Biographies & History in Magic & Conjuring

Introducing Harry Houdin—one of the most versatile performers you've never heard of. Born decades before the great Harry Houdini, he claimed to be the nephew of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the famous French conjurer of the 19th century.

Houdin, who billed himself as "The Great Polynational Mimic," toured Australia and New Zealand between 1860 and 1863 with a one-man act featuring drawing-room magic and international impersonations done to song and dance.

Harry Houdin: The Great Polynational Mimic is the first formal work of research written about this virtually unknown, albeit colorful, entertainer.

1st edition 2013, 27...

• HENRY SLADE Was he a medium or a magician?
• CAGLIOSTRO The Mystery Man of Europe
• KATTERFELTO Lecturer, conjurer, and quack
• SERVAIS LE ROY He levitated a pianist and her piano
• C. W. STARR His vanishing act was for sheriffs
• TORRINI His greatest illusion was himself
• SIGNOR BLITZ What he pulled from a hat one night kept a family together
• CHARLES MORRITT His masterpiece was the Disappearing Donkey
• THE BOTTLE CONJURER How was he going to jump into a bottle?
• MAELZEL There was more to his Chess-playing Automaton than met the eye
• ROBERT HELLER His mindreading act mystified audiences
• THE BANGS...

• CARDINI He seemed bewildered by his own magic
• BLACKSTONE "The Last of the Great Magicians"
• LEON MANDRAKE He wore a turban or a top hat - depending on the gig
• DUNNINGER Was it true that the renowned mindreader couldn't read the mind of a gnat?
• DAVENPORT BROTHERS Their spirit cabinet brought them fame. But were they mediums or magicians?
• PROFESSOR NEUMAN He had misread a mind - and the police hauled him away
• THE GREAT LESTER Did he have the exclusive rights to that name?
• GEORGES MÉLIÈS A magician who transformed himself into a filmmaker
• CHARLIER No one knew where he came from - or where he finally went ...

Houdini wrote a very nasty book about Robert-Houdin claiming that Robert-Houdin stole many tricks and was in reality not as great a magician as he usually is portraid. Jean Hugard sets with this book the record straight and reveals Houdini's fabricated arguments. Houdini's unmasking of Robert-Houdin was just a revenge on Robert-Houdin's family and had little to do with reality. But you can find out for yourself and read The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin. Houdini's Unmasking originally appeared serialized in Jean Hugards magazine Hugard's Magic Monthly.

Published as part of "Hugard's Magic Monthly" beginning with volume 15, number 1, June 1957; 78 pages; PDF 48 pages....

Solyl Kundu invited the then IBM International President Phil Willmarth to visit Kolkata in 2007 for a magic Get-Together, and he encouraged local IBM members to join. It was a big success. For this occasion a souvenir booklet was published. This is a PDF version of this souvenir booklet. It includes:

• A Greeting from the President
• Phil Willmarth laudatio
• Chronicle of IBM Ring #83
• Cornered by Aldo Colombini
• Bang Gun - Balloon Antics by David J. O'Connor
• Anti-Gravity Bottle by Gora Dutta
• Centrifugal ESP by Max Maven
• Elementary, My Dear Watson by Peter Marucci
• Balls Across - Persistence of Vision by Paul Hyland ...

This is a fun and informative article by an anonymous amateur magician detailing various mishaps of magic performances. Along the way we learn the modus operandi of all kinds of illusions, from Buatier de Kolta's vanishing cage all the way to the bullet catch.

This article was originally published in Chamber's Journal of December 16th, 1882.

1st edition 1882, 5 pages; digital edition 8 pages.

This article about highly unusual and uncommon hands at Whist and Poker as reported in the press was written by Charles Dickens for his publication All the Year Round. It includes a reformatted as well as a facsimile version of the article.

1st edition 1876; PDF 8 pages.

The actual experiences of a visitor to the most famous gaming resort in the American metropolis.

Excerpt from the introduction:

Harry Leat describes incidences during his magic life, some odd, some funny, some unbelievable. Often another well known magic celebraty was involved, such as Houdini, Selbit, Trewey, ... This book makes a great read. No tricks.

1st edition, 1923, Harry Leat, London; 77 pages.

During the settlement of the Wild West, entertainers followed along the trails to provide the very much needed distraction from the grueling voyage. This ebook describes their circumstances and stories.

Originally this work was published as miniature book.

1st edition 1999; digital version 22 pages

Leo Behnke worked for many years for Paulson, a playing card manufacturer. He describes in this ebook the history of playing card production up to the process that is used for todays cards. He also describes in detail the 9 editions of the Magic Castle cards and how one can identify them.

Beyond the interesting historical and technical descriptions Leo is offering, this information can also be quite helpful in creating a script or interesting line of presentation for a trick or routine.

The contents of this ebook was presented at a Magic Collectors meeting in Las Vegas, April 8 2005. ...

This is the article that ran in The Sun on November 1st, 1926 after Harry Houdini's untimely passing.

• Friend of Ingersoll
• Body Coming Here
• Born in Wisconsin
• Tricks of Every Kind
• Mediums Interest Him
• Investigated 'Margery'
• Deny Injury in Montreal

1st edition November 1st, 1926, PDF 5 pages.

Stories of card and revolver play, told by a man who "worked" the trains with his confederates in the days when stakes ran high.

If one believes this account, then a lot of the crooked gambling on trains was simply theft at gunpoint rather than sophisticated sleight-of-hand card advantage play.

1st edition 1910, PDF 7 pages.

Written by a man who spent seventy-four years ... a lifetime in magic! A professional magician, a world traveler, author, inventor, founder of the world's largest magic company. Percy Abbott, the 'Caliph of Colon', and magic are synonymous. In this ebook you will discover stories, experiences, secrets and advice that only a lifetime in magic can offer. You will uncover facts about the greats that will amaze you. There is a fund of information on tricks and illusions new to present day magicians.

Contents

• Dedication
• Memories
• Foreword
• The Chrystal Lantern
• Comedy Snake Basket
• Lost In...

An account of faro gambling and cheating in New York City.

The newspaper that ran this article is not known. The time frame of the article is somewhere in the vicinity of 1890.

PDF 3 pages.

This article succinctly critiques the Milton Franklin Andrews case, and introduces us to two at the time new suspects, James DeWitt Andrews and Edwin Sumner Andrews.

This article first appeared in the 1999 December issue of Magic Magazine, except for this release Richard Hatch added two pages introductory notes to better frame his article in the historical context of the hunt for Erdnase. The article is also essentially the talk Richard gave at the 1999 Los Angeles Conference on Magic History.

1st edition 1999 (intro 2021), PDF 16 pages.

Michael Skinner tells stories from his early years in magic such as meeting Eddie Fechter and Ed Marlo. This short interview was hosted by Roger Klause.

Both of these larger than life legends - Michael Skinner and Roger Klaus - have unfortunately passed away. Videos like these are time capsules allowing us to get closer to these legends, learn from their life, and understand them a little bit better.

length: 3min 13s

The record of a career famous for adventure and vicissitude, and in which the jester won more tricks than the gamester.

• Preface
• Chapter I: Birth And Early Peregrinations
• Chapter II: Becoming A Patron Of The Pasteboards
• Chapter III: Early Times On The Mississippi
• Chapter IV: Getting A Sobriquet And Meeting Great Men
• Chapter V: The Turnpikes, The Packets And The Inns
• Chapter VI: Initiated In The Sons Of Malta
• Chapter VII: From The Green Mountains To Pike's Peak
• Chapter VIII: With The Bold Soldier Boys
• Chapter IX: The Fraternity Of Gamesters
• Chapter X: To Point A Moral And Adorn A...

A history of magic interwoven with Charles Bertram's recollections.

From the introduction:

This is a fascinating travel log, including a good number of photos, by an accomplished magician circling the globe including visits to India, China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Unites States, Canada and other places. He devotes three fascinating chapters to the tricks of the Indian conjurers, but does not tell us a lot about his own performances during his voyage.

From the introduction by Professor Hoffmann:

A history of the circus in Britain during the 19th century. One chapter deals with America, another with circus slang. Perhaps most interesting are the recollections of a gymnast and how he made it into the circus.

From the Preface:

A detailed chronology of places, dates and performers of fairs in and around London. We learn mostly of theatrical productions of various kinds including pantomime and dances, and menageries exhibiting exotic animals, and less so of tumbling and acrobats, juggling, balancing and the like. It includes some coverage of conjurers including Fawkes, Pinchbeck, Breslaw and others. There is some overlap of stories from Circus Life and Circus Celebrities because some performers and operators were active in both venues.

• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I: Origin of Fairs - Charter Fairs at Winchester and Chester - Croydon Fairs - Fairs in the Metropolis...

Arthur Duchek, born (almost literally on the highwire rigging of his parents' circus act) into a European circus dynasty in 1930, grew up to be a world-famous circus and variety artist and international entertainment agent.

He survived a devastating accident on the circus lot as a 4-year old child, an accident that left him with a speech impediment. His will power and determination, along with the help of an eccentric Parisian speech therapist, helped him overcome this obstacle. After joining his uncles with the circus in America, Arthur experienced unbelievable abuse at their hands.

You...

A very interesting article about early conjuring, conjurers, books and manuscripts. Includes detailed research on how the term 'hocus pocus' came about.

Evans raises the possibility that Cagliostro's real name might not have been Giuseppe Balsamo, as well as describes his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry.

• Introduction
• PART I.—A Master Of Magic
• PART II.—The Egyptian Rite
• PART III.—A Visit To The House Of Cagliostro
• PART IV.—Reception Of An Apprentice In An Egyptian Lodge

(We are carrying this ebook primarily because of the author, Henry Ridgeley Evans, who published several interesting books on conjuring.)

On its face the book is about the myth that Napoleon never existed. It was at one time a popular myth, hoax, or fake news as it would be called today. It also provides interesting lessons and insights on how myths can develop. Since there are a number of myths in the world of conjuring, this work can help one understand why and how some of the myths in magic may have developed.

• Introduction
• Grand Erratum. The Non-Existence of Napoleon Proved
• The Mythical...

This is Thomas Carlyle's long essay on Count Cagliostro, published in 1833 in Fraser's Magazine. He is examining the hero and his shadows - what was false about Cagliostro. Cagliostro was a Sicilian mountebank, whose lasting notoriety was a bit part in the Diamond Necklace Affair that rocked pre-Revolutionary France, and whose most enduring work was the confession extracted by the Roman Inquisition, a tome published in 1792, three years previous to Cagliostro's demise in an Inquisitional cell.

1st edition 1833, 61 pages; PDF 42 pages.

Bert Pratt was a bookworm, somebody who worked his way through libraries and book stores to find the odd appearance of magic in non-magic books. He wrote a series of articles which were published in the Midget Magician, a journal that saw a print run of only 50. It is therefore safe to assume you have never read these articles.

It includes excerpts from books and magazines now practically unobtainable. Bert Pratt, writing as Ptinos, delved deeply into the old book marts of London, into libraries, into magazine files, to find magic and magical references. The resulting reading is charming,...

Houdini was upset that the widow of Robert-Houdin did not want to meet him. As a revenge Harry Houdini wrote The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, in which Houdini tries to push Robert-Houdin from his pedestal. He tries to show that most tricks Robert-Houdin claimed as his invention were in fact not his invention and that Robert-Houdin was not this great magician he usually is thought he was. But most of Houdini's allegations are fabricated and do not stand close inspection. Jean Hugard wrote as response to Houdini's nasty book Houdini's Unmasking, where Hugard point for point refutes Houdini's argumentation. I personally favor Hugard's opinion,...

The fascinating true story of the Lancashire mill girl, Mrs Edward Howarth who became a music hall artiste as Josephine Langley, an accomplished ventriloquist. She was particularly popular during the First World War with her patriotic 'Soldier Act'. The family emigrated to America but returned to England after many adventures during the Prohibition era.

1st edition 2008, 1st digital edition 2013, 34 pages.

A tribute to Percy Naldrett by Paul Gordon who shares birth place Worthing in Sussex with Percy. Includes photos and other bits and pieces of information not published anywhere else.

Percy Naldrett was born on 17th May 1888 and died 28th September 1973. He was a printer by trade and a semi-pro magician and collector. He wrote a number of books such as Magic of the Moment (1912, 50pp), Magical Notes and Notions (1913, 36pp), Miscellaneous Magic (1913, 48pp). He was editor of the Magic Circular from 1938-49.

1st edition 2005, 31 pages.

Stories and anecdotes of the Who's Who of magic in the early 20th century. Several are about Houdini.

• An Introduction
• Foreword
• The Truth About The Zancigs
• The Tragedy Of Hanco
• When G. W. Hunter Dried Up
• How Denny And Will Goldston Escaped Gaol
• The Truth Of Horace Goldin's Arrest
• The Cornells And Their Ghastly Publicity Stunt
• The Strangeness Of Lafayette
• Dante Perplexed
• Dante's Experience In Russia
• Muller The Mystic
• Was Chung Ling Soo Murdered?
• A Handcuff Escape That Went Wrong
• Ceeley And The Naked Lady
• Frank Van Hoven's Tragic Failure
• Frank Van Hoven And A Fellow Artist's Wife
• Wishart And The...

A promotional book with photos and newspaper reports retelling various stunts and performances of Harry Houdini.

• Official Police News From Germany!
• In The Name Of The King
• Royal Police Presidium
• Mighty Audience
• Houdini Handcuffed
• False Hope Overthrown
• A Welcome Concession
• Frock Coat Sacrificed
• Victory
• Presentation Model
• A Sportsman's Telegram
• An Episode In Houdini's Life
• Condemned Murderers Released By Houdini
• Crowd Quickly Gathers
• Ponderous Barred Door
• Prisoners Are Dumbfounded
• Some Of The Great Feats Accomplished By Houdini
• Wizard In Gaol
• Surrenders To Police
• Startled...

This is basically Wolfgang's life story, a great motivational blueprint to achieve your dreams.

How to gain the competitive edge in your life and business. Become aware of everything around you. Clarify and achieve all your goals. Learn to adapt to change. Create a positive image with every one around you. Wolfgang has inspired and motivated more than a million people around the world. This is a comprehensive study on how to gain mastery over your own life, whether in the corporate, or personal field. Every aspect is clearly presented, without losing the true sense or heart of the matter....

From the preface:

From the introduction:

A sketch of the life of Henry Meyer a converted gambler.

Henry Meyer was by his own account a very successful gambler who would play predominantly in Europe. One day he played against a young man and won all his money. Subsequently, that young man took his own life. At that point, Meyer realized that the young man was his younger brother. This charring experience made him give up gambling completely.

While I don't doubt that Meyer was a professional gambler who would later reform and give up gambling, the story with his brother rings a bit too fantastic. It is hard to believe that he and...

• A Typical Culpitt Performance
• The Vanishing Stick (Or "Culpitt's Cork")
• The Abanazer Fan Vanish
• Torn And Restored Newspaper
• The Bathing Costume Trick
• A Rabbit From A Hat
• Culpitt's Clock
• Cards Ala Culpitt
• Egg-Bag Ruses
• Production Of Eggs From A Net-Fronted Bag
• The Doll's House Illusion
• Culpitt's Silk Loader
• Culpitt Card Box
• Reward Poster
• "On Toast"
• Rabbit To Silks
• A Culpitt Card Sleight
• Thumb-Nail Sketch

1st edition 2001; 1st digital edition 2016, 43 pages.

Wonderful biographical information about magician Baron Hartwig Seeman, and juggler William D'Alvini. Also includes a chapter on the German magician Bellachini and a fascinating chapter on the psychology of conjuring.

• CHAPTER I. Introductory Remarks
• CHAPTER II. Life Of Professor Seeman
• CHAPTER III. Thrilling Experiences With Ole Bull
• CHAPTER IV. A Visit To The Pyramids
• CHAPTER V. The Czar Befriends The Magician
• CHAPTER VI. To England, Africa And India
• CHAPTER VII. Experiences With A Great Fakir
• CHAPTER VIII. A Problem Solved
• CHAPTER IX. Martin Luther's Wedding Ring
• CHAPTER X. William...