Guy Jarrett
#3 Illusions, Escape & Stage author
(Belmont County, Ohio, USA: 23 [or 15] September 1881 - 20 May 1972)
Left home in teens to join a travelling carnival where, working as a pitchman, he was inspired by seeing the sideshow illusions there and catching the shows of the Herrmanns and Kellar. Pro illusion designer since 1907 when he made his first illusions for a West Coast tent-show. Moved East with T. Nelson Downs in 1908. Assistant and illusion builder for Howard Thurston 1910-11 and stage manager for Dunninger (1925).
Invented Bangkok Bungalow (1908), Jarrett Pedestal (1908), etc. Contentious memoir is Magic and Stagecraft (1936). Trick in Sphinx. See also Jim Steinmeyer (ed), Jarrett (1981, 185pp), which is an intelligently annotated reprint of the previous book.
