Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly London, did not start out as a magic theater. Originally commissioned by naturalist William Bullock, it opened in 1812. It housed for the first seven years the collection of William Bullock, consisting of 20,000 natural history objects and artifacts. In fact, the Hall was often referred to as The Bullock Museum and also as the London Museum initially. The items were from North and South America, as well as Africa and the South Seas. Many of the South Sea artifacts were gathered by Captain Cook. In 1819, the collection was auctioned off. Just prior to that in 1816, the Hall hosted an exhibit of Napoleonic artifacts including a horse drawn carriage that was seized during the battle of Waterloo. The carriage drew large crowds during it's time at Egyptian Hall. Eventually it was purchased by Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. In 1925 the museum burned down, and the carriage was lost forever.
In 1819, after the collection had been auctioned off, Bullock turned the museum into an art gallery and exhibit hall. Over time it would morph into sort of London's version of Barnum's Museum. The Hall housed human curiosities like a 7 foot man who was so thin he was basically just skin and bone. Another popular attraction was the Siamese Twins who were joined at the waist. Speaking of Barnum, in 1944, six year old Charles Stratton, known professionally as Gen. Tom Thumb was featured at the museum. This was while Barnum and his curiosities toured throughout Europe.
For a period of time the hall was used by entertainers, mainly magicians. In 1873, no less than Dr. Lynn leased the large hall there. It was here that Buatier Dekolta made his debut at Egyptian Hall. Lynn and Dekolta shared performing duties in the large hall. By the way, there were two others in Egyptian Hall at the same time, John Nevil Maskelyne and his partner George Cooke. They leased a smaller hall and drawing room. That is until July of 1875 when Dr. Lynn decided to leave. This led to Maskelyne signing a lease for the entire place and turning into England's First Home of Mystery!
DeKolta continued to perform at Egyptian Hall, this time under the management of Maskelyne. One of the early features at the hall by Maskelyne and Cooke were the presentation of fake spiritualistic phenomenon. Maskelyne a short time before had been successful in exposing The Davenport Brothers as fakes. In fact, this is where Cooke comes into the picture. Maskelyne and Cooke knew each other initially, not because of magic, but because they both played the clarinet. Maskelyne, after having seen the Davenports accidentally saw how the brothers completed their mystery, due to a brief sudden bit of sunlight that shined through a curtained window. This led Maskelyne to create his version of their cabinet trick, using a trunk. In the Maskelyne version, Cooke would place him into the trunk and then close the lid. The trunk was then tipped up on it's edge and several bells and other instruments were placed on top of the trunk. A curtain was drawn and almost immediately the bells could be heard to ring. The curtain opened and no sign of Maskelyne. Once again, the curtain closed, more mysterious ringing sounds and then, to everyone's surprise and astonishment, John Neville was seen sitting atop of the trunk!
In 1893, a young David Devant debuted his special creation The Artist's Dream at Egyptian Hall. This illusion was actually created specifically for Egyptian Hall. Devant had wanted to do a different illusion but it was too large for the stage. Maskelyne told him if he could come up with something else, he would consider having him. Thus, the Artist's Dream was born.
Maskelyne signed Devant to a three month contract. Devan'ts next creation was in 1895 and it was the Birth of Flora. Soon after, Devant got involved in purchasing a kinetoscope to show Animated Photographs. He tried to convince Maskelyne to put them into his Egyptian Hall, but John Nevil did not initially see the value in them. Eventually he relented and animated photographs began to appear at Egyptian hall. It was the second theater in London to feature them. The first being presented by the Lumiere Brothers at the Empire Theatre. The photo at the top of the article you can see where it says, "Animated Photographs" on a large banner.
Many great illusions were featured at Egyptian Hall, but probably none greater than the original Maskelyne Levitation. Still one of the most beautiful illusions to ever be created. It gave the appearance of complete weightlessness. No less than Harry Kellar was completely mystified by it. He offered to purchase it from Maskelyne, but John Nevil turned him down. Kellar would watch the illusion from various parts of the theater trying to get clues and glimpses to it's workings. One time he even crawled up on the stage to look underneath during a live performance! But despite Kellar's best efforts, he could not crack the code. So he did the next best thing, he hired Paul Valadon away from Egyptian Hall and offered to have him tour America with Kellar. Together the two would recreate the levitation. However, there is a twist to this story. The original Maskelyne levitation was built into the theatre. It could not be moved. This is likely one of the reasons that he told Kellar no in regards to the purchase. But Kellar and Valadon figured out a way to travel with the illusion, making it portable. It went on to be a feature in the Kellar Show, even being so popular that it's now known as the Kellar Levitation.
Maskelyne and Cooke remained there until 1904 when the lease ran out and the building was then scheduled for demolition. Of course, that would not be the end of The Home of Mystery, as it would then move to St. George's Hall. More on that, to come.
