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Partially published in another form in the book, "Panorama of Magic"
The first known magician to be born in North America never performed in his native country. His name was Jacob Meyer, born in Philadelphia August 14, 1735, and grew to be a respected Christian man, but a master magician. His reputation grew while a young man where he traveled to Europe and abroad, and performed conjuring for many, including Frederick the Great in Constantinople. One of his most famous feats is the torn and restored card. Well, Jacob actually used paper money, but the effect was the same. During this time we have Bartolomeo Bosco, the master conjurer of cups and balls in Italy, also a Mr. Henry who was very popular in England performing the same magic but called it "Whims and Wonders", and Siger Blitz who made plates dance. (Yes, like you would see on the Johnny Carson Show on top of sticks.) Ludwig Dobler made much of artistic conjurations (move over David Copperfield), and Robert Houdin performed as an amazing card conjurer in his London theater (1848). Houdin's son also performed amazing feats of conjuring and dazzled audiences with his "Suspension Ethereenne" where he balances on a broomstick through the "action of concentrated Ether." The wizard of the South, Professor Anderson, amazed audiences with his Magic Scrap Book where he would perform "50 illusions, producing delight, astonishment and wonder." There were a series of brotherly acts also appearing on stage at this time. The Davenport brothers, and the Thorpe brothers were masters of "reaching into the other side" and summoning up the "most marvelous manifestations ever witness by mortal man." In this genre of "apparitions", a twist took place with the magic of Professor DeVere who introduced (popularly) the decapitated head during his "Floating Head" routine. He would seemingly cut the head off his assistance, and then make the head float up into the air. A number of oriental magicians came on the scene at this time, including Ching Ling Foo who traveled to delight audiences in America. It was during this time that Herrmann the great rose on the scene and baffled audiences with his "novel and extraordinary performances." America's pioneer mentalist was John Randall Brown who performed extensive acts of mental magic due to muscle reading. By lightly touching a person's wrist, he could "divine" where a pin was hidden. John Nevil Maskelyne founded Britain's most famous dynasty of deceptionists, and performed in St. George's Hall in 1904. He worked with David Devant, known as the master performer of his time. Devant was not a master "trickster" but rather a master performer. He arranged two book that have served the conjuring community well - Magic Made Easy, and Lessons in Conjuring. Heinrich Keller, one of America's foremost illusionists, performed a famous routine called, "The Witch, the Sailor, and the Enchanted Monkey." In the act he performs some of the most amazing conjuring: from shooting rings from a pistol into a box and then to find them all tied to a boutonniere, to making handkerchiefs disappear from his hands to find them near audience members without having moved across the stage. The turn of the century ushered in an era of specialized conjuring in the United States. Not that the varied deceptions of the past had lost favor; rather a new and energetic army of amazers began building acts on a single theme. Howard Thurston and Harry Houdini were "Kings of Cards"; T. Nelson Downs, Allan Shaw, and Welsh Miller were "Monarchs of Money." Clement de Lion came from Denmark to win acclaim as the master billiard ball manipulator. Gus Fowler of England was the acknowledged expert with watches and clocks. Stillwell was supreme with handkerchief hocus pocus. The Great LaFayette, whose quick-change stage transformations have never been equaled, commanded $4,000 a week for his protean puzzlers. Sylvester Schaffer, Fregoli, Charles Aldrich and Hymack were brilliant contemporaries. In the first quarter of the twentieth century magic was so popular in vaudeville that often illusionists and sleight of hand performers appeared on the same show. William Ellsworth Robinson, who had shaved his head and surpassed the original Ching Ling Foo as Chung Ling Soo, scored an unprecedented success in the British Isles and Australia. He spoke to interviewers only through an interpreter, used Chinese assistants, and convinced even the stage crews of the theatres he played that he was from the Orient. To the basic tricks which made Ching Ling Foo's reputation, he added spectacular big scale illusions and superb staging. He conjured up not only the expected bowls of water and goldfish but also a girl from a giant oyster shell, as streams of water spurted up from the base and colored lights played on the sprays. In his "Dream of Wealth" he dropped a handful of pound notes into a flaming urn. From the cloud of smoke a giant banknote suddenly emerged, filling the stage. When he reached for it, it vanished instantly, leaving a large metallic star suspended in the center of the stage. Showers of coins shot out from the points of the star. A pretty girl appeared in its center. More coins flowed down from a cornucopia in her hands and a child with a money-streaming horn appeared in an elevated bracket at each side of the stage. On March 23, 1918 at the
Wood Green Empire Theatre in London, Chung Ling Soo approached the
climax of his performance—the most dangerous feat in magic—"Defying the
Bullets." Two guns were loaded with bullets marked by the
audience. Two marksmen took careful aim. The magician, across the stage,
held a china plate in front of his heart. Crack! Crack! The sound
of the shots reverberated through the theatre. Chung Ling Soo staggered,
clutched at his chest, and fell to the stage. The plate crashed by his
side. The curtain closed so rapidly that many in the audience
thought the dramatic scene was a part of the show. The magician, still
in his Oriental costume, was rushed to the nearby Cottage Hospital.
There doctors were amazed Since Coulew of Lorraine
caught bullets in the early seventeenth century, many magicians have
been killed; or seriously injured, with the bullet-catching trick. Dr.
Adam Saloman Ep-stein, who had performed for Napoleon III, Czar
Alexander II, and Queen Victoria, was shot at the Cirque d'Hiver in
Paris in December, 1869. Michael Hatal, "The Hungarian Herrmann," was
killed at an Odd Fellows benefit in New York in October, 1899. Professor
Blumenfeld's career ended during an exhibition of the feat at the
Cigogne Hotel in Basle, Swit¬zerland, in January, 1906. De Linsky
gave the firing command to a six-man squad as rifle sights were zeroed
in on his wife during a performance for Prince Schwartz-burg-Sonderhausen
at his castle in Arnstadt in November, 1820. A bullet ripped through her
body. She died two days later. De Line, a French wizard, pulled
the trigger that accidentally sent his son to his death before a
horrified audience. "The Black Wizard of the West" was killed in
Deadwood, South Dakota. Milbourne Christopher has also done bullet-catching. In May, 1957, he arranged television's first ninety-minute magic spectacular for NBC. Magicians from the four corners of the globe were flown to New York for "The Festival of Magic." He faced a rifle champion who brought his own gun and ammunition to the studio. An estimated 33,000,-000 viewers saw him catch the bullet. Kinescopes of the show were shown in Europe, and later the same year he went to London to do the bullet-catch again on BBC-TV. He had applied for insurance, without success, before each performance. In London, on the BBC, he announced he would never do the feat again. The next morning he received a letter from a British company at the theatre where he was performing. Now that he had given up the bullet-catch, the letter said, they would be happy to have him as a client. Illusionist Will B. Wood could cause his daughter to vanish with a pistol shot. This was only one of his many spectacular illusions. In February, 1908, news stories reported that he and his daughter were lost at sea. The ship taking them and their equipment to Mexico sank off Yucatan. He was said to have had $1,000 in cash with him. Suspicion of piracy and murder led the U.S. State Department to investigate the sinking. The trunks and apparatus were recovered but no trace was ever found of the Woods or their money. Servais Le Roy (1865-1953) was that rare combination, a great inventor and a great performer. Among the Belgian illusionist's major innovations was a levitation with a surprise finish. His beautiful assistant, draped with a thin silk cloth, floated high above his head. Suddenly he whipped away the cloth. She was gone-evaporated into thin air. Other wizards caused doves and rabbits to appear and vanish; Le Roy conjured with ducks. He produced them from small tubs and made them vanish in boxes which were dissected without a single tell-tale feather remaining. One of Le Roy's several "Bosco's" through the years was James William Elliott (1874-1920), a Rumford, Maine, physician who enjoyed sorcery more than surgery. When he worked alone he billed himself as "The World's Champion Card Manipulator." He had a standing offer to meet all comers who professed equal prowess with the pasteboards. Another "M.D." was Dr. Walford Bodie, whose strange theatrical shows intrigued England for years. Some claimed the M.D., in his case, meant "Master Deceptionist." He performed illusions, demonstrated electrical effects, and was in constant friction with British medical societies because of his claims to cure with hypnosis. A wizard with a wooden
leg, great skill, and wide popularity in Holland, Eliaser Bamberg
(1760-1833) was the first of the most noted European family of
magicians. He was born in Leyden. David Leendert Bamberg
(1786-1869) at nine became his father's assistant. In 1834 he was
appointed court conjuror to King William II. Okito's son, David Bamberg, took Fu Manchu for his stage name. He is the best known illusionist in South America. His winning personality and magnificently produced show have delighted audiences in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Cuba, and elsewhere. There was an eighteenth-century alchemist named Jasper Bamberg—no relation to the famous family. Another Jasper Bamberg appeared as a magician in Chicago before the turn of the century. This was the stage name of H. J. Burlingame, a noted American writer and manufacturer of magic who had taken lessons from David Tobias Bamberg in Europe. Carl Hertz (Leib
Morgenstern, 1869-1924) once gave his show for an audience of one —King
Ludwig II, sometimes called "The mad King of Bavaria." Born in San
Francisco, Hertz, as a boy, saw Herrmann, Heller, Cazeneuve and other
great magicians. He worked as an act in American vaudeville theatres and
toured with a circus before his first trip to England at the age of
twenty-five. Two thousand tabbies turned up the next day, mostly in the hands of enterprising youngsters. A neckband reading "See Carl Hertz at the Opera House tonight" was fastened to each cat and the feline horde was turned loose in the streets. Hertz played to excellent business for six weeks. From Australia he went on to tour New Zealand, and later South Africa, Ceylon, India, Burma, the Philippines, China, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Russia, and the United States. A daughter of the Rajah of Borneo fell in love with the illusionist when he performed for her father. Hertz was told that she insisted he marry her. When he protested that he was already married, the princess said that didn't matter, she would treat his wife as an equal and a sister. With the aid of his "Phoenix" illusion, Hertz escaped her clutches, in his next show before the Rajah. Usually his wife was burned alive, then restored. On this night the magician entered the furnace himself. There was no restoration. Actually he was spirited away by his assistants in a basket which usually held some of his equipment. The princess, he heard later, was grief-stricken at his "passing." In August, 1921, Hertz gave a unique performance in the British House of Commons before a committee investigating alleged cruelty to performing animals. Some had charged that a canary in his vanishing birdcage was killed every time the trick was done. Hertz permitted the committee to mark the bird, then, as he had done in thousands of shows before, he made the cage and canary vanish at his fingertips. A few minutes later he offered the bird to the committee for examination. It was in fine condition, unharmed by its sudden flight from view. Harry Rouclere (1866-1942) gave his entertainments as "The Boy Magician" when he was twelve. During a long and varied career in show business, he presented almost every phase of magic—escapes, sleight of hand, mentalism, and illusions. "Mildredism," which featured his wife, was a baffling display of thought transference. With the profits of his tours, Rouclere purchased a hotel in Ridgeway, New Jersey, and spent more time with his hobby, aviation. In 1920 the old wizard played Ridgeway's official Santa Claus, arriving in twentieth century fashion by airplane. Long before Houdini's day magicians effected uncanny releases from ropes and handcuffs. Houdini was certainly not the inventor of these tricks, though he made them very popular in his own day. Pinetti had a rope escape in his eighteenth-century programs; Samri Baldwin, "The White Mahatma," slipped out of handcuffs during his séances. Zamora, "The Triple-jointed Wonder," was a headline attraction in New York's dime museums. Houdini brought a
remarkable drive, tremendous showmanship, and masterful publicity
methods to the field of escapology and made his name a household word.
His escapes under challenge from boxes, barrels, jails, and manacles of
every description drew huge crowds to the theatre. His open-air
straitjacket escapes, made while dangling head downwards from a rope
fastened Contrary to most biographies, and even his own signed statements, which gave his birthplace as Appleton, Wisconsin, he was born March 24, 1874, in Budapest. The name on the official certificate was Erik Weisz. He was brought to Appleton as an infant. His earliest signatures spelled the name Ehrich Weiss. Not until he performed in Budapest did he learn the true facts of his birth. He discarded the family name for the more euphonious Houdini, patterned after the French magician, Robert-Houdin, whose memoirs had thrilled him as a boy. In 1893 he entertained at the Chicago World's Fair, then made the rounds of dime museums and traveling circuses. As a young man, he called himself "The King of Cards" and worked for as little as twelve dollars a week, doing eighteen or twenty shows on his platform. As a challenge handcuff escape specialist, he quickly rose to headline position on European and American variety bills. Not only did he wriggle free of handcuffs, chains, and shackles, but he slipped out of government mailbags, the interior of a locked, roller-type desk, a tightly laced container shaped like a giant football, and the inside of a dead whale. While in Russia in 1903, Houdini kept himself in shape with a daily jog around the Moscow race track. As he trotted along he practiced the patter for his show. "I challenge any police official to handcuff me—I defy the police departments of the world to hold me." From nowhere a group of Russian police appeared and surrounded him, ready to subdue the maniac who talked to himself in the open air. Houdini had a difficult time explaining what he had been doing, but when they finally understood they even made a few suggestions to improve his phraseology. Cable dispatches from abroad told of Houdini's escape from a Siberian prison van and his jail break in Leicester, England, from a cell built by Oliver Cromwell. When the arm of a windmill broke in Holland before he could extricate himself from the ropes which bound him to it, American papers told the story. In 1906 Houdini escaped
from the Washington federal jail in which Charles Guiteau, Garfield's
assassin, had been confined. Then, as a prank, he shifted two condemned
murderers and six other prisoners on murderers' row from the cells in
which they originally had been locked to other cells. When, in 1910,
Houdini made the first successful airplane flight in Australia, he was
positive future generations would remember him best as a pioneer airman.
Today his aerial triumph is little known, but his name still appears
more frequently in print than that of any other wonder worker. Not only
do books and newspapers and magazine articles chronicle Houdini's
adventures, but anyone who does something remarkable, be it a prisoner
making a jail escape, a politician getting out of a tight squeeze, or a
ball player stealing a base in a hotly contested game, is called a
Houdini. Houdini died as a result
of a freak accident. A McGill student who had attended his lecture at
the university came with two friends to visit him in his dressing room
at the Princess Theatre in Montreal. The young man had heard that
Houdini could take a blow of any force in his powerfully developed
midsection. The student hit before Houdini could brace himself.
There were severe pains for the next two days, but Houdini went on to
Detroit to give his scheduled performance. He collapsed in the theatre
after his first show and was rushed to the hospital. There, after two
operations, Houdini died on October 31, 1926—Reformation Day. One of Thurston's best publicized illusions was the instant disappearance on a brightly lighted stage, of a Whippet automobile, filled with pretty illusionistes. Another was an effective version of the fabled "East Indian Rope Trick," in which a boy climbed to the top of a rope and vanished "like a fading cloud." Thurston's presentation of the floating ball was a masterpiece. His staging of the levitation permitted him not only to cause the girl to soar high on the stage, but also to float under his magic fingers as he came down the runway into the audience. The show grew to such proportions that, at one time, ten railway baggage cars were needed to transport his props and special scenery. In December, 1924, a stage was erected in the East Room of the White House so that President Coolidge and his guests could enjoy the master magician. The hit of the evening was the smashing and disappearance of the chief executive's pocket watch. It reappeared, fully restored and still keeping perfect time, in the center of a loaf of bread. Though he made millions with his magic, Thurston left a very small estate when he died.Investments in orange groves and an unproductive Canadian gold mine made his profits vanish as mysteriously as the automobiles, girls, horses, and rabbits he conjured away on the stage. "Sawing a Woman in Two"
was the most commercially successful illusion ever invented. It was
dynamite at the box office. The plot was simple: A girl in a box was
sawed through the middle, then made whole again, with nary a scratch
from the blade. Selbit also introduced
"Through the Eye of a Needle," in which a girl was apparently pulled
through a small hole in a metal plate about the size of a manhole cover,
and almost a dozen other novel conceptions. Goldin, when the
appeal of the sawing with a handsaw diminished, presented a mechanized
improvement. He dispensed with the covering box and performed his
bloodless surgery in full view, using a motor-driven buzz saw.
Early in his career Goldin attained fame in England with a rapid-fire
delivery. "Don't blink or you'll miss a trick" was one of his catchlines.
The sentencing of Alfred Dreyfus to Devil's Island and the worldwide
controversy the case fermented inspired Goldin's first major illusion
success. Goldin, dressed in French military uniform, played the part of
Dreyfus. An assistant, in costume, stripped off "Dreyfus' " epaulets and
broke his sword in two. "Dreyfus" was forced into a cage. "Madame
Dreyfus" pleaded for his release. Soldiers pulled her away, draped the
cage with a cloth. At the signal they fired at the cage. The cloth
dropped. "Dreyfus" was gone and "Madame Dreyfus" was in his place. Goldin gave his first royal command performance at Sandringham Palace in 1902. The occasion was Queen Alexandra's birthday. Among the guests was Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Edward VII sent the illusionist a jeweled pin as a token of his appreciation. Later the Prince of Wales, who was to become George V, the Queen of Saxony, and the King of Siam added similar royal crest pins to his collection. Both his father Nicoli
and his brother were magicians, but neither matched The Great Nicola's
global triumphs. William Mozart Nicol (1880-1946) was an executive; an
illusion show with fifty tons of baggage was a big business and he ran
it with precise attention to every detail. His first foreign success was
at the 1900 Paris Exposition, where he enjoyed a twenty-six-week run. Dante (Harry August
Jansen, 1883-1955) presented his illusions in revue form. His "Sim Sala
Bim" was the most-traveled show business success of modern times.
Moscow, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Mukden,
Pekin, and Manila were only a few stops along the way. Born in
Copenhagen, he came to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his family when he was
six. His vaudeville billing was Herr Jansen. Thurs-ton gave him the name
Dante and sent him on the road with a Thurston-produced illusion show.
While Thurston played in America, Dante circled the globe. Dante
spoofed the traditional. He worked with a merry twinkle in his eye,
peppering the audience with a barrage of puns and asides. No
contemporary came close to his flamboyant style. Dante's last public bow was made at the combined convention of the Society of American Magicians and the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians in Santa Barbara, California, a week before his death. Blackstone is the dean of
American stage illusionists. He was born Harry Bouton, September 27,
1885, in Chicago. Kellar was his inspiration. He began his career with
his brother Pete, doing a vaudeville act titled "Straight and Crooked
Magic." Blackstone did a trick legitimately, then his brother would add
comedy with his attempts to top the wizard. Later Blackstone
turned to massive magic and elaborate productions. For years he played
the vaudeville houses with the largest illusion act on the road. For many years before World War II Helmut Schreiber was the president of the German Magic Circle and editor of its magazine. By profession a film producer, he performed whenever the opportunity arose. Now, as Kalanag, he is Germany's most famous illusionist and with his magic revue has played in England, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, the United States, and throughout most of continental Europe. India's greatest illusionist, P. C. Sorcar, has toured in Japan, Ceylon, Africa, Australia, the British Isles, and Europe. American viewers have seen his colorful illusions on television. More than any other magician in the history of India he has made his name synonymous with mystery. Kio, Russia's number-one mystifier, is one of the greatest attractions in the U.S.S.R. He performs in the grand manner in the center of a circus ring. Several years ago he performed in London and on the continent. The appeal of magic has
not lessened with the years. It is still the most international of the
performing arts. Duval was just as baffling with his "Symphony in Silk"
in Germany as in his native America. Fred Kaps, the Dutch sleight of
hand performer, is a welcome feature in London night clubs. Murray, the
Australian escapologist, circled the globe. Randi, the Canadian, carries
on in the Houdini tradition. The ancient cups and balls feat is still a
master mystery in the hands of Gali Gali, Egypt's greatest manipulator.
Carl Ballantine in the States, Tommy Cooper in England and Mac Ronay in
France are leaders in the field of comedy conjuring. John Calvert
and Virgil have taken their American illusion shows to the British
Isles, Australia and the Orient. Dr. Neff's "Spook Show" has sent
shivers down the spines of audiences from coast to coast. Few of
yesterday's Street Magic is taking America and the UK by storm. David Blaine and Criss ANgel have popularized street magic, as well as such websites as www.ellusionist.com, and stage magic is kept alive by many of the former greats such as David Copperfield, and Max Maven. Criss Angel and David Blaine have been recognized not only in popular magician's circles, and on the internet, but also as they continue to make television shows more popular to the generation "x" crowd. Max Maven (born Philip Goldstein in 1950) is an American magician and mentalist. He often appears on television magic shows to perform "interactive" mind reading tricks that work for the television audience. While his public persona and performances fall squarely within the genre of mentalism, Maven's contributions to the magic community span far wider. He is respected within the industry for being a prolific author, and innovating many of the magical and mentalist effects that are used by other magicians. He has been a magic consultant for such performers as David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, Siegfried & Roy, and Doug Henning, and is a frequent contributor to industry journals such as Genii, The Linking Ring, and MUM. He has also been the featured magician at the annual conventions of both the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Maven occasionally plays a magician character (often as himself) on various television series, such as, "Magic", "The Art of Magic", "Something Strange with Max Maven", "Fresh Prince of Bel Air", and "The MAXimum Dimension". His name has been legally changed to Max Maven, but he still uses "Phil Goldstein" as a pen name for technical writings. David Copperfield is known as the sleek American illusionist who has performed live around the world and starred in a series of well-received TV specials since the end of the 1970s. Copperfield began performing magic professionally (and teaching it at NYU) while still a teenager. He left Fordham University when he was cast in the title role of the Chicago stage musical, "The Magic Man" (1974), in which he not only performed sleight-of-hand but also acted, sang and danced. Copperfield made his TV debut in a special for ABC several years later, and shortly after that began his long-term relationship with CBS. He has produced or executive produced several of his specials, and directed or co-directed (sometimes credited under his original name, David Kotkin) most of them as well. Copperfield's carefully courted elegance and performing style has lent dash and grace to a series of exciting escapes from exploding buildings and Niagara Falls, and he has regularly made large objects ranging from elephants to jet airliners to the Statue of Liberty disappear. David Blaine (born David Blaine White on April 4, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, USA) is an American magician and stunt performer. He made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. Blaine began his career with street magic, performing card tricks and illusions such as levitation or giving the appearance of bringing dead flies back to life. He used a small camera crew to record his act live in front of everyday people which provided the basis for his television specials, David Blaine: Street Magic, David Blaine: Magic Man, and David Blaine: Mystifier. He later turned his attention to stunts and feats of endurance: Premature Burial, Frozen in Time, Vertigo, Mysterious Stranger, Above the Below, and Drowned Alive. Criss Angel (born Christopher Sarantakos, December 19, 1967 in East Meadow, New York) is a Greek-American musician, magician, illusionist, escapologist, stunt performer, and the creator and director of the Criss Angel Mindfreak television series on A&E Network. Criss Angel is now ending his second season of Mindfreak which is filmed at the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as in Los Angeles, California, and Angel's hometown of East Meadow, New York. Some of Angel's levitation tricks have been explained by Criss himself, notably on a DVD which is available for purchase from his official website store. The levitation featured on the DVD was an original invention of Jacob Spinney. Angel often states that several of the levitations, teleports and demonstrations of telekinesis he performs are done through the power of mind, body and spirit attained through meditation. Some of the other methods are well known within the magic fraternity and have been performed previously by magicians such as David Copperfield, David Blaine and the Pendragons. Magic and Card Conjuring
have taken a few twists and turns. Are they for the worse?
Time will tell. Its very hard to hold onto the classics. Its
very difficult to keep stage magic mystifying, and card conjuring that
which people would say are "card miracles." Las Vegas shows and
street magic have pushed the conjuring community, and the art of magic
itself, to think through where it actually stands, and what will stand
the test of time. For now, we'll have to wait and see where card
conjuring goes. Styles of card conjuring change with the times, so
do techniques, but magic, the entertaining art of legitimate deception,
continues to fascinate, delight, and intrigue people everywhere.
We should hope that people are more fascinated with the miracle of the
performance that includes the manipulation, instead of simply
being happy with seeing a "few tricks." |