The Great KIO, Russia's Greatest Illusionists

Years ago when I visited the American Museum of Magic for the first time, Bob Lund told me about this fellow named KIO who was the most famous magician in Russia. I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but it always did. Ten years ago, when I had my own little museum inside The Underground Magic Theatre, one of KIO's posters was featured on the walls. I actually have two KIO posters, one of them is above which wonderfully captures their Cremation illusion. The other is in storage but I found an image of the same poster online which can be seen here. The truth be known, I don't really know much about KIO. But I'll share what I've been able to dig up.

There were three KIOs. The father was Emil KIO and the star illusionist of the Moscow Circus. He was born Emil Teodorovich Girshfeld-Renard April 11th, 1894 in Russia. He died December 19th, 1965 in Kiev Ukraine. Upon his death, his youngest son, Igor Kio took over the show.  The eldest son, Emil Jr. was also an illusionist, worked with the Union of Circus Artists of Russia. Emil Jr. is still alive but retired.

Igor Kio

Igor had quite the career after he took over for his father. He appeared in the U.S. at Madison Square Garden with the Moscow Circus back in 1967 and later toured the country. He performed on TV and had a number of his own Television specials in Russia. A rather unusual note to his career, was his marriage in 1962 to the daughter of Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev. Galina Brezhneva was 32 and Igor Kio was 18.  The marriage made Igor famous but the marriage only lasted 9 days. To make matters worse, Galina had been married to a circus acrobat at the time she met Igor and quickly divorced him to be with KIO. When word reached Leonid Brezhnev of his daughter's new marriage he sent to KGB after them. Apparently, the though the two were separated initially, they continued an on again off again affair for 3 years.


Like his father before him, Igor Kio was a circus illusionist which meant besides being part of the circus his shows were performed mostly surrounded. It has been said he performed "more shows per year than there were days." I saw estimates between 500 and 600 shows a year. He performed mainly with the circus, but also in theatres, sporting arenas and on television.  Igor KIO passed away August 30th, 2006 in Moscow. He has one of the coolest graves of any magician I've seen. Maybe only Houdini's grave is better. He is buried, along with his father and mother in Novodevichy Cemetery Moscow Federal City, Russia.

One of the featured illusions in the KIO show, presented by father and sons, was a spectacular Cremation illusion. An assistant would stand on a raised platform. A circular paper tube would cover her whole body and then it would be set on fire. The assistant would later appear elsewhere in the audience. Another popular illusion was the Lion's Bride, where an assistant, in this case, Igor's mother, would climb inside a large cage, which then was covered by a cloth, and a moment later, the cloth whisked away to reveal she had changed into a lion. There is a video of the father, Emil, performing the Lion's Bride, also some sort of Flyto Illusion, and several other effects, here.

Below is a video of of several of the KIO illusions, presented by both father and sons. There is also some footage of what I assume is the KIO warehouse where the illusions are stored.

Finally, I found this Russian documentary of KIO that is absolutely fascinating. I watched the entire thing and have no idea what was said (I don't speak Russian). But I did get to see a number of the illusions. There are interviews with Emil Jr and other family members and cast members. There is archival footage of Igor as well. The KIOs were clearly very famous and very loved by the public in their country and beyond.

The KIOS used many different posters to promote their performances. Back in April two KIO posters showed up in the Potter and Potter Auction. The description gives them as being for Igor Kio, but I'm certain they are his father's posters. There were a lot of KIO posters and it's hard to know whose was whose, except when they had an image of the particular person like the one on the below/right. There are some great posters for sure! I've been able to find at least 15 different posters online, and one which is similar to my poster at the top of the page except it is not framed in red.

 

The Man Who Invented The Handcuff Act

Bruce MacNab posted a photo of B.B. Keyes, over on the Facebook group CONJURING HISTORY - BUY, SELL AND TALK. He said his name comes up in most of the Houdini biographies but little is known about him. So, I decided to see what I could dig up.

Benjamin B. Keyes was born in Sandwhich, Massachusetts in 1837. He was the son of Samuel and Betsy Brown. He was an engineer by trade. In 1869 he married Sarah Russell of Charlestown Mass. According to Bruce MacNab's book on Houdini titled Metamorphosis, Keyes was a portrait photographer from Lynn Mass. But the magic community knew him as a mechanical genius.

The Sphinx and Mahatma both say his greatest creation was Astarte which he developed with William Robinson. However, according to a 2006 article in MUM Magazine, the original illusion was the work of Will B. Wood who called the levitation Edna, after his wife. B.B. Keyes actually reverse engineered the illusion while working for Kellar.

Besides Astarte, Keyes is credited with being a very prolific creator of magic. Many of his creations were sold through the Boston magic dealer W.D. Le Roy*. In Leroy's catalog you can find ads for The Floating Wand, invented by B.B. Keyes, and Table Lifting, invented by B. B. Keyes. There is also a big photo of Keyes in the pages of the catalog. That same photo is the one at the top of this article.

Maybe his true most famous creation was the commercially available Handcuff Act*. Below is the ad from Leroy's Catalog. Please note the price, $75.00. I went through most of the catalog and most everything was under $10. A few items reached $20 and $30 and a Sub-trunk reached $50. But here was the act that put Houdini on the map, and it's price much much higher!

Here now is an interesting piece from the May 1895 issue of Mahatma, "Mr. B.B. Keyes gave an exhibition of legerdemain and spirit manifestations at the E.W. Kinsely Post No.113 on April 23rd. His tricks with cards, coins, etc. were very deceptive, but the most astonishing feat of all was freeing himself from handcuffs, seemingly an impossibility. E.F. Gaskin, Captain of Police Station 14, at the request of the Commander of the Post was present with 4 different kinds of the latest improved hand-cuffs, the best the department could obtain. He applied them himself, one pair at a time, and was dumbfounded when Mr. Keyes removed and handed them back to him unlocked, in from twenty to fifty seconds."

So apparently the date of April 23rd, 1895 was when B.B. Keyes first showed his handcuff escape act to an audience. At least it was one of his early exhibitions if not the actual first time. Oddly, the first Handcuff Act that was sold by B. B. Keyes actually went to T. Nelson Downs, this information according to a 1919 letter by Dr. James Elliott. Here is an interesting side note, in the November 1930 issue of The Sphinx, T. Nelson Downs relates a story of meeting up with Houdini at their hotel while Houdini was working the London Alhambra. Downs took from his trunk a ring of 52 keys and said to Houdini, "Here are the tools you do your act with." Houdini replied, "Tom, I don't use keys. You know I did not have the money to buy the keys" etc. Then Downs said, "Well you can't open them with hot air!" 

According to The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, on pg 39 it states that in September 1895 Houdini purchased the above escape act from W.D. Le Roy. Patrick Culliton in his book Houdini The Key, shows several letters between Houdini and W.D. Leroy discussing the handcuff act and some issues that have come up with exposure. These letters were written in 1900, and apparently even at that date, Le Roy was still supplying Houdini with new keys.

The handcuff act by Keyes and sold by Leroy was a ring of keys that could be used to open many different styles of cuffs, and likely any brand readily available. Was this Houdini's sole secret to his handcuff act, not hardly.  He had been developing handcuff escapes prior to his purchase of the B.B. Keyes method, and no doubt continued to work on new and different techniques to beat any pair of handcuffs, but it was one method he used for sure. However, in 1908, Houdini sold his handcuff act through various dealers as 'The Defiance Handcuff Act'. The kit consisted of a set of keys and picks that would open 62 different handcuffs, and it came with 15 pages of typewritten instructions. This information comes directly from Patrick Culliton's book, Houdini The Key, which has an entire chapter of the Handcuff trick and illustrations of the Defiance Handcuff Manuscript. One of the dealers who sold this was August Roterberg of Chicago. I wonder what W.D. Leroy thought of this?

Benjamin B. Keyes, according to the April 1898 issue of Mahatma Magazine, "Keyes possessed almost a mania for automata and constructed some of the most complete mechanical working figures. He was widely known throughout the profession, frequently making goods for jugglers, trapeze artists, bicycle riders, etc.."

In a 1919 letter to Dr. A.M. Wilson from Dr. James Elliott that appeared in the July 1919 issue of The Sphinx Magazine, he mentions that Benjamin Keyes died of Bright's Disease and that he was the one who gave the diagnosis. Bright's Disease is an old fashioned word for chronic inflammation of the kidneys.  Keyes died in November 1895 in Chelsea, Mass. He would not live to see the fame that Houdini would achieve escaping from handcuffs.

*William D. Le Roy was born in LaSalle Illinois August 5th, 1862. In his youth, he studied music and

the violin. By the age of 19 he was living in San Francisco and was giving classes on the violin. This appears to be where he picked up the magic bug and began to learn the trade. But, whether he met someone or discovered it from a book is not known.

In 1885, he made his first professional appearance as a magician at the Fountain Theatre in San Francisco according to the Feb 1909 issue of The Sphinx. He also appeared on the cover that month.

In 1887, he relocated to Boston and by 1893 opened the Boston School of Magic on 103 Court Street. According to the website Auspostalhistory.com, Le Roy altered the way his name was spelled in 1906 from Le Roy to Leroy. I would guess because it was easier to remember or to distinguish himself from Servais Le Roy.

He is credited with having the largest and most up to date magic catalog of it's time. Besides selling magic he was a big advocate of magic fraternities and was instrumental in signing up many people to the Society of American Magicians.

Le Roy passed away on June 10th, 1919. He is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Gloucester Mass.

I looked up the location of his shop on Google Earth, but sadly, that area has been completely redeveloped. However, below is a picture of his shop that appeared in The Sphinx.

*It was actually Samri Baldwin who claimed to have presented the first handcuff escape. I wrote about that in a previous article which can be found here.

Only 2 Days Till TheMagicDetective Blog Returns!

Coming in Just 2 Days, The Return of The Magic Detective Blog! I've written a number of articles that I've been saving. The first article will have a Houdini connection. I also have an article about Russia's greatest illusionist, and a brief article about Kalanag. They won't all appear on Sept 1, but you'll be seeing articles more often after that date. There's a lot more in store, so keep watching! Only 2 Days to Go!

The RETURN Of The Magic Detective!

On September 1st, the Magic Detective RETURNS with new articles, new content, an updated look (ok, more historical look). It's been a tough few months, as I'm sure you could tell from my last post. In that time, I've watched as other friends and associates have had to endure the trials of going through the death of a loved one, just as I did. I've had to sit back and be a spectator to the deaths of some iconic members of our magic family. 2016 has not been a good year. But, I'm determined to make it better! So September 1st, I'll put up my first blog article since April. I did post a brief article in June just to let every one know why I had vanished. But the true articles stopped back in April. Now, I'm ready to get in my time machine and travel to the past to enjoy more Magic History!!!!

The Reason For My Absence

I must apologize for my short hiatus from this blog. The recent deaths of my Dad and my best friend have taken the wind from my sails. For those who don't know, my best friend, Bobby Dymond was a performer, magician, balloon artist and probably one of the greatest rock and roll drummers who ever lived. He had been battling cancer and came through all his procedures with flying colors. However, he developed pneumonia, and though it looked like he was on the mend, on May 2nd, while walking out the door of his house, he collapsed on the front steps. An ambulance was called but he eventually passed away right on the front steps. Cause of death was congestive heart failure linked to his pneumonia. His death was such a shock to everyone. He died May 2, 2016 at the age of 61.

Then, only days later, my Dad, who had been hospitalized for 40 consecutive days, died on May 15th, 2016. It is still very hard for me to speak of this, or write about it. He began with a heart valve replacement which went well, but then he had incredible side effects from the medication, so he ended up back in the hospital. Then he developed peritonitis, and then a few days later a strangulated hernia. If that was not enough, only days after these things he came down with c-diff.  After 40 days of hospitalization, the Doctors said there was nothing else they could do, he was not showing any signs of recovery. Each day he seemed to get worse. There was yet another ailment that developed on day 39. So, we decided to move him to a hospice. I went in the ambulance with him to the facility. He was awake and alert. When we got him into his new room, he was fine but eventually fell asleep. The nurses would come in every hour and check on him and though he was asleep he was fine. At 5:20am, the next morning they came in and he had passed. My mom stayed with him every single night he was in the hospital. I stayed with him most days, as both moral support and relief for my mom when she had to head home to take care of things.

So now you know where I've been. I'm sure that I will return to the blog eventually. Maybe even fairly soon. But for now, I'm still trying to work through everything. Thank you all for being loyal readers of my blog. I know when I return, I will have more great content and stories to share, until then, be safe and be well.