  From Melbourne, Anderson took the show to Sydney.  After two months in Sydney, he took the show across Australia through some goldmine towns.  From Australia, Anderson sailed to Hawaii, where he entertained the queen of Hawaii.

 

From there, Anderson sailed to America and arrived in San Francisco.  On December 1859, he opened up in the biggest theater, The Opera House.  As always, he played to packed audiences.  From San Francisco, Anderson took the show to Sacramento, then across the country all the way to Boston.

 

When the American Civil War started in March of 1861, the friction between north and south got ugly.  Ticket sales went down and shows were no longer profitable.  And the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he was in Richmond, Virginia, where people begin tearing down his posters and saying, “This guy has the nerve to promote himself as the Great Wizard of the North!”

 

It was then that Anderson decided to go back to England to retire in Scotland.

 

John Henry Anderson, The Great Wizard of the North, passed away on February 3, 1874 at the age of 59.  He was buried at the cemetery in Aberdeen, not too far from the farm where he was born.

 

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Chapter 8

Carl Herrmann

Carl Herrmann was born January 23, 1816 in the outskirts of Hanover, Germany.

 

His father was Samuel Herrmann, a local magician.

 

Carl glow up learning magic from his father and other local magicians.   And he learned also magic from traveling magicians.  Carl was a very likable child.  And his father‘s friends also taught him magic.  As a result, Carl became a very good sleight of hand artist.  He was very good with playing cards, coins, and cups & balls, all of which required dexterity.

 

A traveling gypsy magician taught Carl how to do bird calls (imitating bird sounds) and ventriloquism.

 

By the age of 14, Carl was making over 20 different bird calls.

 

Carl continued working with his father as a magician‘s assistant.

 

By the age of 20, Carl began performing his own magic

 

Carl had a very likable personality with a distinguished charisma.  He learned to project his voice, where

even at a very large opera house, people sitting way in the back can hear him.

 

Carl moved to Paris and began performing his magic at assembly rooms and schools, as well as private performances.

 

Carl eventually worked at theaters. He invested his money wisely by purchasing large illusions.  Once he collected enough illusions to perform a full evening show, he took his show to London.  There he billed himself as the first professor of magic in the world.

 

It was 1848.  Carl was 32 years old and got very good reviews from the London newspapers.  Now he was ready to go back to Germany, as well as Austria, Portugal and Italy.

 

By now, Carl learned to become friends with those people who could introduce him to royal families, so that they can arrange for him to perform his magic to kings and queens.  Just to name a few of the kings and queens that Carl entertained, there was Emperor Franz Josef The First of Austria, King Ludwig The First of Bavaria, King Dom Pedro V of Portugal, King Frederick VII of Denmark, Queen Isabella II of Spain, and Czar Nicholas of Russia.

 

From each royal performance, Carl got a little gift from the Kings and Queens.  Carl used these gifts on his advertisements to promote himself as the royal performer.

 

By the time Carl Herrmann was ready to go to South America, he got rid of some of his big illusions, so that he can travel light.  He began performing sleight of hand magic.  This worked for him very well.  That’s because most of the magicians competing with him were using stage props and not enough sleight of hand.  People appreciated the skills of cards appearing from mid-air and producing large coins one after the other and dropping the coins into the metal bucket, where people way in the back of the theater can hear the dropping of coins into the bucket.

 

Carl traveled through Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba.  In 1861, Carl traveled to the United States.  The first stop was New Orleans. He performed one month at the Saint Charles Theatre. This was the beginning of the American Civil War. Carl was smart enough to travel to New York, where it will be safe from the war.

 

In New York, he used his publicity materials that he got from the Kings and Queens to land himself into the Academy Music Theatre.  His jewelry with diamonds and sapphires that he received from the Kings and Queens was displayed in a glass box at Tiffany’s jewelry store for the newspapers to photograph and publish.  What a brilliant idea to promote his show, by using the kings’ and queens’ jewelry and billing himself as the royal performer.

 

Carl also printed hundreds of posters and thousands of handouts.   On September 21, 1861, this promotion brought the largest crowds to the theater, where more than 4,000 people were turned away, because the tickets were sold out.

 

Carl was so skilled with playing cards that he could throw cards to any corner or the theater.  People were eager to catch one as a souvenir.

 

Carl took his show to Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Newark to sold-out theaters.  One of his  favorite tricks was showing an empty bottle and then pouring from it an endless flow of different drinks that the audience asked for.

 

His “second sight act” was so well done that it earned him the title of “first professor of magic in the world”.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with the second sight act, this is where a magician’s assistant is blindfolded.  The magician walked through the aisles of the theater, where people handed him different objects.  The blindfolded assistant will describe the objects in detail, sometimes even with the serial numbers on the money.

 

On the strength of his success in the United States, Carl went back to England and opened his show in 1863 at the Princess Theatre in London.  In England, Carl had amazing success and made a tremendous amount of money.

 

After England, Carl purchased a mansion in Vienna, which he furnished with most expensive furniture, antiques, and collectibles.  Carl began inviting all the celebrities to his beautiful home.  This also created major PR in newspapers.  As always, people loved to hear success stories and their homes with photos of them with celebrities.  You can say you took a magician to come up with this type of promotion.  Later on Hollywood copied this formula.

 

Carl continued to perform throughout the world.  In 1870, he announced that this will be his farewell tour of the United States and that he will return home to Vienna and retire from show business.

 

But that’s not the end of the story.  In 1874, the financial panic wiped out his entire savings and all of investments.  That forced Carl Herrmann to go back to work at the age of 57.

 

He travelled and performed for the next 15 years and saved over $200,000 and went back to retirement.

 

On June 8, 1887, Carl Herrmann died at the age of 71.  The London newspapers called him the greatest of all time.

 

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Chapter 9

Harry Kellar

Harry Kellar, America’s greatest magician, was born on July 11, 1849 to German parents in Erie, Pennsylvania.  His birth name was Heinrich Kellar.

 

Before he became America’s greatest magician, traveled to five continents, and performed in hundreds of cities, he went through so much hardship, disappointment, and struggle.

 

Since I am not writing his biography, I will spare you from reading hundreds of pages.  And I will give you the important historical facts and the journey of a great man.

 

At the age of 10, Kellar got tired of his stepmother’s constant abusing him and showing no love or sympathy to him.  So he ran away from home by jumping on a freight car at the nearest railroad.  On the train in the freight cars, Kellar saw other homeless hobos.  So he got off the train in Cleveland, Ohio, where he managed to get a job at a dry goods store.

 

After saving up a little bit of money to travel again, Kellar jumped onto another freight car.   This train was bound for Cincinnati, Ohio.  He managed to get odd jobs in Cincinnati and made enough money to get onto the next freight car heading for New York.  Kellar felt that New York City was big enough, where he can get better jobs and be prosperous.

 

In New York, Kellar got a job at the Earle Hotel, where he cleaned the floors and slept in the basement of the hotel.  In his spare time, he sold newspapers in street corners.

 

Visiting New York City was Robert Harcourt, a clergyman from Canandaigua in upstate New York, who took pity on the young newspaper boy and offered to adopt him and pay for his education, if the young boy will study for the ministry.

 

This encounter with the clergyman was meant to be.  There was a traveling magic show at a nearby town: Penn Yan, New York.  The clergyman and young Kellar went to see the magician Fakir of Ava.  It was during this show that Kellar fell in love with magic and made up his mind to spend his entire life performing magic.

 

Kellar began buying magic books and tried to learn as much magic as he can.  Eventually, he made up his mind to move to Buffalo, a big affluent city in upstate New York.  There he felt he will a have better chance of meeting other magic hobbyists and learn magic from them.  Kellar told the clergyman that he had to follow his heart.

 

In Buffalo, Kellar got a job at a family farm of Henry Fiske, where he had room and board, as well as pocket money.  Kellar was working at the farm for about a month, when he read an advertisement in the newspaper that the Fakir of Ava was looking to hire a boy assistant.  Kellar immediately ran 2 1/2 miles all the way to Fakir of Ava’s home.

 

Fakir of Ava was an Englishman from Essex, England.  His birth name was Isaiah Harris Hughes.  He told young Kellar that there were 15 other young men applying for the job.  So Fakir of Ava told Kellar to come back in three days and he will have an answer for him.

 

Kellar was afraid that someone else might get the job.  So he tried to convince Fakir of Ava by telling him his entire life story, including how the Fakir of Ava was the first magician he ever saw and how Kellar fell in love with magic and wanted to spend the rest of his life doing magic.  Then Kellar said “If you give me this opportunity, I will be the best assistant you will ever have.  And if I cannot be the best magician’s assistant, you don’t have to fire me.  I will quit myself.”  Fakir of Ava was so impressed with the young man’s desire and persistence to be a magician that he decided to give Kellar the job.

 

With that, Fakir said, “Listen young man. 15 other people came here to get this job. My dog didn’t like any of them. You’re the only person, from the moment you entered my house, that my dog began wiggling his tail for.  So I’m going to listen to my dog and give you the job.”

 

After working for the Fakir for over 14 months, Kellar asked for permission to go and do his own performances.  So at the age of 16, Kellar performed his first show in Dunkirk, Michigan and went on to perform all the small towns, only to return back to Fakir of Ava and admit that he was a failure as a performer.  So Kellar continued working for the Fakir for the next two years.

 

Then Kellar went out performing again, just to try his luck again.  Sometimes, he made money.  Other times, he lost money.  Sometimes, he tried to convince printers to print his handbills on credit in between performances.  Kellar got odd jobs, such as paving the streets or working in hotels.  All the while, Kellar persistently continued performing.  Sometimes he made good money.  Other times, he barely made ends meet.

 

Eventually, Kellar made the decision that he had to go back and work with the other magicians to learn more, so he can become a better magician.

 

Right about this time, he heard about the Davenport Brothers from Buffalo.  At the time, Ira and William Davenport had their first successful stage medium show.  Since Kellar got his first break in Buffalo and since the Davenport Brothers are from Buffalo, Kellar felt very comfortable to approach the Davenport brothers and ask them if he can work for them as an assistant.  And since the Fakir of Ava was a reputable magician and Kellar worked for him almost 4 years, The Davenport Brothers hired Kellar immediately.

 

On August 1864, Kellar traveled to England with the Davenport brothers, where he spent the next four years traveling through England and Europe.  Kellar learned new skills, including advertising and managing.  He was promoted as the Davenport Brothers’ promoter and business manager.

 

In 1868, the Davenport Brothers and Kellar came back to the United States. Eventually, Kellar decided to go back on his own and pursue his childhood dream.  Kellar went back to traveling smaller cities and performing on his own again.  This time, he knew how to promote and sell tickets. Also, he had a better show.

 

In the summer of 1873, Kellar decided to take his show internationally.  And he took the show to Canada by December.  He traveled to Havana, Cuba.  In Cuba, Kellar learned to speak Spanish.  One of Kellar’s gifts was that he can actually pick up foreign languages fairly easy.

 

From Cuba, he took his show to Veracruz, Mexico, where he performed over 200 shows to packed theaters.  He then traveled to Mexico City, where he sold out almost every night.

 

From Mexico, he traveled to Panama, Ecuador, and Peru.

 

Then he sailed to the East Coast of South America.

 

In Teatro de Opera in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Kellar had even more success.  In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Emperor Dom Pedro II came to see the show three times.

 

From Rio de Janeiro, Kellar and his crew boarded the Royal Mail Steamship en route to England.  Two weeks later, on August 13, 1875, the ship struck rocks in the bay of Biscay.  Three people drowned.  The rest of the crew and passengers were saved by a French warship and were taken to the island of Molene.

 

In the shipwreck, Kellar lost everything, including all his illusions and the money he made, which was more than $30,000 worth of silver, gold coins, and uncut Brazilian diamonds.  Kellar was left with just the clothes on his back and a gold ring with diamonds on his finger.

 

His gold coins and all of his other valuables were hidden in one of the illusion’s hidden compartments.  This illusion was securely packed in a shipping crate, which is now lying on the bottom of the ocean.

 

Upon arriving in London, England, Kellar checked into the Craven hotel and immediately sent a telegram to Duncan Sherman Banking Company in the USA, where he had all his savings.  Kellar asked them to wire money for him in London. To his shock and disbelief, he was told that the bank went out of business and went bankrupt.

 

Desperate and in need of money, Kellar approached the famous banker Junius Spencer

Morgan, JP Morgan’s father.  It was a known fact that Junius Spencer Morgan never lent money to anyone without good collateral.  Kellar convinced Mr. Morgan to lend him the money without collateral.  That made it possible for Kellar to return back to New York and hire Henry Stone, an Illusion builder, to build Kellar new illusions and conjuring equipment.  Then Kellar hired a new cast and crew and was back in business.

 

With the new show, he sailed to Australia.  The show arrived in Sydney on September 1876.  The show traveled through small and large cities throughout Australia.  Then it traveled to Indonesia in 1877 through large and small cities.  From there, the show  traveled to Malaysia and Singapore.  Afterwards, the show sailed to China, playing the major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.  And then the show finally traveled to Hong Kong.

 

By 1878, the show was traveling throughout India, in such cities as Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, and lots of small cities in between.  From India, he took the show to Africa, again traveling between large and small cities.  By then, Kellar was 30 years old and he saved up enough money and got lots of new illusions.  From Africa, he sailed to England.  There too he took the show to small and large cities all the way to Scotland. On April 29, 1880 in Edinburgh, Kellar performed for Queen Victoria in Balmoral castle.

 

From England, Kellar decided to go around the world second time, this time in reverse order, taking his show to such countries and cities: Gibraltar, Malta, Portugal, and Egypt.  In South Africa, he traveled through the diamond prospect cities, where Kellar sold out night after night and made lots of money.  From South Africa, the show crossed the Indian ocean and arrived at Mumbai, then to Delhi, and then Calcutta.

 

From there, Kellar took the show to Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and then back to the USA.  During his world travels, he learned to speak Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and French.  He got sick many times with high fever.  He survived malaria and a shipwreck.   By this point, Kellar was 35 years old and ready to stay in the USA and settle down.

 

It should be mentioned that back then, traveling was very difficult.  The road conditions were not what they are today.  And that goes to any other form of transportation, especially shipping those large illusions, costumes, props, cast, and crew.  It was remarkable that he was able to travel the world with that large scale show back then.

 

Kellar leased the old Masonic Hall on October 23, 1884 in Philadelphia.  He spent lots of money fixing and renovating the hall into a theater and gave it a new name: Kellar’s Egyptian Hall.  He opened the doors to the public on December 15, 1884.

 

For the first time in his life, Kellar performed 270 consecutive shows.  And he knew he was home to stay.

 

In New York at the Comedy Theatre, he performed 180 sold-out shows.  Then he took the show cross-country and became America’s greatest magician.  On May 16, 1908, at the end of the show in Baltimore, at the Fort Theatre, Kellar announced his retirement and delivered his farewell speech.  Then he called Howard Thurston on stage and announced that Thurston will be his successor and wished him the best of luck.

 

After his retirement, Kellar and his wife Ava moved to Los Angeles, where Kellar had built a large villa with a large workshop for Kellar to keep busy experimenting with new magical apparatus.  Within two years after moving to Los Angeles, Kellar’s wife Ava died.

 

Houdini, who idolized Kellar when he was young, became good friends with Kellar.  And Houdini was a frequent visitor at Kellar‘s house.  While Houdini was shooting his Hollywood movies.  Houdini asked Kellar to come back to New York and star in a show that the Society of American Magicians was organizing as a benefit show for the families of the first Americans who died in World War I.

 

On October 17, 1917, Kellar performed his favorite tricks, including escaping from ropes and the famous spirit cabinet at the end of the show.  Kellar took his final bows to a standing ovation of 6,000 people and begin to walk off the stage, when Houdini ran on the stage and said America’s greatest magician should be carried off in triumph after his final public performance.  The magicians ran on the stage to help Kellar on a big upholstered chair, while other magicians ran onto the stage to shower him with roses and flowers.  As they raised the chair to carry him off the stage, the 100-piece orchestra played “Auld Lang Syne”, as the world’s greatest magician was carried off the Hippodrome stage.

 

Kellar died five years later at his Los Angeles home on March 10, 1922 at the age of 73.

 

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Chapter 10

Howard Thurston

Howard Franklin Thurston was born on July 20, 1869 in Columbus, Ohio.  His father was a carriage builder.  Thurston had no desire to learn to work with tools.

 

Thurston’s ambition was to work at the racetrack and become a horse jock.  This way, he can travel from racetrack to racetrack in different cities.  His height was only 5‘6“ and he felt that this will qualify him to become a jockey.

 

From a young age, Thurston worked at race tracks doing all kinds of jobs, from shoveling horse manure to walking the horses.

 

Growing up, Thurston has seen several magic shows.  He got interested in magic and purchased a used copy of Professor Hoffman‘s magic instructional book entitled “Modern Magic” and began to learn simple and easy magic tricks.

 

In Boston, Thurston met Dr. James William Elliott, a medical doctor and magic hobbyist.  Doctor Elliott was very good with card tricks and coin manipulations.  He could vanish a card in his hand and show both sides of his hands empty.

 

Dr. James William Elliott taught Thurston his fine techniques.  Ands this was the beginning of Thurston’s career in magic.

 

Thurston practiced  card manipulations day and night and got his first job as a magician in Nelsonville, Ohio at the Great London Sideshow of the Sells Brothers’ Circus.

 

The starting salary was six dollars per week.  Then Thurston begin getting jobs at different venues, traveling from town to town.  At one of the variety shows, Thurston met his first wife, Grace Texola, who was a singer and dancer. Thurston was 28 years old and Grace was 15 years old.  They got married August 21, 1897 in Sparta, Mississippi.  Grace began to work with her husband as his assistant.

 

On August 1899, Thurston signed up with a New York Show at the 14th St. Theatre.  His wife Grace went on the road with the butterfly sisters singing and dancing act.

 

Thurston hired a 10 year old negro boy to be his assistant.  The show got good reviews. Thurston was in demand.  He signed up with the Keith circuit in the east and the Orpheum circuit in the west.

 

Thurston went to England and got a four-week contract to perform in London at the Palace Theatre on November 1900.  The review was very good.  And the British liked his style and originality.

 

Thurston showed great skill by throwing playing cards to all corners of the theater with great accuracy.

 

His four week contract was extended to six months.  By this time, Thurston and Grace got divorced.

 

In London, The Prince of Wales visited Thurston backstage at his dressing room.

 

After six months of working at the Palace Theatre, Thurston traveled to Europe to perform his magic in France, Denmark, Belgium, and then back to  England.

 

Around this time in his life, Thurston felt that his act would become stale.  Because by then, everyone had seen it.  As a result, Thurston decided to change his act.

 

In London, Thurston rented a large storage room, where he could build new props.  He found a good carpenter and a good painter, as well as other talented people.  Together, they worked with due diligence and finished the new act.

 

Thurston then rented the Princess Theater for rehearsals.  After they completed their rehearsals, Thurston sent invitations to show-buyers.  Among them was Paul Keith, the owner of the Keith Vaudeville Theaters in the USA.

 

Paul Keith signed Thurston to Keith Vaudeville shows on April of 1903.  Thurston opened his show in Boston. The show consisted of the floating ball and many other productions from a small egg to large items from a top hat.

 

His grand finale was changing a statue into a beautiful live woman.

 

Thurston toured with Keith theaters all the way to New York.  Along the way, he kept adding more magic into his act.

 

In the spring of 1904, Thurston signed with the Willow Grove amusement park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

In the spring of 1905, Thurston sailed to Australia with his own full show, “The Wonder Show of The Universe.”

 

Thurston opened at the Palace Theatre in July 1904.  The reviews were excellent.  For the next 11 months, he toured Australia.  Then he took the show to the Philippines and Hong Kong.  After that, he took the show to Vietnam, Singapore, and India.  Thurston managed to travel through India, when the bubonic plague was spreading fast. The dead bodies were laying in the streets when Thurston decided to go back home to the United States.  By this time, Thurston had made a lot of money.  So he felt it was time to go back home and open up his own show and travel throughout the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the United States, Thurston found out that Kellar was thinking about retiring.

 

Thurston made an offer to Kellar to purchase his show.  Actually, Thurston was not interested in Kellar’s illusions; he was interested in getting Kellar‘s blessings and to become known as “Kellar’s successor.”  This made Thurston an instant success in the United States.

 

Also, Thurston wanted to get Kellar’s route, meaning that the theaters Kellar performed at would automatically hire Thurston.  This meant a lot of money to Thurston and he figure the money he would pay Kellar would be earned back in about two years.  It was a good business move and a good investment.

 

Thurston meet Kellar and offered Kellar a good deal of money.  Kellar accepted Thurston’s offer.

 

One year after Thurston purchased Kellar’s show, Thurston replaced most of Kellar’s illusions with new illusions, except the Kellar levitation and the spirit cabinet.

 

The new illusions that replaced Kellar’s illusions were:

 

1- A trunk is shown empty and a lady immediately appears from it.

 

2- The lady assistant was strapped inside of a thin box. The doors were closed  and then opened. The lady assistant was then strapped upside-down.

 

3- An empty platform was shown.  The curtain dropped in front of the platform.  When the curtain dropped to the floor, a lady with a wedding gown appears.

 

4- The metamorphosis: a lady is placed in a mail bag and locked inside a trunk.  A male assistant would stand on top of the trunk.  And within seconds, the lady was outside of the trunk and the male assistant is inside the mail bag inside the trunk.

 

5-  A lady was placed inside a mummy box.  Then the mummy box was lifted high above.   When Thurston fired a pistol, the mummy box was opened and the lady disappeared. There was a different box that was hanging all along.  When the second box was opened, inside was another box, and inside of that box was another box; when the last box was opened, the lady that just vanished had reappeared from the four boxes that nested into each other.

 

Each season, Thurston added more illusions into the show.

 

6- In 1912, Thurston introduced the Phantom Piano, where the piano and the piano player vanished in mid-air.

 

7- A new levitation of princess Karnak.

 

8- The lady without middle: After blades passed through the box, the audience saw the lady’s head and the lady’s legs, but the lady’s middle was missing.

 

Around this time, Thurston got married to his principal assistant, Beatrice Foster.

 

Thurston took his show to Broadway, New York on September 1919.  The show was spectacular.

 

His water fountain illusion was nothing like anything ever seen on Broadway.  Anything Thurston touched with his magic wand turned into a water fountain.  Thurston touched his assistant’s fingers and water began shooting from her fingertips.  The same took place with someone else’s shoes and flowers.  Everything turned into water fountains all over the stage.  And for the big finish, Thurston had levitated on the tips of the water fountains.

 

Thurston continued traveling throughout the country.  At the same time, he was writing his life story.  By 1929, Thurston completed his autobiography entitled “My Life of Magic.”

 

Thurston purchased a large home in Beechhurst, Queens near Manhattan.  There, Thurston built a large workshop, where he continued developing and building new illusions.

 

His vanishing horse in mid-air was advertised as the $50,000 Illusion.  Actually, this Illusion cost $2000.  (Basically it was the black-art principle.)

 

It took a magician to create a major publicity campaign by over-hyping the price of the Illusion.  Hollywood copied that principle by over-hyping the cost of movies or the movie stars’ salaries.

 

The “Wonder Show of The Universe” continued touring in big theaters with his big illusions and animals, including many doves, rabbits, and ducks.

 

Then the big financial crash came in October 1929, in which many people lost their jobs and the economy was in rough shape.  By 1931, the shock-waves reached every corner of the country.

 

In 1931, Thurston downsized the show, so that it would work in movie theaters.

 

By then people, could not afford big-price live shows.

 

By incorporating his show with a movie, people could afford to go see a movie and a live show.  So basically, Thurston tried to adapt to the trends and changes.

 

In 1932, Thurston got another opportunity to become a radio host.

 

On October 6, 1935, Thurston performed his last show at the Kearse Theatre in Charleston, West Virginia.

 

After a late dinner, Thurston suffered a paralytic stroke.  He had a slow recovery and had to walk with a cane.  He was then stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage.  Then things got worse.  After that, he came down with pneumonia.

Thurston died on April 13, 1936 at the age of 67.

 

If you think about it, he had an amazing life, where he started out doing small magic with cards and coins and was a very good sleight of hand artist, before he became a great illusionist.

 

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Chapter 11

Robert Houdin

Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic, was born on December 7, 1805 in Blois, France and his birth name was Jean Eugene Robert.

 

Jean Eugene’s father was a watchmaker, so he was groomed to follow the family tradition.

 

His father sent Jean Eugene to college.  Upon graduating, Jean Eugene got a job at one of his cousin’s clock shops.  It was during this period that Jean Eugene wanted to study Ferdinand Berthoud’s treatise on horology.  The bookseller made a mistake and gave him the “illustrated encyclopedia dictionary of scientific amusements.”

 

Upon returning home, Jean Eugene sat down to study the book.  And to his disappointment, he realized that the book did not contain any clocks or clock mechanisms.  It actually showed secrets of magic.

 

Jean Eugene began to turn the pages.  As he continued turning the pages, he found himself totally fascinated with magic.  After he read the book from cover to cover, Jean Eugene began taking magic lessons from local magicians and learned mostly sleight of hand magic which the book did not cover.

 

Jean Eugene began practicing his newly found hobby and entertained his friends. However, he had no desire to become a professional magician

 

At the age of 23, Jean Eugene met 17-year-old Josephe Cecile Eglantine Houdin at a party, where he entertained her with his magic.  She actually took a liking to him and they became friends.  Shortly thereafter, Jean Eugène was working for her father, who was a well-known clockmaker and owner of four well-respected clock shops in Paris.

 

On July 8, 1830 Jean Eugene married Josephe Cecile Eglantine Houdin.  Ten months later, their first child was born, a beautiful healthy boy Jean named Jacques Emile.  After the birth of their first child, Jean Eugene’s father-in-law help Jean Eugene financially to open his own clock shop in Paris.

 

To capitalize on the family name and four well-respected Houdin clock shops that his father-in-law owned, Jean Eugène decided to adopt his wife’s family name, so that his shop will be under the same name of Houdin.  Thereafter, Jean Eugène became known as Robert-Houdin.

 

As his shop began to do good business financially, Robert-Houdin was able to afford visiting the local magic shops periodically and purchase magic apparatus.

 

Also, Robert-Houdin enjoyed meeting some of the local amateur and professional magicians at the magic shop.  He found out all the news about magic and any visiting magicians.  He made an effort to see every visiting magic show in Paris. He tried to learn as much as he could.

 

Robert-Houdin began to build unusual, mysterious objects that he sold to wealthy people.  Just to name of few of his new inventions, he designed a round piece of glass in the shape of a clock.  The glass was supported on a long glass rod.  Attached to the base on the round glass were the numbers of the clock and the handle of the clock. There were no visible mechanisms to make those handles turn precisely.  Basically he built a glass clock with no visible working mechanisms, yet the clock kept perfect time.

 

Another very entertaining novelty piece he built was a beautifully designed automaton, which was a doll that would pick up a cup from the table.  The first time the doll picked up the cup, there was nothing under the cup on the table.  Then the automaton placed the cup on a table and lifted it up and magically a ball appeared under the cup.  The automaton keep repeating this until it had three balls.  The fourth time cup went down and up, all the balls disappeared.

 

Another beautiful mechanical wonder was the mechanical bird that would sing and wiggle its tail and wings.  These kind of mechanical wonders provided additional income to Robert-Houdin, which also made the name Robert-Houdin famous with the wealthy people in Paris.

 

Robert-Houdin’s wife had been ill for about 15 months and died on October 19, 1843 at the age of 32, leaving behind her husband and her three children.  Their older son Emile was only 12 years old.

 

Meantime, Robert-Houdin managed to take care of the children and continued working.

 

On August 1844, Robert-Houdin married Francois Marguerite Olympe Braconnier.  With his new wife, helping with the children, and managing his business, Robert-Houdin began seriously thinking about finding a suitable location, such as a meeting room or assembly room, where he can rent and renovate it into a small theatre where he can perform magic nightly.

 

But opening his own magic theatre had to wait, until he built all of the necessary magical apparatus that he can perform at least a two-hour show.  So he spend a great deal of time in his shop building magic apparatus for his show.

 

Occasionally, Robert-Houdin accepted invitations from wealthy people to perform magic in their homes for private parties, which earned him additional monies.  Soon he found the perfect place for his theatre near the Comedie Francaise in the old Palais-Royal.

 

The main floor of the building had merchandise shops and a coffee shop on the second floor.  There were assembly rooms, meeting rooms, and restaurants.  He leased the assembly room at 164 Galerie Valois and began to remodel the place, totally changing the walls with fresh paint, installing new carpets, and building a beautiful stage with trimmings that looks like the inside of the Royal Palace with gold trims and new candle operators.

 

He was almost 40 years old, when Robert-Houdin opened up his theater on July 3, 1845.  At the opening night with stage fight and stress, he lost confidence and began speaking fast, and rushed through the magical apparatus.  By the end of the show, he had a nervous breakdown.

 

The next day, he had Robert-Houdin desire to go through the agony again.  So he sent one of his helpers to take down the sign and the billboards.  For the next two days, he slept most of the time.  On the third day, one of his friends, who was at the opening night at the theater, stopped by to congratulate him for having the common sense to close down the show.

 

Robert Houdin’s answer to his friend was, “I have no desire to close down the show. When the show doesn’t work, you don’t close it down.  You just stop and step back to figure out how to fix it and open it again.”

 

True to his word, Robert-Houdin reopened the show, bigger and better.  Although his magic was better and more modern than previous magicians, he had a hard time attracting customers.

 

When he walked onto the stage, he didn’t look like previous magicians.  He looked very elegant, dressed in a beautiful tuxedo with ruffles and a bow tie, neatly iron trousers, and freshly shined shoes.  All of the magic that he presented was new and different than all of the magicians who came before him.  Yet he struggled to sell tickets.

 

To support his theatre, keep it open, continue paying his helpers, and paying the rent, Robert-Houdin had to sell three homes that he inherited from his mother.

 

The persistence paid off.  The ticket sales got better day by day.  In early February 1846, he added another new amazing magic act to his show: the second sight act.  His teenage son Emile was blindfolded by a blindfold that was examined by the audience.  Sitting on a chair near the front edge of the stage, Emile was able to describe each item that was given to his father in detail.  As Robert-Houdin walked through the audience, he would sometimes borrow money from the audience and Emile would correctly describe the money and how much it was worth, as well as the serial numbers on the money.  This was a totally amazing act that boosted the ticket sales.

 

Another one of his amazing tricks was the mechanical orange tree.  He would borrow a pocket handkerchief from one of the ladies in the audience, then magically make the handkerchief disappear.  And at his command, a mechanical tree will begin growing oranges on the branches.  In one of the oranges, he will find the handkerchief that was borrowed from the audience member which disappeared moments ago.  Robert-Houdin did not touch the orange with his hands.   At his magical command, the orange will split into four pieces.  And as the orange began to open, there will be two butterflies coming out and  showing the handkerchief in full view.

 

He will then show an empty basket.  From it, he will produce dozens of beautiful flowers and hand them out to the ladies in the audience.

 

Another amazing trick was the magic chef.  Robert-Houdin will display a small cabinet.  At his command, the little door will open and a miniature chef will come out on a table, holding a small tray with all kinds of treats, such as cookies and pastries.  The miniature chef will go in and out of the cabinet to bring more pastries, as requested from the audience.  Then the miniature chef will go back in and come out with a tray with all kinds of ices and licorice for the audience to sample.  At one point, the chef will bring out a small French bread.  Inside the bread, the audience will find a wedding ring that was borrowed earlier by Robert Houdin.

 

Just when things cannot get any better, Robert-Houdin introduced his next amazing Illusion on center stage.  He will have a small stool.  His son Emile will be standing on the stool.  Robert-Houdin will place a metal rod under each armpit of Emile, who would be holding the rods with both hands.  Robert-Houdin will remove the small stepping stool away, letting his son Emile dangle on those two metal rads.

 

The first reaction from the audience was OK. The boy holding onto the metal rods and his leaning onto the metal rods with his armpits, but then comes the magic.  Robert-Houdin removed one of the metal rods, leaving the boy holding onto the only remaining metal rod directly under his armpit.

 

Next came the biggest surprise.  When Robert-Houdin touched Emile’s hand, Emile released his grip and raised his arm to shoulder level, showing that he’s not holding onto the metal rod.  At this point, the magician moved away from his feet and started raising Emile until he’s parallel with the floor, suspended on this metal rod.

 

Robert Houdin’s new illusion was the talk of the town and the rest of Europe.

 

Another amazing illusion was presented each night: Robert Houdin’s Enchanted Portfolio.  The portfolio was a thick notebook about 2 inches thick, not big enough to haul any large items other than the pages.  The portfolio will be placed on an easel, the back of the book facing the audience.  The magician will take a page from the book, which will have a sketch of a well-dressed lady.  Then Robert-Houdin reached into the book and produced a beautiful lady’s hat that would have matched the lady’s dress.

 

Next, he took another page which might contain a sketch of a dove.  Then he reached into the book and produced a real-life dove flapping its wings.  The next page he took from the book was a chef holding a large wooden spoon.  The chef’s other hand was closed into a fist, as if he’s holding the handle of a large pot, but it’s missing

where the big pot was supposed to be.  Now the magician reached into the book and pulled out a large cooking pot.

 

The next page showed the Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, without her crown.  Robert-Houdin then reached into the book and pulled out a beautiful large crown.  This illusion was the favorite of Queen Victoria.  She loved the part when Robert-Houdin produced the Egyptian crown full of diamonds and emeralds.

 

Keep in mind that during the summer months, since there was no air conditioning available in those days, where Paris was very hot, it was almost unbearable to pack the audience into the theater.  Because of these conditions, Robert-Houdin closed the theatre every summer and reopened it in the fall.  And during the summer months, he took his show to the Scandinavian countries and also to England, where the summers were not as hot.

 

During the French revolution, due to small audiences, Robert-Houdin moved his show to London in May 1848 opened up his show at the St. James Theater.  It was during this period that Robert-Houdin was invited to entertain Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.

 

During his trips to England, he traveled to large cities all the way to Scotland.

 

Unlike his small theater in Paris, Robert-Houdin worked in large theaters and made more money than he would ever make in his small theater in Paris.

 

When he returned back to France, Robert-Houdin invested his money wisely.  He purchased a large estate near Blois, where he had a large house and a workshop that he can relax and design and build new mechanical and electrical magical apparatus.  He was also blessed to have four more children from his second wife.

 

On October 1849, Robert-Houdin returned to his beautiful Theatre Soirées Fantastiques and performed for next 3 years.  As his 50th birthday approached, Robert-Houdin decided to retire from performing.  He therefore began to search for a good magician to take his place at his theater.  Through his search for a successor, he found Hamilton, whose birth name was Pierre Étienne Chocat.  And Robert-Houdin made the announcement that Hamilton will be his successor.  Then Robert-Houdin began training Hamilton and taught him all of his magic.

 

In January 1852, Hamilton began performing at the Theatre, giving Robert-Houdin free time to travel throughout Europe and England, which he announced will be his farewell tour.  This announcement got the largest crowds with packed theaters.  In England, Robert-Houdin performed for Queen Victoria again.

 

At the end of each tour, Robert-Houdin will always return home and spend a great deal of time in his workshop, experimenting with electricity and building different devices.  In 1855 at the universal exposition, he displayed some of his inventions, one of them was to control electricity with extreme accuracy.  He built a regulator that will keep the current at a constant level.

 

Robert-Houdin also wrote lots of books on magic, including his autobiography, his many textbooks included the sleight of hand magic, human psychology, misdirection, and so much more.

 

Periodically, he went back on the road to perform in large theaters.

 

In England, Robert-Houdin performed over 500 shows from November 1851 till April 1853.  Then he moved to London and opened up at the Egyptian Hall in 1862.  For the following six months, he kept himself busy, without a dull moment.

 

On June 13, 1871 Robert-Houdin passed away at the age of 65 from pneumonia.  He became known as the father of modern magic.

 

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Chapter 12

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary.  His birth name was Ehrich Weiss, which was pronounced “Erik Weisz”.

 

When he was a small child, his parents moved to the United States and settled down in Appleton, Wisconsin.  Houdini‘s father, Mayer Samuel Weiss, became the first rabbi of Appleton.  Later on, the family moved to East 69th St. in New York City.  Mayer Samuel Weiss, got a job as a religious teacher.  Ehrich got a job at the H. Richters’ Sons necktie factory.

 

Sometime along the way, Ehrich got interested in magic.  He told his friend who was working at the necktie factory, Jacob Hyman, that possibly they can work together by creating a magic act.  Ehrich worked at the necktie factory for almost 3 years. Then he left his job, even though he was earning a steady salary.

 

At the age of 17, Ehrich and his friend Jacob Hyman (who was referred to as Jack Hayman) worked out a magic act and began performing at bars and dime museums with many specialty acts, such as human curiosities, fire eaters, and snake charmers.  Money was not good, so Jack Hayman gave up on show business and quit.

 

Ehrich’s brother, Theodore Weiss, joined his brother as the other half of the act.  The brothers worked together and traveled from town to town all the way to Chicago to work during the 1893 World’s Fair.

 

Ehrich was studying famous magicians and their life stories. He liked Harry Keller‘s name.  He also liked the name of the famous French magicians, Robert-Houdin.

 

He decided to change his name to Harry Houdini and hope someday he can become a great magician, like his idols.

 

Houdini was good with card manipulations.  So he made a poster and called himself “The King of Cards”.  It didn’t get him anywhere. That’s because they were so many other magicians doing card manipulations.

 

The illusion that actually helped Houdini to be recognized was the Metamorphosis.  Here’s a brief description. The magician gets into a wooden trunk. Then the trunk is padlocked.  The magician’s assistant stands above the trunk.  Yet the magician changes places with his assistant.

 

The concept and the illusion was not Houdini’s idea. It was invented by the British magician, John Nevil Maskelyne.  However, Houdini improved the Illusion by having audience members tie his hands with a rope behind his back.  Then they placed Houdini into a burlap mail bag.  The opening of the mail bag was securely tied, which made it seemly impossible for Houdini to get out of the mail bag.

 

His brother Theo, with the help of the audience members, lifted up the mail bag with Houdini inside and placed the mail bag into the heavy duty wooden crate, which was examined by the audience.  Then Theo closed the lid, padlocked the wooden crate, and tied heavy ropes all around the wooden crate, making it impossible for Houdini to escape.

 

Theo lifted up 4 large curtains around the wooden crate to create a cover for the wooden trunk.  Theo explained to the audience that when he clapped his hands three times, the magic will happen. Theo pulled one of the curtains and entered inside.  Then he clapped his hands three times.  Immediately the curtains dropped and Houdini was standing next to the trunk, which is secured with padlocks and ropes. Houdini untied the ropes, unlocked the padlocks, and opened the trunk lid.  Lo and behold, the mail bag was still tied.  Houdini untied the top of the mail bag and his brother Theo was inside the mail bag with his wrists tied behind his back.

 

Houdini was 20 years old, when he met an attractive catholic singer named Beatrice Rahner (Bess).  They soon got married and moved in with Houdini‘s mother, Cecilia.  Bess became Houdini’s assistant.  And Theo went on his own with his own show.

 

In 1895, Houdini and his wife Bess got a job in a family-owned small circus, the Welsh Brothers Circus.  Houdini and Bess were performing magic and mind-reading acts.  To make extra money, Houdini was selling all kinds of side items, including combs, toothpaste, and soap.  The circus job lasted for 27 weeks.

 

Houdini was always looking for something new and different to help him be different than the other magicians during this period.  He began playing with handcuffs, when he realized he can have a duplicate key or small piece of wire bent to create lock-picks.  Houdini concealed the picks somewhere in his body, where he can get them quickly and open the handcuffs.

 

With this new discovery, he started to read everything on handcuffs. Houdini began purchasing all different types of handcuffs and took them apart to study the mechanisms.  Before you know it, he was having half a dozen different lock-picks concealed on his body and began experimenting to escape from different handcuffs and got very good at it.

 

He approached the local police department and told them that he can escape from any handcuffs.  Several policeman handcuffed Houdini with two pairs of handcuffs.  Houdini, true to his word, was able to escape from the handcuffs.  With that, Houdini got his confidence and began putting handcuff escapes into his act.  This was different than other magicians and It was new.

 

With magic, mind-reading, and escaping from handcuffs, Houdini continued performing all the way to Canada.  During his performance in Canada, he became friends with a medical doctor, who was working in a mental institution.

 

One day, Houdini and his medical doctor friend went together to the mental institution, where Houdini watched the hospital crew trying to put a disturbed mental patient into a strait jacket, then placing the man in a softly padded cell.  The man was trying to get out of the strait jacket by rolling all over on the floor and trying his best to free himself from this strait jacket, but he was unable to free himself.

 

This is where Houdini got the idea of using strait jacket on the stage.  Not only would Houdini escape from handcuffs, he would also escaped from a regulation strait jacket.

 

In 1897, things slowed down for Houdini and his wife Bess.  Houdini decided to get a job with a traveling medicine man, Doctor Hill, who sold snake oil that cured everything.  Dr. Hill had entertainers working for him.  The entertainers will travel from town to town and put on free shows on street corners and town squares.  People will gather to watch the free show.  Right after the show, Dr. Hill began his sales pitch, which was very convincing.  Dr. Hill talked about how he discovered medicine for his ailing mother and how the pharmaceutical stores didn’t want people to know about this amazing medicine that will cure just about anything and possibly put the pharmaceutical companies out of business.

 

During this tour in the Midwest, Houdini performed his magic act, including card manipulations, escaping from handcuffs, and spiritualism with his wife Bess.

 

After the medicine show came to an end, Houdini and Bess went back to work at the Welsh Brothers Circus.  By this time, Houdini was 24 years old and continued having a hard time securing jobs as a headliner.  The struggle began to take its toll with his wife. There were times when he saw his wife sad.  He promised his wife “just one more year.”  If things don’t work out, he will get a regular job or try a different business.

 

Around 1899, a chubby little fat man with a German accent approached the stage.  He asked Houdini if he can escape from any handcuffs or is it just the ones he has on the stage.  Houdini’s answer was there has been no handcuffs invented yet that can hold him down.  With that, the stranger took his own handcuffs, placed them on Houdini’s wrists, and kept the key.  True to his word, Houdini was able to escape from the stranger’s handcuffs.

 

The stranger introduced himself as Martin Beck, the Talent Agent for the Orpheum Vaudeville shows all over the country.  Martin Beck offered Houdini a job, if Houdini will stop doing magic and perform only escapes, challenging people to bring their own handcuffs.  Then Mr. Beck told Houdini that the job will start in Omaha at $60 a week.

 

Houdini jumped at the opportunity and began in Omaha. By the time Houdini reached California, he was able to escape from anything people offered to him and was making $90 a week, which was more money than he ever made. He was now in the big leagues.  Houdini began escaping from police handcuffs, regulation leg irons, and mental institution strait jackets.  Houdini realized this was a good job and a very good opportunity and he needed to figure a way to build his name and become a very big attraction.

 

In San Francisco, Houdini challenged the police department that he will strip all of his clothing off, so that detectives can search him.  Naked as a jaybird, Houdini escaped from 10 pairs of handcuffs and a regulation strait jacket.  Naked Houdini in the Police Department was thoroughly searched by the sergeant.  Then 10 pairs of handcuffs and a strait jacket were  secured on him.  He then went behind a closed door into a small closet and was able to escape.  To everyone’s surprise, he opened the door and walked out all of those handcuffs and the strait jacket was on the floor.  Neither the police or the reporter from The Examiner had any idea how Houdini was able to escape.  What the newspaper reporter didn’t know was that Houdini went to the police department the day before to examine the area in the small closet, where he was going to do his escapes.

 

Escaping from handcuffs and a strait jacket in the police department got lots of newspaper articles and major publicity for him.  Hundreds of people waited on long lines to go and see Houdini’s shows.

 

By this time, he was making $150 a week.  Keep in mind that during that time, most people made less than $10 a week.  So $150 a week was a lot of money back then.  Houdini began buying advertisements in trade papers to promote his accomplishments to show buyers.

 

In July 1900, Houdini traveled to England and began performing his amazing escape acts.  In London, Houdini challenged Scotland Yard.  As always, Houdini was able to escape and that got him lots of publicity from the British newspapers.

 

On March 17, 1904, 4000 people came to see Houdini at the London Hippodrome.  From England, Houdini traveled to Europe.  There, he also challenged the police departments all over Europe.

 

Houdini was in such big demand that he sent for his brother Theo to come to Europe and work on his own show with a new name “The Great Hardeen.”  Houdini shared all his secrets with his brother and got him a lot of work in Europe.

 

Houdini traveled from Europe to Russia.  In Russia, Houdini challenged the Russian police and was successful.  Houdini came back to the United States and began touring the country.  On January 6, 1906, he staged one of his most famous prison breaks, which was at Washington DC.  Houdini was locked naked into a jail cell in the murderers row.  He was locked into the same jail cell that once imprisoned Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield.  Within 20 minutes, Houdini was able to escape from the famous jail cell.  He found his clothes locked up in a different cell, where he was able to unlock the second jail cell, get his clothes, got dressed, and

walked over to the warden’s office and knocked on the door.   This jailbreak got Houdini a tremendous amount of publicity in the newspapers.

 

45 days later, Houdini staged another big publicity stunt by jumping from the Bells Island Bridge in Detroit into freezing waters and was able to escape from handcuffs.  This was tremendous, because thousands of people came to watch these dangerous daredevil stunts.  Houdini got a great deal of publicity from these stunts and a tremendous amount of newspaper publicity.

 

By this time, Houdini understood human psychology and how the power of performing outdoor dangerous experiments to very large crowds was the ingredient to make him famous.

 

In January 1908, Houdini introduced his new escape in St. Louis, where he was locked inside of a large metal water canister filled with water.  Houdini entered the canister with his feet first.  As his body started to go down into the canister, water started spilling from the edges of the canister.  Houdini took a deep breath and his head went under the water, leaving no room for him to breathe. Immediately, his assistant covered the canister with a metal cover and placed six padlocks all around it, making it impossible for Houdini to escape.  Houdini’s assistant pulled the cloth cabinet around the canister and closed the front curtain.  Three minutes went by.  The audience was tense.  One of Houdini’s assistant ran to the stage with a ax, getting ready to tear down the curtain and break the padlocks.  At about this time, Houdini pulled the curtain down and stepped forward, dripping wet with water.

 

Houdini was fascinated with the Wright Brothers flying machine, which was called the biplane.  While Houdini was touring Hamburg, Germany in 1909, Houdini purchased a Voisin Biplane for $5000  and paid the pilot to teach him how to pilot the plane.  Before leaving Germany, Houdini had the plane taken apart and packed into shipping crates to take the plane with him.

 

When Houdini arrived in Australia to perform at the new Opera House in Melbourne, he organized another big outdoor publicity event.  Over 15,000 people were on the Queens Bridge and another 20,000 people were along the Yarra River to see Houdini attempt to escape from handcuffs and leg irons, as he was thrown into the river.

 

20 days later, Houdini announced he will be the first pilot to fly a biplane over Australia.  Early in the morning of March 18, 1910, when the weather conditions were right, Houdini piloted his Voisin Biplane from Digger’s Rest Field.  The plane soared up into the sky, flew about 2 miles, turned around, and flew back to a perfect landing.  Houdini went into history as the first pilot to fly over Australia.

 

To set the record straight, there were others who attempted to fly over Australia.  None were successful.  A famous Australian sportsman, Ralph Banks, had purchased a Wright Brothers plane.  Mr. Banks was able to get his plane off the ground about 12 feet high before crashing.

 

Houdini’s water can escape was copied by many magicians, both in the USA, Europe, and Australia.  As a result, when he was in England in 1911, Houdini invented a better and bigger Illusion: the Chinese water torture cell.

 

Each city Houdini performed in, he organized an outdoor daredevil dangerous escape attempt to gain publicity and increase ticket sales.   Sometimes,  Houdini will be shackled with handcuffs and leg-irons and thrown into the river to escape from the handcuffs and leg-irons.  Other times, Houdini will be handcuffed and placed into a heavy trunk, which was locked with padlocks and heavy metal bands around it, so that the trunk will sink fast.  As always, Houdini managed to escape and rise to the surface, as thousands of people gathered to watch and cheer for him.

 

His other outdoor daredevil stunts in cities where there might not be lakes or rivers, Houdini will be strapped into a regulation straitjacket.  Then will be hung upside down from a rope and hoisted to about 100 feet high, then dangled like a fish on a fishing line, where he attempted to get out of the straitjacket.  As always, he was able to free himself.  And the local newspapers and radio stations covered the event.

 

Because of his dangerous daredevil death-defying escape attempts, which attracted a great deal of publicity, Houdini was in high demand for the Vaudeville shows, where he was always a headliner and always getting the biggest money of all the other entertainers.

 

For those of you who are wondering what Vaudeville was, let me give you a brief description.  From 1880 to 1930, the Vaudeville circuit was the most popular form of live entertainment. Vaudeville was a venue with a wide variety of acts, such as popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, Ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, jugglers, one-act plays, all scenes from plays, lecturing celebrities, and films.  Obviously, Houdini was the biggest attraction.

 

Although Houdini built his Chinese water torture cell in England, he first introduced it 1912 in Germany.  Here’s a brief description of the Chinese water torture cell.  It was about an 8 foot tall square water tank with a glass plate on the front, so the audience can see inside the tank that it was filled with water.  Houdini would lay on the stage floor the handcuffs, which will be placed on his wrists, and the heavy wooden stocks, which will be locked around his ankles.  Then they will hoist Houdini above the stage floor, hanging from the wooden stocks upside-down way above the Chinese water torture cell.  Then Houdini would be slowly lowered headfirst into the water, where he’s in the water tank upside down, and only his ankles are sticking out of the water above the wooden stocks.  The assistant will pull the four curtains around the Chinese water torture cell, creating a cover.

 

In front of the curtain coverings, there were two assistants, one on each side holding big axes.  In case Houdini could not make it out safely, the assistants will have to break the glass with the axes to get him out.  Normally in about two minutes, Houdini was able to escape and pull the curtains open and step out.  This was always the highlight of the show, where he got a standing ovation.

 

After Germany, Houdini went back to the United States to perform at the Hammerstein’s Roof Garden in New York City.  Houdini‘s 72 year old mother Cecilia Weiss came to see her son’s show at the opening night.  Houdini didn’t know that this will be the last time his mother will see his show.

 

After one month of performances in New York, Houdini went back to Europe to continue performing, when a telegraph came that his mother had passed away.  Houdini canceled all of his engagements to return back to the USA for his mother’s funeral.  Houdini was very close with his mother. This was a devastating blow.  He could not work for the following six months, grieving over his mother’s death.

 

In 1914, the first world war broke out.  So Houdini could not work in Europe.  Houdini put his efforts into major promotions in the USA.  Each time, more than 10,000 people gathered to watch him hanging from a rope upside-down over a hundred feet above the ground, dangling and struggling to get out of a straitjacket.

 

During the war years, Houdini debunked the mediums who claimed to communicate with the dead.  Also, he was elected as the president of the Society of American Magicians.  Houdini did a fantastic job helping grow the society.

 

Houdini never gave up on an idea of wanting to become a great magician, like the magicians he had studied and admired.  He wanted to have his own show, without any other side performers.  Houdini accomplished that dream on January 7, 1918 at the New York Hippodrome.  He created the biggest illusion ever performed: the vanishing of a 10 ton elephant.  Night after night, he vanished this very large elephant.  He also included other large scale illusions with big productions.

 

Houdini originally was booked for six weeks of performances, on the strength of the vanishing elephant. His contract was extended to 19 weeks.  This was the longest contract he ever had.

 

Right after the Hippodrome contract, Houdini was signed to a movie contract with Hollywood’s B.F. Rolfe of Octagon Films to star in a 15 film serial called “The Master Mystery.”  In 1919, Houdini also made a full-length movie for Paramount pictures called “The Grim Game”.

 

As a movie star and a live performer, his salary jumped to $3500 a week, the most money ever paid to any single performer in the Vaudeville circuit.

 

In 1918, the first world war ended.  Many people lost their loved ones. It was during this period that people believed they can communicate with their loved ones through spirit mediums.  Spiritualism became very popular.  Among the wealthy people, even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a believer in spiritualism.  Also, James Hewat McKenzie, president of the British College of Psychic Science, was also a believer.  These people actually believed that the mediums can communicate with the dead.

 

Houdini felt that he had to debunk and expose these psychics and their fraud.  Houdini wrote books, describing the methods of so-called psychics.  He exposed all the famous mediums, by name, and the description of their methods, including how they used darkened rooms.

 

Houdini continued to expose fake mediums through newspaper articles and in theaters.  After his Hollywood movies, he projected images and described the methods of the fake mediums.  At the same time, he was exposing the fake mediums, Houdini was performing in Vaudeville shows.

 

On September 14, 1925, Houdini opened his own full evening show at the Schubert Alvin Theatre in Pittsburgh.  In his full evening show, he was the magician, the escapologist, and the exposer of the fake mediums.  From Pittsburgh, the show traveled across the country.  In every city he traveled to, Houdini offer $10,000 to any person who could exhibit a spiritualistic manifestation which Houdini could not duplicate.

 

Houdini eventually became that great magician he once dreamed of when he was a young boy.  He continued performing in legit theaters with his own full evening show.

 

Houdini’s second season full evening show began in Paterson, New Jersey and continued traveling throughout the cities of the United States.

 

In Albany, a freak accident occurred during the Chinese water torture cell.  Houdini broke a bone in his left leg, which caused him to wear a leg support.

Rather than postponing the shows for several months until his leg healed, Houdini continued working with the aid of the leg support.  The show traveled to Schenectady and Montreal.

 

On October 22, while he was in his dressing room, relaxed and going through his mail, two college students from McGill University came backstage to Houdini‘s dressing room at the Princess Theater.   One of these students was drawing  a portrait of Houdini, when a third visitor from the same university, J. Gordon Whitehead, came into the dressing room and began talking to Houdini about the ancient magic of how some magicians can hold their muscles tight on their stomach and if someone was to punch them, they won’t feel any pain.  With that, Whitehead asked Houdini if he can punch him in the stomach.  Houdini gave him permission to punch him in the stomach.  Whitehead moved in with the speed of lightning and punched Houdini in the stomach with four powerful and quick punches.  As Houdini realized what was going on and pushed him away, the other two students also pulled him away.

 

By showtime, Houdini’s pain in his stomach got worse.  When Houdini got back to his hotel room, he did not tell his wife Bess  what had happened.  At his dressing room, Houdini told her that he had stomach cramps.  She didn’t think much of it.  She thought it was maybe something minor.

 

The next day on Saturday, after the show, Houdini told Bess what had happened in his dressing room with the university students.

 

When the show’s shipping crates were being loaded onto the train, everyone got onto the train, which was heading back to Detroit.  Houdini went to the Garrick Theatre and began helping the assistants set up the show.  His pain was getting worse and Bess called for a doctor.  Dr. Leo Dretzka arrived at the theater and examined Houdini in the dressing room.  The doctor told Houdini that he must go to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy.  Bess was not in the dressing room and did not hear the doctor’s recommendation.

 

The theatre manager came in and told Houdini that the theater was full and was sold-out.  Houdini said, “They are here to see me.  I am not going to disappoint them.”  With that, he did not go to the hospital and continued working.

 

The curtains went up 30 minutes late.  Houdini walked on the stage with a slight limp and said, “We had a 1000 mile journey and the show must go on.”  He began making large silver coins appear on his fingertips and then vanished them.  He continued with the sleight of hand, producing cards from thin air.  From the sleight of hand magic, he went on to large illusions where he vanished a lady assistant on stage and she reappeared in the audience.  Then he began producing glass bowls full of water and goldfish.  After the second bowls of goldfish, the pain was severe.  Houdini stepped aside.  His chief assistant continued the show.

 

When the curtain closed for intermission, Houdini was in severe pain.  His assistants helped him to the dressing room.  He was sweating. His temperature was 104° Fahrenheit.   Rather than being rushed to the hospital, Houdini returned back on  stage after the intermission to complete the show.

 

That evening, Houdini was taken to the hospital.  The surgeon removed Houdini’s ruptured appendix, but it was too late.  For the past three days, the poison had been seeping through his system.  Houdini’s condition had gotten worse.

 

On Sunday afternoon, October 31, 1926, Houdini died.  He was only 52 years old.

 

Since his death, there has been so many books written about him.  Several Hollywood movies were made about his life story.  If you ask the average person in the street to name five magicians, probably one of those magicians will be Houdini.

 

My opinion about his death is different than previous historians.  I believed he was murdered.  Those who orchestrated and planned that backstage dressing room incident where Houdini was wounded severely on his appendix got away with murder.

 

Let’s look at the situation.  Houdini debunked the fake mediums, some of whom made over $10,000 a week from the wealthy families who believed the mediums can communicate with their dead loved ones.  Houdini exposed their trickery and exposed the most famous names in the industry.  Surely they wanted Houdini to go away.

 

If you think about it, any good legal document needs to be signed by two witnesses.  Even just a simple last will and testament must be signed by two witnesses.

 

The incident in Montreal, Canada, which was outside of United States jurisdiction, took place where two students from McGill University were in the dressing room to witness the so-called permission from Houdini.

 

What were the chances that another student from McGill University, J. Gordon Whitehead, to walk in, punch the magician in the stomach four times, and have two students from the same university as witnesses to testify that Houdini gave him permission to punch.

 

I am basing my logic on Houdini‘s past behavior.  Houdini was a very careful man. He carefully calculated everything in his life, from jumping off bridges to getting locked in a tank of water.  So why would Houdini give permission to some stranger to punch him in his stomach?  But if the two witnesses said that they heard the whole conversation and Houdini give Whitehead the permission, then it’s an open and shut case.

 

The conspirators knew that Houdini will not go to the hospital right away, because they knew that after Houdini broke his leg, he continued working with a cast on his leg.  Whitehead punched Houdini precisely on his lower right below the belly button, where the appendix is.  You don’t have to be medical doctor to know that when an appendix is busted and the poison drips into your system, unless you get help, you could die from it.

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Chapter 13

P.T. Selbit

 

P.T. Selbit was an English magician, who invented some of the most fascinating stage illusions.

 

P.T. Selbit was born on November 17, 1881 in London, England to an English father and a Scottish mother.

 

His birth name was Percy Thomas Tibbles.  And when he was about 13 years old, Percy got a job in a wholesale silversmith shop, where he learned to work with tools.  Percy actually

became very good at designing and building silver ornaments and other products.

 

The silversmith wholesale shop was in the same complex as the famous Egyptian Hall, where John Nevil Maskelyne had his Maskelyne’s Theatre of Mysteries.

 

Percy, from time to time, managed to buy tickets to see the Maskelyne’s Magic and Mysteries show.  This is where Percy fell in love with magic and begin learning sleight of hand magic.  At the same time, he was curious to learn stage magic.

 

Charles Morritt, an English magician and hypnotist, was working in the Maskelyne’s Magic and Mysteries Show, when he decided to rent a storage room in the basement directly underneath the silversmith shop.  Charles was using the basement storage room as a workshop to build his new illusions.

 

Percy was curious about what Charles was building in the basement.  So Percy managed to get a duplicate key for the basement door.  And periodically in the late evening hours, Percy sneaked in to the basement room to draw sketches of the new illusions being built, which was the mirror principle of the large cage.

 

At about this time Percy decided that he will become a magician and that he needed a better name that will be more magical.  So after serious thinking, he decided to take his last name “Tibbles”, reversed it, and got rid of one of the B’s, which was how he came up with the name “Selbit”.  And his first two names’ initials stayed the same, so his name became P.T. Selbit.

 

When the Illusion in the basement was completed and Charles Morritt put it into Maskelyne’s show, it was a phenomenal success.  The illusion was a large cage on 4 legs.  The cage’s base was about 12 inches off the floor.  Charles will raise a cloth inside the cage.  When he dropped the cloth, there was an assistant inside the cage. The assistant will exit from the front door and Charles would raise the cloth again.  When he dropped the cloth, the audience will see a second assistant has appeared inside the cage.

 

Since the audience could see under the cage, that eliminated the possibility of assistants coming up from a trap door.  And since the audience could see each side of the cage, that eliminated the possibility of anybody coming from either side of the cage.  And that’s what made this illusion phenomenal.   What the audience didn’t see was the mirror running from the cage at 45° to the side wall.

 

When Selbit actually saw the Illusion in action, he was just as thrilled as the audience, except he knew the secret.

 

By age 17, P.T. Selbit began entertaining in bars and private parties with a sleight of a hand magic and hypnotism.

 

By 1905, Selbit began performing at the St. George’s Hall with Maskelyne and Devant as the Wizard of Sphinx.  Selbit performed in an Egyptian costume and dark beard to make him look older and more mysterious.

 

After 19 months at the St. George’s Hall, Selbit went on the road as a traveling magician.  He took his show to France, Germany, and all the way to Russia.  Selbit returned to England and continued performing as the Wizard of Sphinx.

 

In 1909, Selbit got rid of the Egyptian costume with black beard and began promoting himself as the Selbit Mysteries at the Oxford Theatre in London.  By this time, he had built quite a bit of his own original illusions and was gaining lots of recognition.

 

In 1911, Selbit performed in vaudeville shows across the United States, from coast to coast.

 

In 1913, Selbit created his sensational new illusion, the Haunted Window, at Maskelyne’s theatre.  Here’s a brief description of the haunted window illusion.  On the stage was a large picture frame.  On the frame was attached a white cloth.  Behind the cloth in the distance, there was a spotlight.  When the spotlight was turned on, images of men and women came alive with a dance sequence and exotic moves.  However, audience members were invited to examine the frame, the white cloth, and the spotlight.  No one could find anything out of the ordinary that can create this amazing illusion.  As a result, this Illusion got lots of publicity from the newspapers.  With the strength of this Illusion, Selbit went back to the United States for his second tour.

 

In 1914, Selbit invented another amazing illusion: Walking Through a Brick Wall.  He introduced this amazing new Illusion at the Maskelyne theater.  Here’s a brief description: the stage assistant would bring a large canvas cloth and lay it onto the stage floor, making sure that there will be no trap doors used.  Then they would push a brick wall mounted on a metal frame with metal wheels on top of the canvas.  The brick wall was placed in the center of the canvas.  And one edge of the wall would face the audience.  This way, the audience can see both sides of the brick wall.

 

At this point, Selbit invited audience members to come on the stage and examine the brick wall.  These audience members were also invited to stand back on the stage to be the eyes and ears of the audience.

 

Next Selbit introduced a Japanese trifold screen.  A female assistant stood on one side of the wall and Selbit placed the trifold screen around her.  The other assistant placed the second Japanese threefold screen on the other side of the wall.

 

Next, Selbit clapped his hands.  One of the assistants removed the screen.  Where the female assistant was standing, to everyone’s amazement, the lady assistant vanished instantly.  And the other assistant on the other side of the wall removed the other trifold screen.  Now the lady assistant is on the other side of the brick wall.  She could not go from under or over the wall.  It was an amazing mystery.

 

On January 17, 1921, Selbit performed one of his greatest inventions: Cutting A Lady In Half.

 

Here’s a brief description:

 

Selbit’s female assistant was tied with five soft cotton ropes.

One rope was tied around her neck.  Two ropes were tied on her each wrist.  And the remaining two ropes were tied around her ankles.  The ends of these ropes were threaded through the holes on the box from inside to outside.  As she laid inside the box, the ropes were held by five audience members.

 

Each audience member holding the ends of the ropes are told by the magician to hold the ropes taut, so that they can feel the lady assistant’s movements.

 

Now Selbit pushed two solid metal plates through the box, cutting the lady in half.  But that’s not all.  He then took a crosscut saw.

One of his male assistants took one end of the saw, while Selbit held on to the other end of the crosscut saw.  And they began sawing the box into two pieces, obviously cutting the lady inside the box into two pieces.

 

At this point, the audience was either horrified or amazed.  Now Selbit put the crosscut saw aside.  Then he took the two metal plates out and handed them to his assistants, opened the top of the box, and the lady assistant stands up to thunderous applause from the audience.

 

Sawing through a woman gave Selbit another new and amazing illusion to draw more people to his shows.

 

This illusion was new and different.  As a result, many magicians copied it, and some even improved it.

 

In New York, USA, Horace Goldin built the cutting the lady in half illusion with the circular buzzsaw.

In Istanbul, Turkey, Zati Zuger built and improved the thin model cutting the lady in half.

 

Building new and original illusions opened more opportunities for

Selbit to get more audiences, as well as opened up opportunities for him to work in so many different venues.

 

As a result, Selbit created and built so many new illusions.  Just to name a few:

 

1- The Crushing Illusion.

An assistant lays on a flat table.  Over the assistant, there were two small boxes.  In each box, there was a female assistant sitting cross-legged and their heads sticking out from the top of each box. Now the magician slowly lowered down the two boxes, crushing the assistant laying on a flat table. When the two boxes are lift it up the assistant is unharmed and stands up to take his bows.

 

2- The Wrestling Cheese.

A large round cheese was rolled and moved onto the stage.  Now the magician invited three or four strong men and asked them to lay the cheese down on its side.  There was no way they can tilt the cheese sideways.  It didn’t matter how hard they tried, yet the magician can move the cheese onto its side.

 

3- The Stretching Illusion, otherwise known as The Elastic Lady.

A lady sat on a stool.  In front of her was a large panel about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide.  Her head, hands, and feet stuck out from the holes cut out on the panel.  Now the magician can move her head about 8 feet up and down.  The magician can also move her hands and feet about 8 feet in different directions.

 

4- The Man Without A Middle.

A male assistant stepped inside a box, standing up facing the audience.  There were three doors. All three doors were closed. Now the magician did his magic and opened the middle door, so the audience could see the man’s middle is missing.  The magician opened the back door, so the audience can see light going through. The middle was actually missing. He then opened the lower door. The man’s legs were visible.  Finally, the magician opened the top door and the man’s head was visible.  Where did the middle go?

 

5- The Cane Cabinet.

A female assistant stepped into an upright cabinet. The door was closed.  Then the magician stuck 40 walking canes into the cabinet from front to back. It was impossible for anyone not to be impaled and be still alive in the box.  When the canes were removed, the lady stepped out unharmed.

 

6- Teleporting A Lady, otherwise known as Teleportation.

On the stage were two cabinets hanging from the ceiling.

One of the cabinets was lowered to the floor.  A female assistant stepped into the cabinet, which was raised in mid-air.  The lady vanished from one cabinet and reappeared in the second cabinet.

 

Selbit created and built many other illusions.  He was in such  demand and very busy that in 1924, he had five road companies touring the United States, where he personally trained the cast and crew of each member of the road traveling company and managed them from England.

 

He also had four other road companies touring Europe.  To take such a huge undertaking, he had to build duplicate illusions for each road company.

 

On November 19 1938, P.T. Selbit died at the age of 57.  He was one of the hardest working magicians in history.

 

Since his death, just about every professional illusionist has used at least one of Selbit’s illusions.

 

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Chapter 14

Horace Goldin

The Inventor of Cutting A Lady In Half With A Buzz-saw

 

Horace Goldin was born on December 17, 1873.  His birth name was Hyman Goldstein.  His birthplace was Vilnius, Lithuania, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time.

 

When he was 16 years old, Hyman Goldstein moved to the United States with his parents and settled down in Nashville, Tennessee and began working for his uncle at his uncle’s grocery store.  Once Hyman began learning English, he quit the grocery store job and went to work for his other uncle as a traveling salesman.  Hyman’s second uncle owned and operated an inexpensive custom jewelry manufacturing business.  It was during this time that Hyman went to see Albini’s Magic Show and fell in love with magic.  Thereafter, Hyman began learning simple sleight of hand tricks.

 

Hyman Goldstein gave up the custom jewelry salesman job, because of his thick Russian accent.  He got a job as a draper’s assistant and moved to New York.  I guess it was meant to be for Hyman to meet his magic idol Albini in New York and became friends with him.  Hyman told Albini that he was his idol and made Hyman start learning magic.  With that, Albini began teaching Hyman magic tricks.  At this point in his life, Hyman decided to become a professional magician.  And with that, he wanted to change his name to more magical name.  So he chose the name Horace Goldin.

 

In the late 1890’s, there were lots of dime museums with standing audiences only, who were watching variety acts for the price of a dime (10 cents).  Horace Goldin began performing in as many dime museums as he could.  He knew that the more he performed, the better he will get.  Horace learn the egg bag trick from Albini and became very good at performing this incredible trick.  Even today, many magicians are performing the egg bag trick the way Horace performed it.

 

Here’s a brief description of the egg bag trick.  The magician shows a small cloth bag about 10 inches by 10 inches.  He places an egg inside the soft cloth bag and then waves his hands over the bag.  He then turns the bag inside out and the egg has vanished.  He then uses his hand to bang on the bag to prove the egg is totally gone.  At this point, he turns the bag inside-out several times to prove beyond a doubt that the egg has vanished.  He now waves his hand over the bag and asks one of the audience members to reach into the bag and take out the egg, which is unharmed.

 

When this trick is performed well, the trick can be done over and over again.  And the more it’s performed, the more the audience is totally baffled.  As a result, Horace Goldin became an expert on this trick and he was in demand.  Horace performed at least 20 performances in a day and managed to earn $15 dollars a week, which was good money back then.

 

Eventually, Horace Goldin began buying larger magical props and making more money.  As he got better and better, he began telling jokes in between the tricks.  But because of his thick accent, his jokes did not work and nobody was laughing. After realizing this problem, Horace then dropped the jokes and hired a couple of assistants and started performing larger illusions.  He began performing at a fast pace to create a very exciting and quick-moving show.

 

By 1888, Horace was 24 years old and became a truly professional magician.  He was being booked into theaters and meeting halls, always working with other variety acts.  By 1900, his act was 15 minutes long and packed with so much magic.  I will give you a brief description of some of his magic.

 

Horace showed both sides of a 36-inch square scarf to be empty.  Then with lighting speed, he produced a large bowl full of fire from the empty scarf.  Then he showed an empty top hat and produced a live rabbit from the hat.

 

Next, he showed small empty bathtub, made of galvanized tin.  His assistants poured buckets of water into the bathtub until it was full.  With showmanship and finesse, Horace made 5 eggs appear, which he then threw into the water and immediately five ducks jumped out of the water and walked all over the stage.  The assistants needed to use brooms to guide the ducks off the stage into the wings.

 

Next, Horace took a fishing pole with a fishing line dangling from the pole.  On the tip of the fishing line was a fishing hook.  Horace walked to the audience and instantly caught a fish with the fishing pole from mid-air over the audience’s heads. As the fish dangled from the end of the fishing line, Horace ran back to the stage to continue the show.

 

Next he placed his female assistant into a wooden frame.  He then pulled a cloth up to the assistant’s waist, so that she can be in full view at all times.  Then Horace stepped into a large metal cage which was on four metal legs.  While he was still in the cage, Horace pulled up the back cloth and the front cloth, as well as the side cloths, to hide himself from the audience’s view.  Obviously, since the audience could see underneath the cage and all around the cage, there was no way Horace could escape from the cage.  His male assistant dressed up in a red robe and put on a devil’s mask.  This devil-masked assistant pulled out a pistol and fired it into the air.  Instantly, the female assistant vanished from the wooden frame and reappeared way back in the audience with a whistle in her mouth, whistling to get the audience’s attention.  As she ran from the back of the audience to the stage, the male assistant in the devil costume raised the pistol and fired one more time.  Then all four cloths covering the metal cage dropped, showing that Horace has vanished.  The assistant with the devil’s mask pulled off the mask and it was Horace himself.

 

Next, Horace walked to a birdcage hanging from a metal stand.  He opened the cage door and took out 2 canaries.  He placed the canaries into a paper bag, then closed the cage door.  He walked to center stage, took out the pistol, and fired into the air.  Instantly, he ripped the paper bag to pieces, showing that the two canneries have vanished.  He turned his head and looked at the cage. The canneries were back in the cage.

 

Next his assistant was holding a silk cloth about 10 feet long by 12 inches wide. Horace cut the silk in half with large scissors and magically restored it back to one piece.

 

Next, Horace used his hands against a spotlight to create shadows on a white paper mounted onto a frame.  At first, he created the shadow of a flying pigeon. Then he reached into the paper, broke the paper, and pulled out a live pigeon from the paper.  The assistant replaced the frame with new paper.  Horace then created a shadow of a rabbit and again he broke the paper and produced a live rabbit from the paper.  He continued doing this to produce other animals, including a dog.

 

For his grand finale, Horace took a cloth held between his hands and raised it above his head.  The cloth was large enough to cover his entire body.  At about this time, three policemen ran onto the stage.  They pulled away the cloth and the magician has vanished.  One of the policemen took off his hat and his fake mustache.  He took off his coat and to everyone’s surprise, it was Horace himself dressed up in his evening clothes.

 

At this point, I must tell you that with all of the illusions I just described, Horace was able to perform them with speed, perfect timing, and great showmanship.  This is because his Russian accent was so thick that he had to make up for his bad English.

 

Horace became known for his rapid-fire presentation.  So he earned the nickname “The Whirlwind Illusionist.”

 

Up to this point in his career, Horace primarily worked in variety shows, such as Vaudeville theaters.  And Horace became a headliner in the Vaudeville circuit.

 

In July 1901, Horace signed an agreement to a five-year contract to perform in England and begin performing at the Palace Theatre.  The following year, 1902, Horace was invited by King Edward VII to the Sandringham Palace to entertain the royal family and the visiting Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany.  Because of his royal performances, Horace billed himself as “The King of Entertainers and Entertainer of Kings.”

 

By 1904, Horace had many other large and incredible illusions added into his show, including the levitation of an assistant and vanishing a lion in a cage.

 

Horace expanded a small paper cube into a large cube, where a female assistant appeared from it, producing all kinds of objects, including international flags from empty top hats.

 

Here’s another strong and visual illusion.  A trunk was hanging above the stage from the moment the show started.  Horace placed a female assistant into a canon.  He pointed the canon to the trunk above.  He fired the canon.  The trunk is lowered onto a platform on the stage.  When the trunk was opened, the female assistant emerged from the trunk.

 

Horace’s grand finale was a hot air balloon with a basket underneath for carrying passengers.  Horace climbed into the basket and the balloon would rise.  After a drum-roll, the basket drops onto the stage, showing that the magician has vanished.  Seconds later, Horace reappeared and walked out from the side of the stage.

 

Horace’s large lavish Illusion was introduced in Paris in 1909, when he opened up in Alhambra.  4 male assistants carried a sedan chair with a lady sitting on the chair.  The assistants placed the chair on center stage.  The lady would step down from the chair.  Then the assistants will raise the cloth to cover the chair.  When the cloth came down, Horace would be sitting on the chair.

 

In 1911, Horace introduced his vanishing piano at the Theatre Royale in Brighton, England.

 

Horace toured Africa in 1912 and returned back to the United States in September 1913 and opened up on Broadway at the Palace Theatre.  After his Broadway show, he toured the United States with 35 assistants and 15 truckloads of his illusions.

 

In 1915, Horace took his show to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

 

In 1916, Horace took the show to Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii.  He returned back to the United States in 1918.  And as always, Horace was experimenting with new and novel ideas.  At first, his Film To Life illusion did not work because of the lip-syncing to film.  The timing was not good enough.  But by 1923, he improved it and gave this Illusion new life.

 

In 1926, Horace returned back to England, where he included new illusions Into his show, including the Indian Rope Trick.

 

Horace had an illusion which was essentially drilling a large hole onto the male assistant’s chest, where he can push his arm through from the back to the front of the assistant’s chest.  This was phenomenal.

 

In 1931, Horace introduced his best invention, Cutting A Lady In Half without a box and using a large circular saw.  He named this illusion the Living Miracle.  This was a totally new concept of cutting a lady in half.  Perhaps this was Horace’s greatest contribution to magic.

 

On August 21, 1939, Horace opened his show in London at the Wood Green Theatre.  This was the same theatre where Chung Ling Soo died on the stage performing the bullet catch.  Horace performed his greatest illusions on this stage, including the dangerous bullet catch illusion, which had already killed numerous other magicians.

 

Horace Goldin died peacefully in his sleep in New York on August 21, 1939 at the age of 65 years old.

 

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“The Great Blackstone”

The Great Blackstone was one of America’s greatest magicians.  He was born on September 27, 1885 in Chicago.  His birth name was Henry Bouton.

 

Henry Bouton worked as a newspaper boy to make pocket money. He later got a job as a cabinet maker’s assistant.  It was during this time that he saw Keller’s magic show at McVicker’s theatre and fell in love with magic.

 

Using his carpentry skills, Henry managed to get a job making magic apparatus for August Roterberg’s Magic Shop in Chicago. Periodically as Henry was delivering the magical apparatus that he was building to the magic shop, he met local magicians and became friends with some of them. This was good networking, where Henry could exchange ideas with other magicians.

 

Henry was quite confident that he can start his own magic show and earn money working as a magician.

 

Henry Bouton had a very charming and friendly personality.  He was able to get a job at vaudeville shows.  It was during this time that his brother Peter joined him as the funny man dressed up as a clown.  Their act was a fairly good straight-man funny-man magic act.

 

Albini became famous with his incredible egg bag magic routine.  And later on, Albini kept adding more illusions, to where he had a large illusion show with over 10 big illusions and six assistants.

 

In 1913, Albini suddenly died at the age of 53 in Chicago.

 

Henry Bouton immediately purchased four of Albini’s large illusions at a very good price.  Henry began to perform as an illusionist with large illusions.

 

Henry had a keen eye for opportunities.  There was a German magician who spent a great deal of money printing posters and handbills as “The Great Fredrik”.  This German magician decided to go back to Germany.  Henry immediately purchased all of the posters and handbills for an extremely cheap price and began to perform as “The Great Fredrik” and made very good use of those beautiful posters and handbills.

 

But this did not last very long.  By 1915, Henry couldn’t use the German name Fredrik because of the First World War, where the USA was at war with Germany.

 

That’s when Henry became Harry Blackstone.  I have to give Blackstone credit.  The man knew what he wanted and went after it with every opportunity that came along.

 

By 1917, Harry Blackstone was traveling across the USA with 12 assistants.  He was known as ‘’Blackstone, the Master Magician”.  And he mostly performed in Vaudeville theaters and occasionally creating his own full evening show and performing at larger theaters.  His brother Peter continued working with him as his main assistant, as well as his stage manager.

 

Blackstone took a page from Houdini and began doing outdoor stunts to promote his full evening shows.  Some of these outdoor stunts included being nailed into a large crate, which was lowered into the river.  Blackstone had to escape from the sealed wooden crate underwater on time, before the oxygen ran out inside the crate.  Blackstone performed this stunt (and other stunts) in multiple cities.

 

Both Houdini and Thurston had a head-start over Harry Blackstone.  As a result, Blackstone had to work harder and try to be more creative to attract audiences to his shows.

 

Here is one example of Blackstone’s creative mind.  In 1925, Houdini was performing his full evening show at a Broadway Theatre, while Blackstone was performing his full evening show in Brooklyn.  Blackstone made a deal with the management of the Claridge Hotel on Broadway, which was near Houdini’s show.  Blackstone attached a large hot air balloon to the hotel’s building, which was advertising Blackstone’s show in Brooklyn.

 

In 1936, Thurston died.  And this left a big void in large scale theatrical magic shows.  Harry Blackstone managed to fill that void and became the number one magician in the United States.

 

Harry Keller made a statement during the height of his career.  He said “America will recognize only one great magician at a time.”  I suppose that statement was true back then and it’s true today.

 

After Thurston’s death, Harry Blackstone was the greatest magician in America.

 

Not too far from Colon, Michigan was the beautiful Blackstone Island, where Blackstone and his crew spent the summers building new illusions, raising rabbits, ducks, and doves for the shows ahead.

 

In the evenings, Blackstone, his family, and crew would have barbecues and music.  There was a real family atmosphere between Blackstone and his crew.

 

By October, the rest of the cast will arrive at Blackstone Island and began rehearsing for the upcoming new show.  Everyone was excited, as if they were having a reunion and getting ready to hit the road again.

 

Keep in mind that back then, theaters did not have air conditioning, which made it very difficult to have shows during the summer months.

 

Here’s a brief description of Harry Blackstone’s show.  His most unforgettable trick was the dancing handkerchief, where he will borrow a handkerchief from the audience and make it come alive and dance on the stage, jump to his hand, continue dancing on his hand, then jump from one hand to the other hand, and continue dancing.  At the end of the routine, Harry would give the handkerchief back to its owner.

 

His other signature Illusion was the floating lightbulb, where the lightbulb would light up without electricity and float over the audience’s heads.  Blackstone would invite people to examine the lightbulb and then continue making it float over the audience in the theatre.  The lightbulb would continue flying all the way to the balcony and back to Blackstone’s hand.

 

Among the large illusions was the Indian Rope Trick, where a rope would wiggle and move like a snake, rising up to 20 feet height.   Then a young boy would climb up the rope and vanish in mid-air.  Only the boy’s clothing would fall down.  Blackstone would gather all the boy’s clothing and put it into an empty bamboo basket.  The boy would reappear fully dressed with his clothes from the basket.

 

In this next illusion, the stage hands rolled onto the stage a rack that held about 10 automobile tires, the kind of display rack that can be seen at tire stores.  One of Blackstone’s female assistants crawled into the tires.  Blackstone reached in to the tires and tried to pull her out, but he accidentally pulled off her dress.  This was a bit of comedy, which got the audience excited.

 

The male assistants began removing the automobile tires one at a time, showing each tire empty.  And then the assistants stacked the tires up one on top of the other, proving that the girl has vanished.  Blackstone took the assistant’s dress that he just pulled off her and threw it over into the stacked of tires.  A rope was lowered from above into the stack of tires.  Immediately, the rope was pulled up and the girl was hanging onto the rope and she was fully dressed in her dress.

 

Blackstone built Horace Goldin’s Cutting The Lady In Half Illusion with a buzzsaw.  There was only one difference between the Horace Goldin version and the Harry Blackstone version.  In Horace Golden’s version, the female assistant would lay on her back and get cut with the circular saw at her stomach.  In Blackstone’s version, the girl would lay on her stomach face-down, where she would be cut with a circular saw at her back.  I’m sure Horace Goldin must have been furious about this, but my research did not show any law suits.

 

Harry Blackstone and his assistants loaded gun powder into a canon.  Blackstone stood in front of the canon.  One of the assistants would light the fuse on the canon.  In a big explosion with a puff of smoke, Blackstone disappeared.  Moments later, Blackstone reappeared from the wings without any burns or scratches.

 

Blackstone’s levitation of a lady was one of the finest, almost as good as Keller’s levitation.

 

There were many more large additions to Blackstone’s show, too many to mention.  But I do wanna talk about Blackstone’s most unforgettable moments.

 

In one moment, Blackstone took a piece of newspaper, rolled it into a cone, and produced a beautiful white rabbit.  Blackstone asked the parents if they wanted to take a pet home at every show and a child got a free pet rabbit.

 

In another one of Blackstone’s classics, he would hold a small bird cage in between his hands.  Inside the cage was a beautiful canary.  Blackstone invited about 30 children from the audience, while his hands were extended straight out, holding the birdcage in between his hands.  All the children will put their hands over, under, and all four sides of the birdcage.  Blackstone then counted from one to three.  In a blink of an eye, the birdcage vanished to the total amazement of those 30 children on the stage.  All the children were giggling, smiling, laughing, and wondering where the cage and canary went, which drove the audience into the same awe and amazement.

 

During the second world war, Harry Blackstone managed to keep his show going. He made a deal with the USO to take his show to more than 200 army bases in the United States to entertain the troops.

 

After the war years, Blackstone continued taking his full evening show into theaters across the United States.

 

In 1941, Blackstone began his comic book career.  The first comic book was Super-Magician Comics, where Blackstone would travel the world, perform his amazing magic, and battle exotic villains.  This comic ran from 1941 to 1946.  And then in 1946, a new comic book series “Blackstone, Master Magician” began being published.

 

Harry Blackstone was the only magician to have his own comic book character and series of comic books.

 

In 1948, Blackstone managed to make lucrative deals with a major radio broadcaster, WOR-Mutual, and have his own radio show, which was called “Blackstone, The Magic Detective.”  Every week, Blackstone solved mysteries and would teach a trick to the children at home.

 

By the mid 1950s, Blackstone began appearing on all of the major television networks,

including CBS, NBC, and ABC.  During these years, the recording studios of the networks were located in New York City, so Blackstone moved to New York and made good use out of representing major corporations at their trade shows and performing at the big corporate events.

 

In 1960, Harry Blackstone flew to Hollywood to be on Ralph Edward’s “This Is Your Life” television show.  This was actually a great tribute to 74-year-old “The Great Blackstone.”

 

While he was in Los Angeles, Blackstone liked the weather and moved to Los Angeles.  He was always a child at heart and continued to love magic.  He often carried new tricks in his pocket.  He visited the Hollywood Magic Shop periodically to give advice to some of the young magicians.

 

In September 1961, Milton P. Larsen (Milt Larsen) found an old rundown mansion on Franklin Avenue by the hillside and made a handshake deal with the owner, Thomas Glover, to begin renovating the old building into the Magic Castle.  As the castle began taking shape, Milt Larsen’s older brother, William Larsen Junior, joined him and they created the Academy of Magical Arts.  The Magic Castle opened its doors in 1963 as a private magic club.  Harry Blackstone was one of the regulars at the castle, enjoying the attention from the visiting magicians and Hollywood television and movie stars.

 

Harry Blackstone died on November 16, 1965 at the age of 80.  But that was not the end of the Blackstone dynasty.  His son, Harry Bouton Blackstone Jr., had show business in his blood.  His mother, Mildred Irene Rose Phinney, was the lead assistant to Harry Blackstone and married Blackstone on July 13, 1933.

 

Blackstone Jr. was born on June 30, 1934.

 

Although he had been involved in magic from a very young age, making appearances in his father's shows as early as six months old, Blackstone Jr. did not want to go into magic at first, because it’s very difficult for children of famous performers to fill the shoes of their parents.  But just like his father, Blackstone Jr. had a career in radio broadcasting as an announcer.

 

In 1971, Harry Blackstone Jr. decided to follow his father’s footsteps and began his professional career as an illusionist.

 

Throughout his career, Blackstone Jr. became renowned for reviving and modernizing many of his father's classic illusions.  He also gained prominence through television appearances and live performances, including a successful Broadway run of “Blackstone! The Magnificent Musical Magic Show” in 1980.

 

Harry Blackstone Jr. died from medical complications on May 14, 1997 at the age of 62.  His wife, Gay Blackstone, continues the family legacy as a magic director and producer for TV shows and live shows.

 

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(I will continue writing and adding more chapters to this volume of work. I will discuss those magicians who are interesting and colorful. Please come back and visit us from time to time to read more about the History of Magic.)

 

Thank you for visiting.

 

-Tony Hassini