The Amazing Zancigs First Couple of Telepathy

The Zancigs were probably the first mind reading couple to make a name for themselves internationally. Granted, Robert Heller and Haidee Heller did raise a few eyebrows in their day, but they didn't have the impact of the Zancigs, nor did they tour as much. 

Their Real names were Julius Jorgensen, born in Copenhagen, Denmark March 7th, 1857

His partner was born Agnes Clausen, also in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1849.

Julius moved to the US in 1882 and a short time after he arrived, he met up with Agnes at a social gathering of Danish people who had immigrated to the US. They had known each other in Denmark and here upon meeting, they struck up a new relationship which eventually led to marriage. 

When he was living in Denmark his father had him apprenticed in the iron smelting industry. So when he came to America, this was one of his first jobs. While still employed in the iron plant,  an unusual request came to the young couple to perform at a church function. Because they didnt play any sort of instrument, they decided to try their hand at telepathy. Yeah, that makes sense. I can’t play an insturment, so I’ll read minds instead, lol. I’m going to guess that at some point Julius may have had an interest in this subject or picked up some of the expose pamphlets on how this was done. They began with the work that Robert Heller had done with his Second Site Act and expanded upon it. At any rate, they gave their crude demonstration and were surprised at how well it went over. 

According to Will Goldston’s book, Sensational Tales of Mystery Men, Zancig had an accident at the smelting plant, he badly burned his hand and was out of work for a long while. During his recovery, he decided that he would leave the iron works plant and try his fate in the world of mind reading. 

According to numerous sources, Their career began in 1899, when they start to present their telepathy act at San Souci Amusement Park in Chicago IL. This is even confirmed by a short article about them in a Mahatma Magazine in 1902.  Sensational Tales of Mystery Men, has them at Coney Island and claims that Horace Goldin discovered them there and later introduced them to Oscar Hammerstein.  I have a feeling Coney Island is incorrect, but it’s possible Goldin saw them at San Souci Park. And the Oscar Hammerstein connection is correct. He brought them to NYC to play his Roof Garden at $400 a week. The couple also performed at countless private functions for the high society of NYC. LONG before Steve Cohen took up residency at The Waldorf Astoria, The Zancigs performed there for 12 weeks.

In 1903 they met H.B. Leavitt, a theatrical producer who organized a Globe trotting tour for them.  And indeed they did travel the Globe. Arriving in London at one point they soon became a sensation. 

In 1906, The Zancigs gave a command performance before King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace. After this they toured across England as they had done before and again, the sensation continued. In the book, Illusion Show by David Bamberg, he talks about his family running into the Zancigs on a train in Norway. Agnes asked Okito if the young son, David, was going to follow in his footsteps. Because if he wasn’t she could make a ‘mind reader’ out of him. Remember that anecdote…

Here is a write-up from The Sphinx Magazine in 1906 of their act. “The Mysterious Zancigs were a strong feature of the Orpheum the week of Nov 6th. Their act is certainly a great one in every sense. They work rapidly and accurately in all their tests and are never baffled by any of the attempts made by the audience to fool them. Their exhibition may be termed telepathy, mind-reading, second sight, or by any other name. It goes just the same. Mr. & Mrs. Zancig honored the Sphinx with their presence, and during their call favored us with a private exhibition of their extraordinary powers. While this gifted couple were visiting Mammoth Cave recently, they had one pleasure of giving an entertainment in the bridal chamber of that wonderful cave”

Mammoth Cave is a National Park and Cave in Kentucky. One of the areas is called the Bridal Alter or Bridal Chamber and it was here in 1906 that the Zancigs gave an impromptu performance. 

In a 1906 issue of The Conjurers Monthly magazine, Houdini writes about the Zancigs, “Their act is about the best of it’s kind that we have ever seen, and we have seen almost all!”

In 1907 they were hired to work at the Victoria Roof Garden. They had an extended run that went into 1908 with the amazing salary of $1500 per week, the most ever paid to a mind reading act at the time.  From there they went to the Alhambra for a seven month run, then off to the Wintergarten in Germany.  Then back to America before the year was up.

IN 1910, they were requested to return to England and Buckingham Palace to perform again, this time during the coronation of King George V. They remained in England until 1913, when they finally returned to the US. 

This is just the early part of their career. On The Magic Detective podcast Ep 21, I go over the entire life story of the couple and those performers who joined the show later. Here is the link to episode 21

Happy Birthday Doug Henning

Friday May 3rd marks another birthday for Doug Henning. Had he lived, he would be turning 72, and no doubt would be the spitting image of Merlin himself! On Friday, my second podcast on Doug Henning debuts on https://magicdetectivepodcast.com, it is Episode 20. Basically on this podcast I do a run down of the World of Magic Specials 5-8. I give a list of tricks and a few other details from the specials. There is something that I mention during the podcast, that I have talked about before and I'd like to mention it again. The 8 World of Magic TV Specials, though wonderful to those of us who experienced them as they happened, may not hold up well for newer generations. They likely seem corny, over produced, campy, even goofy. It was a different time for sure. But I also point out that even though I loved the specials they failed to capture Doug at his best. What does that mean?

To see Doug Henning LIVE was much different that the TVspecials. Gone were the corny jokes and the poorly written patter. Instead, what you have is a very confident performer who is genuinely funny, energetic, enthusiastic, and HAPPY to be in front of an audience. I never in all my years heard anyone say that "Doug Henning phoned in a performance, or walked through a performance". He was engaged and in touch with every audience he performed for. And amazingly, I found proof of what I speak.

On Youtube there is a video that someone shot of Doug performing LIVE in Omaha Nebraska sometime in the 1980s. Yes, he is wearing his signature overalls, but that was HIS style for the time. But the magic is rock solid, the entertainment is fantastic. Listen to how the audience responds to his various lines and quips. He is a master showman without question. Please take a few moments to enjoy the magic of Doug Henning!

The Magical & Musical Litzka Raymond Gibson

The woman who was known as LITZKA was born Pearl Beatrice Gonser, in Mt. Carmel Penn on January 11th 1901. Pearl’s mother taught voice and music and she instructed her daughter in these disciplines. Pearl also took up the harp at a young age and became quite accomplished ‘harpiste’. 

In regards to her music background, she was a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and she was the featured soloist with the Boston Symphony and the London Symphony. As a featured Harpiste, she chose the name LITZKA as her stage name. Some sources have tried to say she was born with the name Pearllitzka, or ‘Little Pearl’. But census records show her listed as simply PEARL. 

The story Litza told later in life ‘was that when she was 8 years old she saw the Great Raymond perform. She then told her mother she was going to marry him some day. And sure enough in 1927 she did! Litzka became part of the Raymond Show, playing the Harp and later helping with the illusions. She was the ‘sawing in half girl’ and also presented Raymond’s version of the Substiution Trunk which he called ‘metempsychosis’.   

Litzka owned 5 different harps, one costing as much as $3000. She did numerous costume changes when she did her Harp act. She also had funny asides that she would throw in while she was playing various songs. The act was well structured for entertainment, but she was an exceptional harpist to boot. Litzka also began to do her own segment of magic in the Raymond show. It was a mix of asian inspired mysteries. She wore elaborate costumes and had her own unique presentations. Before long she added a trained rooster to the show. Her rooster would become more famous than her, he was called ‘China boy’ and was a bantam rooster. He did card tricks, as in finding lost playing cards. I would imagine that Liztka produced the rooster magically at the start of her act. So popular was China Boy, that he even had his own comic book, that the Raymonds used to promote and market Litzka’s act. And China Boy became a traveling companion for her as well. 

In the October 1981 issue of MUM magazine, Litzka relays a story of her days traveling with the Raymond Show. She said that they had arrived at the Port of Entry for Columbia South America. Litzka always took part in verifying the contents of trunks with the local authorities. She said that usually they only looked at 3 or 4 trunks and then would issue them the permits for their stay in the country. One of the things that they did to get in good with local authorities was to do a show in the Port City at the start of the tour. On this particular day, about half of the shows trunks had been loaded into cars and were on their way to the theatre. And that is when things get bad. A British freighter, The Tritonia” caught fire. The ship was loaded with petroleum, dynamite and other explosives. A quick aside, “who thought it was a good idea to keep these items all together on the same ship?”. Anyway, pandemonium insued. The entire crew of the Tritonia abandoned ship. The dock workers packed up, but not before leaving the other half of Raymond’s show ON the docks. It had been covered with tarps, but if this ship full of explosives was to, well, explode, it could wipe out everything on the docks, as well as local businesses and even the hotel near the dock. 

Please were evacuating the city. Even Raymond’s crew took off. He and Litzka stayed behind. 

There were updates about ‘when’ the explosion was expected to take place. And after the last update, someone realized that the Captains, pet cat was still on board the ship! The mayor of the town even went so far as to offer a reward to anyone who would be willing to go on the ship to retrieve the cat! And as crazy as it sounds, two German sailors accepted the offer and went on board the ship. No more than 5 minutes passed before the unthinkable happened. The ship exploded, with the sailors and the cat still onboard. 

The explosion was tremendous, towns people thought it was the end of the world. Parts of the ship were thrown into buildings all over the area. People hid for their lives. Litzka said she found herself hiding underneath the bed in her hotel room. Her husband, Maurice Raymond was downstairs enjoying the excitement with other hotel guests. 

Much damage was done to the area. Buildings had collaped, but some escape unharmed, like the local Theatre it was untouched. The trunks from the Raymond show that had made it to the theatre, were unharmed as well. So what was the status of the other half of the show that was left on the loading docks??? When Raymond and Litzka went to check, a crowd of people were surrounding that area. It turned out that laying upon the canvas tarps, covering the remaining trunks from their show, were the remains of the two german sailors. 

According to Litzka, the town was in no mood for a show, so they loaded the trunks from the docks and the trunks from the theatre into trucks, and continued on with their tour. When it came time to return a month or so later, that is when they arranged to do their show for the people of the Port City.  WOW, that is an incredible story!

Litzka performed in the Raymond show for 22 years until her husband died on Jan 27th, 1948.

Litza performed at a lot of magic conventions doing her act with the Harps and her Magic act with China Boy. At one point, Walter Gibson became her Manager. Eventually, Walter Gibson also became her second husband. And she be known as Litza Raymond Gibson. Or in reality, Pearl Beatrice Litza Raymond Gibson.

Another highlight of Litza’s career was when she became the featured performer for the Annual Fashion Show sponsored by Madamoiselle Magazine. Litzka created an entire show of magic and illusions around FASHION. She sawed models from the magazine in half, produced loads of livestock, birds, rabbits and of course China Boy. She had custom stage settings created for the event. Apparently this event was a traveling sort of show, with multiple different groups presenting shows. So Litzka had multiple sets and props created and shipped off to the various destiantions. From what I gather, she trained people to do some of the magic, but she would actually appear in person at some of the lagers of these shows. Her character for these shows was known as “Mademoiselle Magic”. 

Walter Gibson, her third husband, was known to be a prolific writer and soon, Litzka would join her husband by writing books as well. She wrote “The Mystic and Occult Arts” and “ the complete illustrated book of divination and prophecy”,  a book called “How to Read Palms” and later, “The Official Know it alls Guide to Palm Reading”. Some of these books are still in circulation today. 

Litzka sold the Raymond Show in 1994 to a group consisting of Mario Carrandi Jr. David Baldwin, Henry Muller and Sid Radner for $225,000.

Litzka Raymond Gibson died on May 11th, 1996, she was 95 years old.

Bancroft Prince of Magicians

This poster above belonged to a magician named Frederick Bancroft. This poster is beautiful to be sure. And apparently it was also humongous. This was either a 28 sheet or 16 sheet poster. In other words, its a HUGE poster. I'm not even sure where you'd be able to hang such a poster. It clearly is for the side of a building. But how many buildings had free space for this monster? In 1925 this poster and another similar one were for sale at the price of 10 cents per sheet. It also came with a stand for an additional 50 cents. Imagine that.

Seeing this poster you might think that Bancroft was one of the greatest magicians to ever live. Well, let me tell you about Bancroft. His name was Frederick Bancroft.  He was born in 1866 in Winona Minnesota.  At a young age he saw Alexander Herrmann and decided he wanted to become a magician. Not only did he see Herrmann, but it appears he became a bit of a groupee following around from town to town for a period. Maybe he was more of a stalker! lol. 

Bancrofts first foray into magic was under the name DeCastro and it was a disaster. He was an enterprising individual who got into many different businesses.* He moved to St. Paul MN. where he married and had a child. He also speculated in real estate and sold insurance. He spent $30,000 or about $777,000 in today’s money. By all accounts he had purchased top of the line posters, top of the line brochures, top of the line draperies, scenery and even hand carved tables. Almost every mention I could find of Bancroft mentioned his elaborate and beautiful stage settings. What he didn’t spend the money on however were the latest magic effects.

In 1896 Bancroft set out on his own.  The magic in his show consisted of smaller platform style magic and it was very old, one article called it hackneyed. Other seasoned performers could take the same material and make it shine but Bancroft simply did not have the strong personality that Herrmann did. Alexander Herrmann had been performing since the days of the Civil War, and had coaching in the early days from his very popular brother Compars. Bancroft struggled. He had huge a 5 part show, with 3 parts devoted to smaller magic. 

Also in 1896, The Great Herrmann died. And Bancroft, being a smarter businessman than he was a magician, hired Herrmann’s agent, E.L  Bloom. Bloom helped to reshape the Bancroft Show, and I  included at least one illusion in this new version. Dr. A.M. Wilson in the Sphinx mentions that Bancroft was the inventor of The Lions Bride, using Black art. I’d never heard this before. But sure enough there is a poster of Bancrofts that advertises an illusion called LEONII, using an 'untamed lion' named Wallacker. So now Bancroft had a feature to his gigantic production!

E.L Bloom booked Bancroft into a theatre in Charleston, SC on Sept 26th, 1897. Bancroft came down with Typhoid Fever and died. Much like our friend Maro who was featured in Podcast Ep 11 he too died to Typhoid Fever. 

WHAT HAPPENED TO the show following Bancrofts death? Good question. It seemed that it was acquired by Henry A. Dixey, who was managed by Edward Bloom (Bancrofts former manager). Dixey would later debut in NY in his new role as magician in early 1898. By July of 1898, Mahatma Magazine says “Henry Dixey, the comedian who succeeded the late Bancroft, as a magician, has given up magic."

Dorny said of him, “Bancroft had one of the most lavishly mounted magical shows on the road? And a very promising career was cut short by his untimely death”

You might be familiar with the story that Houdini would tell about his early years of struggling, so he sent letters to Maskelyne, Kellar, and Herrmann, inquiring about possible work with them. Well, you can add Bancroft to that list because apparently Houdini had contacted him too, according to Dr. A.M. Wilson in a Dec 1922 Sphinx magazine column. 

Here is a piece also from the Sphinx,

"The spontaneous familiarity of Herrmann and the quiet yet not austere dignity of Kellar gave to their entertainments a fascination never equalled by any other magician on the American Stage. Bancroft could not follow Herrmann. Dixie could not succeed Bancroft. Thurston is not filling the place left by Kellar. Not that Bancroft, Dixie, or Thurston were and are not qualified magicians..."

So it puts into perspective the challenge of taking on someone like a Kellar or a Herrmann. Even with Bancrofts massively beautiful sets and stage decor, it wasn't enough. He did not have the personality to win over audiences. Yet at the same time, his advertisements were so grandiose that it appeared to fool someone like Houdini into thinking that Bancroft was one of the leading performers of his day.

Bancroft lasted barely two years before he died. And many people suggested that over time, Bancroft may have grown into the role that his advertisements portrayed, that of a GREAT Magician. But his premature death ended that.

*There were a couple corrections made to this article. One, originally I posted that Bancroft went into Denistry, but apparently this was not so. This is a mistake that was recorded a couple times in magic periodicals and books. I also mentioned he was born in St. Paul, MN, but he was born in Winona MN in the year 1866. He did later move to St. Paul however.

(Library of Congress Photo)

Edwin Brush The Mystic

I'm so happy to be able to include Edwin Brush in my podcast roster. I knew very little of his life before I started and he has turned out to be a fascinating individual. He was born Edward M. Brush on March 21st 1873 in Garden Prairie Illinois. He grew up on a farm so unlike many kids who were in the city, he had no way of seeing magicians. His first exposure to magic came from a neighbor kid who showed him some small pocket magic tricks. Brush was amazed and began to learn some pocket magic himself.

When he was 16, Alexander Herrmann came to town. Herrmann was really King of the Magicians at the time. Not only was he famous in the U.S. but he was famous all over the globe. Herrmann had a wonderful personality, was known to be quite funny, and an excellent sleight of hand artist. Brush took in all that he saw and decided on that day that he would one day become a full time magician.

Brush was smart, first he went to college to learn business and then he came out and got a real job working for a clothing manufacturer. He used magic as a sales tool to loosen people up, break the ice as it where. But the pocket tricks also had another effect, people saw that Brush was a fine magician and began to request if he could work at their events. Brush was well on his way to becoming a full time magician.

I cover the life of Brush quite well in podcast 17 of the Magic Detective Podcast, but I wanted to share one more thing with you and that is a photo of Brush's iconic mustache. It is clearly NOT growing that way on it's own. He must have had a ton of wax on that thing to keep it down

What possessed him to think that mustache looked good is beyond me? But then again, it was a great marketing too because once people saw it, they could not UNSEE it, lol.

Strangely, Brush continued to sport the crazy mustache through out his entire life. Even in his 80s and 90s he still have the wild mustache, though he did cut it back slightly.

Besides his mustache, Brush has a very positive career in the world of magic. After looking at some of the comments by his fellow magicians, I see that Brush was very well respected by his peers.

If you'd like to learn more about the magical life of Edwin Brush, please check out my latest podcast at  https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-17-the-magical-life-of-brush-the-great/