Dot Robinson, Wife of Chung Ling Soo

Olive 'Dot' Robinson was the wife of William Ellsworth Robinson, known professionally as Chung Ling Soo. She was born Olive Path and had been with William Robinson since the very beginning of his career. She worked with him in his Black Art act. When he signed with Kellar, she was there and acted as assistant in the illusions. Later, when they switched over to work with Herrmann the Great, she continued on, performing the illusions as only she could. Her nickname was Dot, due to her small stature. And because of her size, it allowed for very deceptive illusions. Several sources, including Magic: A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theatre, mention that she was one of the greatest assistants to ever live. When William Robinson created the Chung Ling Soo character, he renamed his wife Suee Seen.

Her life was not all sunshine and roses however. Though everyone thought she was married to

Robinson, they actually did not marry until 1906.   Robinson had a reputation for being a womanizer and Dot overlooked it all those years. But after the marriage, his extramarital affairs strained their relationship.

In 1918, Chung Ling Soo/William Robinson was shot on stage of the Wood Green Empire Theatre in London while performing the Bullet Catching Illusion. He died as a result of his wound and was buried in London. Dot, remained in London until 1921 when she quietly returned to America. She moved to the Bronx and became a recluse, never again associating with her friends in the magic world.  She died November 13, 1934 from cancer.

Olive 'Dot' Robinson is buried in an unmarked grave in The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.  Other notables in the magic world who are buried there include: Alexander and Adelaide Herrmann, Max Holden, and Black Hermann.

Fellow magic historian, Diego Domingo is now working to raise funds for a grave marker for Olive Robinson. I learned of this at this years Yankee Gathering, when Diego gave a brief talk about Olive and the unmarked grave. As you know, I am a believer in caring for these graves of our brethren, and have contributed to the fund and would like to give you an opportunity to as well, if you so choose.

If you would like to contribute to the fund Checks should be made out to:

Funds have been collected and a new gravestone is in place.

Magic Christian and His Crusade

I first heard the name Magic Christian many years ago when he appeared on the cover of Genii Magazine, November 1980. I was just a kid but I still recall reading about this interesting gentleman from Austria. His issue was filled with original magic that he created. I know I have seen articles on him in the years since as well.

A few years ago, I came across his name again when doing some research on Hofzinser. I would say that Magic Christian is the leading authority on Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser today. If you don't have his books on Hofzinser you are really missing out. He has a two volume set called Non Plus Ultra Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 1 is subtitled Magic of the 19th Century. Volume 2 is subtitled Hofzinser's Card Artistry. They have been written, researched and compiled by Magic Christian. Volume 1 originally was published in German in 1998. The second Volume followed in German in 2004. They were translated into English in 2013 and these are the books I proudly own and am carefully reviewing.

I got to meet and talk with Magic Christian at this years Yankee Gathering and he told me that The Conjuring Arts Research Library is currently editing Volume 3 of the Hofzinser books! This is amazing news and I can't tell you how thrilled I was to learn that! I remember when I read the first two books that there was yet a third one out there, but it was in German I believe. Well, now its being translated! 

Besides his work on Hofzinser, Magic Christian is also working to get the grave of Compars Herrmann repaired. During the Yankee Gathering, he showed a short slide presentation of before and after photos of the grave site. The first photo, to the left,  is what the grave looked like around 1906. You'll note it has an iron fence around it, an ornate wreath and metal vines on the face of the stone and then a decorative firebowl at the top. I understand there were also rose bushes behind the grave itself.

Now, fast forward to around 1988 and you'll see the deterioration of the gravesite. Rust has overtaken the iron fence, and the ornate wreath and other decorative items on the grave were stripped off the grave during World War 2. Actually, there is another photo that Magic Christian sent me that shows the grave around 1988 and vines and leaves had totally overtaken most of the grave. So the photo below must be after some initial work on the grave.  

It's clear by the photos that the front of the fence, the gateway, is gone. And as I mentioned all the ornate decorative items on the tombstone are also gone.
 

In 2009, the Magic Club of Vienna and Magic Christian began plans and work to restore the grave. It appears the first thing they did was clean up the tombstone itself and clean up all the vines and such that had grown up around the grave.

Then they set about to restore the grave to the way it looked originally. The wreath and metal vines on the face of the grave were remade. Gold lettering was redone on the face of the tombstone and white lettering on the black plaque at the bottom part of the tombstone.

Next, it appears that they had the iron fence totally redone, along with the ornate gate at the very front.  The work they've done is remarkable. During this entire time they have raised funds from magicians and magic organizations to help pay for the restoration.

The only things left to do are to replace the firebowl at the top of the tombstone and replant the rose bushes behind the grave.  At the Yankee Gathering, Magic Christian took up a donation for the continued restoration. I wanted to include the information here in case anyone else wants to contribute. You will find that information underneath the next photograph. 

The tomb is situated in the Central Cemetery of Vienna in the old Jewish section

Group  6 – Row 29 – Tomb 38

 

Dear friends we hope that you will support this big project: Please send your donation to Magic Christian and the Magischer Klub Wien:

Bank: Postsparkasse PSK 60000

Account: Magischer Klub Wien

Number: 00002349219

InternetBanking/0111642744$?d=accountdetails&fkonto=00002349219

IBAN: AT696000000002349219

BIC: OPSKATWW

And if you have other questions for Magic Christian, you can contact him through his website at MagicChristian.com. All the grave photos here were provided by Magic Christian and used with his permission. 

The Yankee Gathering 2016

The Yankee Gathering 2016 is now over, and I'm finally home and have a few moments to reflect on events of the conference. I guess my first thought is, 'WOW'. What an incredible time we had. Usually at magic conventions you spend a lot of time in the dealers room when there are no activities. But I barely spent any time in the dealers room. In fact, Denise and I had to make a special trip on Saturday INTO the dealers room because we missed so much...and then we still did not get to stop by every booth. There were also a lot of people I didn't get to chat with or introduce myself too. Some of them, honestly, I didn't know where present otherwise I would have searched them out. One person comes to mind, Kevin Connolly. I really would like to have met him and said hello, but I didn't know he was there, my guess is he was probably in the dealers room and we just never made it over to his booth. Also, I did catch out of the corner of my eye, Arthur Moses, but I never saw him alone where I could go up and say hello.

But let me focus on the folks I did meet. Adele Friel Rhindress, who I already knew but spent quite a bit of time with during the conference. Gary Frank, who I purchased my Kellar poster from earlier in the year but this was the first time I got to meet him in person. Magic Christian from Austria who was a charming gentleman. John Hinson, who I also previously met and it was great to see him again. David Haversat, who I met at the registration booth, but didn't really get to talk to. He was usually in conversation or I was. Kent Cummins who I believe I had met once before and who was a good friend of one of my good friends. so it was great to reconnect with Kent. Judge Gary Brown, who is funny, and clever, and quite the magical inventor as well as being a great guy.  Gary Hughes, it was great to see him again, always nice to see him and talk magic history. William Rausher, who I had met briefly once before but it was nice to see him again. Oh, my friend James Hamilton, the authority on all thing Herrmann was there. I got to meet Thomas Blacke who I first learned about from the late Norman Bigelow. Rick Heath, the artist from Le Grand David was there and we went to dinner on the first night, always great to see Rick. David Bull from Le Grand David stopped us in the hall to chat for a while which was very nice. Lupe and Norm Nielsen who I've met before but it's always nice to see them. I got to meet Ray Ricard, the fellow who invited me to lecture and who has a tremendous book collection. It was also great to see Alan Wassilak again, we had met a couple years ago at Ray Goulet's Magic Shop. OH and of course, I enjoyed chatting with Ray again as well. Charles Greene, who lives in my area but I only ever see at these history conferences. John Bundy and Morgan were there and I finally got to meet them after all these years. I sold them an illusion about 10 years ago and they still remembered it. David Oliver was there and we spent quite a bit of time chatting with him, he is quite the individual. Tim Moore, the dentist and collector from Columbus, what a great guy and so nice to finally meet him. I also spoke for several minutes with Mike Caveney and got to meet Bill Smith as well. And I got to see Bill Schmeelk again from Wellington Enterprises, nice to see him again.

I'm sure there were people I met that I left off the list above and please forgive me if I did. You might just get mentioned in a future article. Denise and I left the Yankee Gathering for another conference that was even more intense than our 4 days in the Boston area. I'm still not caught up on my sleep.

Apparently the Yankee Gathering events always have a guest of honor, and this year it was Norm and

Lupe Nielsen. Norm was given an award and Lupe spoke about their incredible poster collection. She told how it first began, some of the rare gems in the collection, and how they went about deciding to sell the collection.

Lupe brought along a power point presentation filled with incredible images of posters. There are over 2000 posters in their collection, and even after the two Potter and Potter Auctions, they will still have quite a few that they are keeping. One of my favorites in their collection was the Houdini Underwater Packing crate poster, which can be seen to the right. This poster found it's way to the Copperfield Museum, along with several other wonderful pieces. I think David might have also got the very rare and very large KELLAR poster that was similar in size to the Houdini Under Water Packing crate escape poster.

There were a number of highlights for me. The first lecture of the event was by William Rauscher who spoke about Kalanag. I will make this simple, I loved his presentation. He gave a great narrative of the life of a very complex man, Helmut Schrieber. Mr. Rauscher did not try and white wash his connection to the Nazi party, or rewrite history by saying he didn't have anything to do with it. Rather he put the entire story into historical perspective. There were many wonderful slides to go along with the talk. My favorite part was when a video clip was played of Kalanag presenting the Billiard Balls. It was such a simple routine and far superior to most versions I've seen. Great lecture.

Next up was yours truly, the Magic Detective, talking about the Life of The Great Maro. This was supposed to be a repeat of the lecture I presented last year in Leland Michigan. I reworked the lecture to appeal to the magic crowd. I assumed that everyone knew about Maro, to some degree, so I wanted to give them information they might not have been aware of. My lecture was a big hit with folks.  I talked to a lot of people who really enjoyed it. The most common comment was "I'd seen the Maro posters but never really knew anything about him." I'm glad I could share my knowledge of this fascinating man who died too young, with this group of magic history fans. After my lecture, two different people told me they had Maro material in their collections, both described posters which I had never seen before. So I may be writing more about Maro in the future. 

Following my lecture, they started to get ready for the Auction. This was great fun and I walked away with a book and some Le Grand David posters and programs. There was one item that I had bid on fairly high but eventually let it go, I forget what item that was. The funniest part of the lecture to me was my assistant Denise, who was with me. She won so many items I couldn't believe it. In fact, I wish I had been a fly on the wall when she walked in her front door carrying a guillotine!!!

My buddy John Hinson was full of surprises. He stopped me on day 1 at the registration booth to tell me he had something special in store for me. That something special was a pair of Houdini's Hamburg 8 handcuffs. He even let me try them on! We couldn't quite snap them shut because my wrists are much larger than Houdini's. But it was still a great experience. John had quite an amazing display of photographs and I will share those on another blog article.

I'm not sure it's fair to say that 'such and such was a highlight', because frankly EVERYTHING was! I love magic history, so around every corner there was so new treasures to behold and experience. Many of these gems came in the form of the wonderful people attending the conference. So many people came up to me and shared their time and stories with me. I just loved that.

Display of MacDonal Birch items by Tom Ewing

Tom Ewing's lecture on Mac and Mabel (MacDonald Birch) was incredible! Tom has quite a fine collection of Birth memorabilia as well, including a backdrop from the show. Like the other lecturers, his presentation included a slide show. Tom also has a new book out on Birch which I have to pick up!Eddie Dawes lecture was so informative and interesting.

As far as the evening shows, they were quite interesting. A fellow named Leland Falkner who I was unfamiliar with did a splendid job with Troublewit and Chapaugraphy. William Rauscher gave us some old school magic which must have taken hours to set up. John Bundy and Morgan were present one night to present their take on The Spirit Cabinet. David Oliver presented a routine which I just saw for the first time a few days before the conference and then got to experience it live. The routine was his take on the Pavel Walking Knot. This is a routine I've done for years, but David has really made this routine into a masterpiece. A period act bringing Richard Potter to life was pure magic through and through. The final night Lyn Dillies presented her full evening Illusion show and I'm frankly not sure how she pulled off all those illusions in such a tight area, but she did!

I didn't cover everything here, as I'm saving a few things for future articles. But I would like to say this, if you have ever considered attending a magic history conference, you should really look into the Yankee Gathering!

Visiting with Margery the Medium

Last week, I was in the Boston area to attend and lecture at the Yankee Gathering. This is a wonderful magic history conference put on by the New England Magic Collectors Association. When I went to the registration booth on the first morning of the conference, I found out that the festivities didn't get going until later in the day. I was very glad about this, because it gave me an opportunity to take a slight detour.

I jumped in my car, along with my assistant Denise who was traveling with me, and we set sail for Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. I had a map of the cemetery so I knew where in the cemetery to look, or so I thought. My trusty map, with a big red X marking the location of Margery's final resting place turned out to be wrong. So we began to stroll in the vicinity hoping to come across the grave. Twenty minutes or so later, we kept turning up nothing.

Finally, I stopped and considered going to the front gate to see if they knew where she was. But then I looked, and immediately in front of me was a moss covered grave. Removing the moss reveals the name STINSON in big bold letters. It was right there next to me, the grave of Mina Stinson Crandon, better known as Margery the Medium, one of the great Houdini's toughest adversaries.

A great book about Margery and the battles she had with Houdini came out last year called The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher. If you're interested in locating the grave for yourself, it's located off of Birch Avenue in the Artemisia section.  The grave faces the road, and isn't too hard to find now, thanks to the resourcefulness of Denise.

Sneak Peak: Houdini's Hamburg 8 Handcuffs

John Hinson was like Santa Claus at the Yankee Gathering this year. He brought a number of things that he wanted me to see. One item in particular was Houdini's pair of Hamburg 8 handcuffs. Not only did I get to see them, but I also got to try them on. When he made this suggestion, I knew that they were not likely to fit, as most Hamburg 8s don't fit me, I need the larger version which I'm not sure were available during Houdini's day.  John did not bring the key, but even if he had, I don't think they would have shut. Still, it was pretty cool holding and experiencing a pair of Houdini's cuffs.

Yankee Gathering Review will be Coming Soon.

Coming Soon...

I will have some reviews and stories from this years Yankee Gathering 2016, shortly. But I am on my way to a Business Marketing Conference, so it won't be will next week. Suffice to say it was a fantastic time and I would encourage anyone interested in magic history to attend this event.

The Great Maro At The Yankee Gathering

In just a few hours I'll be leaving for Massachusetts to attend The 2016 Yankee Gathering. Not only am I attending this event, but I will also be speaking. I'll be repeating my lecture from last year on The Great Maro. I did have to tweak the presentation slightly for this group. Previously I presented the lecture for a group of lay people. This time it's a group of magicians. Due to the fact that Maro was one of the lesser known magicians of his time, I hope the audience enjoys what I have to share with them!

I will do my best to give you updates on the event as well as share photos along the way!

Happy Magic Day, The 90th Anniversary of the Passing of Harry Houdini

Happy Halloween, Happy Magic Day. Today marks the 90th Anniversary of the passing of magic's most iconic performer, Harry Houdini. There has been quite a bit written over the past 2 weeks concerning this 90th Anniversary. Events are planned and some have already taken place to commemorate Houdini's life and to try and contact his spirit, again.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Houdini isn't coming back. Ouch, that was harsh. But there is good news. Houdini does speak from beyond, sort of. He speaks through folks like Patrick Culliton, John Cox, Arthur Moses, Fred Pittella, David Saltman, Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz, Joe Notaro, Tom Interval, Bill Kalush, Kevin Connolly, and yours truly. And there are probably a few others whose names I missed, my apologies to you if I did. The point is, we are sort of the keepers of the flame. We collect, we research, we discover new things about Houdini and we share them.

Some of us even perform. Just yesterday I did 2 shows which opened with three back to back escapes. I had heard there was a young fellow from Pittsburgh who was going to recreate Houdini's upside down hanging strait jacket escape, and my friend Andrew Basso pays homage to Houdini every time he performs the Water Torture Cell in the show The Illusionists.

Ironically, for us, there is no escaping Houdini.

I had been working on two separate articles about Houdini, both of which I just have not had time to complete. I don't want to put up a partially researched articles when it could be a real gem, so those two articles will have to wait until I have some time to work on them. My fellow Houdini bloggers have more than filled up the space that I've left by not posting, and then some. I had some big plans for #90, but events in my personal life have occupied the majority of my time and prevented me from following through some of the more interesting things I wanted to do.

For now let me wish the Spirit of Houdini the best. I don't think you should congratulate someone on the day of their death. But I can say, even 90 years later, Mr. Houdini, you are sorely missed.

A few years ago I wrote an article tracking the body of Houdini after he died until his funeral. You can check that article out here: http://www.themagicdetective.com/2012/01/tracking-body-of-houdini.html

And if you want MORE Houdini, just follow this link to all the articles on this site about Houdini
http://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/Houdini

This Is What Real Presidents Look Like!

Of course, I'm speaking of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States and Harry Houdini, President of the Society of American Magicians from 1917 to 1927 though he died in 1926 during his last term. I believe Houdini was the longest serving President of the S.A.M. as well.

The photo was created by Houdini as an example of Spirit Photography. He wanted to show how easily such a process was faked. There are numerous versions of this photo, and I found a very interesting one that is stored at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. You can see the photo and a handwritten letter of Houdini's here: http://alplm.tumblr.com/post/40018587432/houdini 

That is as 'political' as I will get. Sorry, I don't discuss politics as a rule.

Paul Osborne Passes Away

I just got word that Paul Osborne passed away suddenly this morning. No news on what happened, yet.

I found out when I saw Jay Johnson's post on Facebook.  Where would I be had it not been for Paul. My first sub-trunk was built with Paul Osborne plans. One of my very popular Santa Claus productions was Paul's. I have a huge double Tip-Over Trunk in storage that we built from Paul's excellent plans and my latest steampunk effect, Tri-Section, came from Pauls incredible workshop plans. Anyone who works with illusions will feel profound sadness this day. RIP Paul. Below is a link to the piece that Jay Johnson wrote on his blog.

THE WORLD IS A STAGE: Good Bye Paul:  The tradition is to break a magic wand in half in honor of a magician who dies.  Symbolically it says that his magic will not be done aga...


For those interested, here is a wonderful article about Paul. It gives more details on his life and it was written while he was still alive. http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/october/paul-osborne-jr-selling-magic-wholesale/

Le Grand David Magic Memorabilia

I was going through my storage unit this past weekend looking for items to write about in this blog when I came upon a treasure trove of Le Grand David things. I honestly, don't even recall a lot of it and there is much more than I'm posting here. I found programs, flyers, postcards, saved envelopes, 8x10 photos, magazine articles and more. However, the items I'll share with you today are a little different.

First, we have the TIME Magazine article at the top of the page. This first appeared in TIME Magazine on May 12, 1980. It really shows that their show was something quite different from other magic shows. Full color photos of a MAGIC SHOW graced the paged of TIME Magazine. I can't help but think that was a first! This was the companies first National exposure and I'm not sure they were expecting the deluge that would follow. As soon as the article appeared, they began to get requests from all over, and I mean all over the world, for tickets. They would sell out that theatre on many occasions, even the balcony. In fact, according to the book Carteles de Magia, Cesareo commissioned a sign to be painted that said, SOLD OUT, that they could post in the lobby window. The magic world also sat up and took notice of the show. Even though they had started running 2 full page ads in Genii Magazine, the editor at the time Bill Larsen had yet to see the show. So in the summer of 1980, Bill and his wife Irene attended their first Le Grand David Magic Show. I know this for a fact because I was there. I met them during intermission at the show. It was a huge highlight for me. And then when the show was over, David Bull, who is Le Grand David, signed my copy of Genii Magazine, which I just so happened to carry with me to the show. The magic press would continue to write amazing articles as would magazines and newspapers of all kinds for the remainder of the shows run.

One interesting note, that now makes me a bit sad, is that after the TIME Magazine article came out, a number of Hollywood producers came to see the show. One of them even stayed for three days in the hopes of making a full length documentary on the magic show and it's company. How wonderful this might have been. But Cesareo turned them all down. I read this in Carteles de Magia, which added this quote by Cesareo, "Success and failure are two imposters." I remember him telling me about the Hollywood people and the Broadway visitors who wanted to get their hands on the show. But to quote Carteles de Magia, "Cesareo was highly unlikely to let our work diverge too far from it's original purpose." Still, the TIME article provided benefits right up until the end of the show's life. By the way, if you click the image of the article, a larger version should pop up that you can read.

The next item is a Le Grand David Baseball Hat. This was given to my by Cesareo on one of my visits to Beverly. He and Avrom and Ann picked me up at the airport. We drove back to Beverly and I remember Cesareo was filled with questions for me on that trip. He and all the company were always very generous. I think they tried to give me a stack of posters every time I came up there, and I know I was not the only one who received this treatment. The hat was an unexpected gift, and I only ever wore it on that trip. When I got back, I made sure to put it in storage for safe keeping. There were three different hats offered in one of the LGD Auctions. This red version was there as well as a black and a gray hat.

The very very first time I went to LGD as a kid, I remember that there were samples of the posters available for purchase behind the consession stand. But upon my visits years later, I never really noticed anything 'for sale' beyond the candy and popcorn. I do believe at the Larcom they did have a small display case however. AND Rick Heath did walk around the theatre before the show as Albert Ping Pong selling programs.

Next is a mini poster print. The 'Stage Magic Lives Again' poster. The actual painting for this poster was hung in the theatre for a long time. And I think it was given to Ray Goulet to  display in his Magic Museum. It's a beautiful poster, and it's concept and style comes from a Nicola poster. This was a wonderful way to connect Le Grand David to the magic shows of the past, but they would soon develop their own unique style of poster. It's funny to see this tiny version when the actual poster is enormous.

The poster depicts several scenes from the Cabot show. Upper left is the duck production. Upper right shows David and Marco presenting the Okito Production Screens. In the middle we see the wonderful Pagado that was the grand finale of the show. The lower left shows assistants with giant fans, and then the lower right is David popping out of their beautiful Shadow Box illusion.

I don't know who painted this one however. There is no mention in the Carteles book as to who the artist was.  Cesareo was usually the designer or came up with the concept for the posters and other company members would do the painting. Rick Heath and Bill Balkus both painted and there may have been more. Clearly they were a highly talented and creative company but Cesareo always preferred to leave the early posters unsigned because they were an collaborative ensemble effort.

The final item is a small pin that I picked up on ebay. I think there were two different pins that they produced. It's amazing to me the many ways they used their artwork to promote the shows. I've seen the works used in advertising, posters, flyers, programs, postcards, books, decks of cards, pins and probably ways I never even imagined. This pin shows David presenting the Zombie and Cesareo wearing his costume for the Linking Rings. Rather than holding rings, Cesareo has butterflies around him, which was imagery that they would use many times in their artwork. The pin itself is about 1 inch by 2 inches.

The Phoenix Poster- Le Grand David

How fitting that I should return to my blog with The Phoenix! This is a poster I saw at the Cabot Street Cinema Theatre during my very first visit many many years ago. After the show, seeing the show for the first time, I had the opportunity to buy one of these cool posters but didn't.  I regretted my decision. (I did purchase two 'other' posters however, which I still have today)

A few months later I would see the poster on display at the American Museum of Magic. And over the years I would see various versions of the poster, but getting one myself always alluded me.

According to the book, Carteles de Magia, by the Le Grand David Company, the poster was created

in May 1977. It was one of their most popular posters. It was called 'The Bird of Paradise or The Phoenix'. The poster featured the full name of the theatre for the first time, The Cabot St. Cinema Theatre, and also proclaimed the newly added second show on Sundays at 8:15pm. The design was done by Rick Heath, it was marker on mat board. What made the poster so unique is that on some of the posters, members of the company customized them by adding paints, water colors, glitter and even decoupage. The posters were printed on various colored paper and came in two sizes 20.5x28.5 and 10x14.

I have only ever seen the larger ones customized.  The two images above are from the first Kaminski Auction. I have seen various other versions on ebay and elsewhere. Finally, thanks to the kindness and generosity of one of my readers, I can proudly say I have one of the customized Le Grand David Phoenix Posters in my collection. I have never seen a blue version before so this one is very special to me! The poster is also signed by Marco, Seth, Le Grand David and Professor Besco, the four lead performers at that time.

More On Houdini and Kellar

More on Houdini & Kellar

Five years ago, I wrote an article about Harry Kellar and Harry Houdini, and then wrote a follow-up article on a different blog. I've decided to move that 'other' article over here for you to enjoy, but I'm also rewriting it a bit.  I am totally fascinated by these two performers. I can't get enough of Kellar and Houdini. The more I find out about each of them, the more interesting they become.

KELLAR of course was the first nationally famous magician born in America. Robert Heller and Herrmann the Great preceded him, but Heller was English and Herrmann was from France. If you want to go back further, you could make the case for Signor Blitz as he was quite famous as well, but again, he was from another country.  Kellar was born in Erie PA so he was a native born son. It's said that Harry Kellar was the inspiration for the character of the Wizard in the Wizard of OZ. Actually, I've only heard this said within the magic world. I have a biography of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of OZ and there is no mention of Kellar in the book. Still, that doesn't mean he wasn't the inspiration.

Kellar was around before the modern media, before radio/TV/internet/movies, and certainly no Social Media. In fact, in Kellar's time, it was rare to see a photograph in the paper, as that technology was still in it's infancy. Instead, there were line drawings or fancy fonts in ads that were being used. So how did Kellar sell his show? POSTERS, newspaper ads and word of mouth! Kellar has some of the most beautiful and highly collectable posters in the history of the theatre.  If you examine Kellar's posters you'll receive a 19th Century lesson on Branding that is still valid today. His posters had a consistent look and theme. Whether they displayed young Kellar or older Kellar, they were still done in the same style. Some posters featured Kellar performing his signature effects, others showed only Kellar...and usually a few of his devilish imps appeared in the posters as well.

There are a number of effects in Kellar's show that have always intrigued me, probably because I saw posters for them when I was starting out in magic and the images stuck with me. Two in particular were Flyto and OH!. Flyto was an illusion invented by Charles Morritt and it consisted of two upright rectangular cabinets on the stage set several feet apart. A woman would go into one and a man into the other and instantly they would change places.

OH! was kind of a challenge vanish. There was a chair, with a curtain cabinet around it. A Steel plate went under the chair to prevent someone from dropping into a trap door. The assistant who sat in the chair put her hand through the curtain which was held by a spectator from the audience, and the other hand held a ring which was attached to a cord held by another spectator. And under these stringent conditions the person in the chair still vanished without a trace! 

HOUDINI was not born in the USA, but he always presented himself as if he was. In his mind he was a mid-westerner from a little town called Appleton. Now, where Heller and Herrmann were Kellar's rivals, they had a different connection to Houdini. Herrmann was a distant relative (maybe). Houdini enormous respect for Heller, even going so far to track down the old magi's grave. He said of Heller, "he was the most versatile magician to ever life."

Houdini was not the inspiration for any fictional characters that I'm aware of, however, he was such an iconic figure in history that he became the inspiration for many people inside and outside of magic. Even today, they still make movies and write books about this fellow, so still he has a hold on the public's imagination.

Houdini predated the internet/social media and TV. But he was right there when radio and movies were in their infancy, and he used them to the best of his ability. He did a number of radio interviews and as far as movies went, he starred in movies as well as opened his own movie studio to produce his own movies and his own film development company.  He also used newspapers in ways that others had not with his sometimes scandalous photos (think naked jail escapes).  Through his outdoor escapes he created his own sort of 'social media', back then it was called 'word of mouth' and it was extremely effective.

Like Kellar, Houdini used posters to their maximum effect. He even had one poster that had devils on it, but he eventually went his own way when it came to the images on the posters. He emphasised drama, fear and emotion in many of his posters. The Water Torture Cell posters and the Milk Can, 'Failure Means a Drowning Death' and the Water Torture cells often had the depiction of a green giant putting Houdini in the cell. Pure drama!
  

In regards to his performing material I've always been intrigued with the escapes but lately it's his magic that is pulling me in. I never in a million years considered doing the East Indian Needle Trick. The It's an effect that has danger (real danger) and suspense and it appears totally impossible. It's frankly brilliant and Houdini recognized the trick for how powerful it was. He would do it in newspaper offices, he even did it on the stage at the Hippodrome Theatre, one of the largest stages in the world! Watch for it in my act, because it's coming.

Houdini's Walking Through a Brick wall is another piece that is simply genius. Though I don't expect to Walk Through a Brick Wall anytime soon (it won't fit in my Van). And frankly, I have a new found respect for the Milk Can after having done a ton of research on it. The Milk Can restarted a stalled career for Houdini and then when he was ready to replace it with the Water Torture Cell, he found continual uses for the Milk Can.

It's ironic that Houdini and Kellar didn't really become friends until after Kellar retired. Houdini always looked up to Kellar. Houdini had a habit of looking up to 'father-figures'. Kellar fits this description, as does Harry Cooke & Oscar Teale.

The Houdini/Kellar relationship carries a valuable lesson.  No matter how famous you are, there are people out there that you can admire. These two performers, certainly both admired each other.

By the way, maybe the best photo of the two magicians together can be found online. I will post the link, because I don't know who owns this today and would not post it without the owners ok. https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/33516298_portrait-photograph-of-houdini-and-kellar

A Piece of Doug Henning Memorabilia

Thanks to my friend Michael Stroud, who is a fine magician and also a big fan of Doug Henning and Le Grand David, I now have one of the canes from Doug Henning's Cane Cabinet in my collection. The Cane Cabinet as presented by Doug Henning was called Backstage With A Cane Cabinet and it was the creation of Jim Steinmeyer.

The origins of the trick go back to U.F. Grant and can be found in a number of different magic books including Tarbell.  The U.F. Grant version used Steel Bars and an upright cabinet. Jim's creation was basically the same cabinet with some subtle alterations to the method and with canes rather than steel bars. It was introduced into Doug's show in 1984 according to the book, Spellbound, by John Harrison.

The routine borrowed liberally from Dante's Backstage With The Magician presentation, with a painted backdrop that looked like the audience. The illusion was performed facing that backdrop, so it appeared to the real audience they were getting a view of an illusion that wouldn't normally be seen.

In the course of the illusion, the magician, sneaks out of the cabinet (in full view of the real audience of course) and goes underneath a covered table-like structure. A large quantity of wooden canes are shoved into the now apparently empty box. Once all the canes are in, one of them mysteriously begins to move, the assistants quickly jump in and remove all the canes. At the conclusion of the illusion the magician is found  having vanished underneath the table and is yet again inside the Cane Cabinet. It's a wonderful effect, part penetration, part transposition. Doug later performed this on The Tonight Show w/Johnny Carson.

In October of 2014, Jim Steinmeyer's column in Genii Magazine called CONJURING, featured another take on the cane cabinet, this time called The Petite Illusion. That version doesn't have the 'backstage' feature but does offer another 'sucker' like ending.

To my knowledge the only other person to present The Backstage with a Cane Cabinet was Lance Burton. I remember seeing the illusion featured on one of Lance Burton's TV Special's and I think he also performed it on the Tonight Show, but this time Jay Leno was the host. I am pretty sure I saw him perform it at his fantastic show at the Monte Carlo Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. At the bottom of the page is a video of Lance's Cane Cabinet in action.

The photo above/left shows the cane once owned and used by Doug Henning. I am actually going to have it mounted on a board with a photo of the cane cabinet, but I have to locate a photo of Doug presenting the illusion first. The Cane Cabinet owned by Doug Henning was purchased at the Southern California auction of Doug's props by a magician from Hollister, CA, William Wizard. My friend Michael purchased the illusion from Mr. Wizard at a later date.  Michael held onto the illusion for a while but it's size became an issue for storage so he eventually sold it to an eccentric collector in California. However, Michael kept the canes and now one of those canes is in my collection.

If you enjoyed this, I'll have another Doug Henning article later this month!

Memorabilia from Kalanag

I first encountered this name 'Kalanag' when I saw his photo in Milbourne Christopher's book, The Illustrated History of Magic. I found him very interesting as I read his story. His real name was Helmut Schrieber and he was born in January 23rd, 1903 in Stuttgart Germany. During WW2 he was a movie producer and amateur magician. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Kalanag, from his connections to Nazi's and the Third Reich in Germany, to his blatant stealing of Dante's catchphrase,
Sim Sala Bim, which Kalanag claimed as his own.

I remember hearing Siegfried from Siegfried and Roy talk about Kalanag and how he was inspired to become a magician from seeing his show. He related the story of how Kalanag made an icecream cone magically appear. As I recall, there was a video of Kalanag doing that very trick which accompanied the dialog. That goes back to one of those old History Channel documentaries on Magic from the late 90s. 

Kalanag's life story deserves more time than I am going to devote to it right now. There is a new book out by William Rauscher about Kalanag called, Kalanag Magician of The Third Reich, which I need to pick and and read. And there was an old Genii article that I need to dig up that was about Kalanag. For now however, I want to share with you a small item I picked up at an auction recently.

The item is a small pin, which Kalanag personally gave to Cesareo Pelaez. I probably overpaid for the item, but I don't really care. It's interesting to me on two fronts and that is what matters. I don't know the whole story of how/where Cesareo met Kalanag, and it's not likely I'll ever find out. I did ask one of my Le Grand David friends, but he had not recollection of any Kalanag stories as told by Cesareo. I have an old email from Cesareo where he mentions Kalanag in passing, however nothing specific. But as Rick said, he spoke more of Okito, FuManchu and Richiardi than of anyone. Still, this is a great piece of magic history.

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!