The Great Erich Weiss Born This Day!

 

Truly a day to celebrate. My last posts were about famous artists who died on this day. But now we can at least celebrate the BIRTH of someone, Erich Weiss. Indeed, Erich, who would grow up to be Harry Houdini, was born this day March 24th in 1874. Interestingly, he never claimed this particular date as the date he was born. It took numerous historians to uncover the truth many many years after his death.

Weiss/Houdini always wanted to be considered American. By choosing the date April 6th, 1874, that, according to him, made him American. He was a shining example of what it was like to be an American, patriotic, confident, determined. And yet, he also had his negative side braggadocios, confrontational, even somewhat of a bully when he would attack fellow escape artists with gimmicked cuffs. But mostly he was beloved by the public. He was American's champion, likable, friendly, and they always rooted for his success!

He would go on to become an escape artist, a magician, an illusionist, a movie star, a radio star, a pioneer aviator, an author, an investigator into fake spirit mediums, a debunker of many false things, and more. He was and still is an inspiration for many people old and young. There would be no Magic Detective Blog, Podcast, or frankly, no Carnegie, had it not been for his influence in my life. Long Live Harry Houdini!!!

 

Artists Concept of an older Houdini

The Passing of Marco The Magi 13 Years Ago

 

Marco the Magi was the stage name of Cesareo Pelaez. He was a charismatic figure who began what would become the LeGrand David Magic Show in Beverly Mass. Under his guidance, his merry band of followers would purchase, not one, but two theaters and revitalized the town of Beverly. 

He chose to take a secondary role in the show. Le Grand David, who was played by David Bull, was the lead. But Cesareo had a unique spot in the show. There were only 2 speaking parts, on belonged to David's brother Webster, who would weave wonderful stories during two parts of the show. But then Cesearo, as Marco, spoke during his magic routines: The Card Sequence and the Floating Table. His spots were always highly comical and somewhat absurd, in the funniest of ways.

His death brought about the end of the longest running continuous magic show in history. Cesareo died March 24th, 2012, thirteen years ago today.

The Death of Chung Ling Son 107 Years Ago Today

 

He was a performer who struggled to gain fame. He was known by everyone in the magic world. The best of the best sought him out like Herrmann and Kellar. But it wasn't until he moved to London and created a character called Chung Ling Soo that any sort of notoriety came his way. His real name was William Ellsworth Robinson, he was an American, born April 2, 1861. 

I'm not going to give you his life story here, as that will be saved for a future episode of the podcast. But suffice to say he was a controversial figure back then and still today. He pretended to be Chinese when in reality he was not. NOT unusual for the time at all. Today that sort of thing is frowned upon by some. 

It was claimed that no one knew his identity and that when he died it was revealed he was really a white male American. But many many people knew who he was. Perhaps the British public did not, and he played it up for all it was worth.

On March 23rd, 1918, Soo was at Woodgreen Empire Theater in London. He was performing his famed Bullet Catch Routine, where a row of marksmen with rifles would shoot at Soo and he would catch the bullets. Except, on this night, as the shots rang out, Soo stumbled back and said, "Oh my God, something's happened, lower the curtain." That something was, he was truly shot. A malfunction happened and it allowed a real projectile to shoot out of one of the rifles, hitting the performer. He died the following morning on March 24th.

Today marks the 107th Anniversary of the Death of William Ellsworth Robinson/Chung Ling Soo.