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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(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