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.
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