Sublime
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When Steinmeyer writes about the theater a century ago, he speaks as one who's met modern versions of the characters, who's even reconstructed their tricks onstage. So when, for example, he describes David Devant's Mascot Moth (which Steinmeyer reproduced in Doug Henning's Merlin),
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
His specialty was convincing each person that they had witnessed a near catastrophe.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
The public never heard the name Dircksian Phantasmagoria. Dircks happily accepted five hundred pounds for the idea and waived any future royalties, merely asking that his name be attached to the invention.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Morritt's Cage and deKolta's Vanishing Lady.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Germany, he presented his version of the famous Gun Trick. Inspired by the tale of William Tell, Torrini would fire a marked bullet at his son; the bullet would be found lodged in an apple on his son's head. But one evening, through a tragic mistake, the trick failed and Torrini fatally shot his son on stage.He was imprisoned for the killing and ne
... See moreTeller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
This book is about how it feels to be a magician-no dainty Robertson Davies concoction, but a man with saw cuts and rope burns on his hands and a fire in his soul for the devious art of putting the impossible on a stage.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Harry Kellar was also badly fooled when he saw it in the summer of 1901. He was America's greatest magician, a rough-and-tumble showman. He'd been born Heinrich Keller in 1848 in Erie, Pennsylvania. As a boy, Harry worked as a drugstore clerk, a newsboy, and custodian for the Erie Railroad before he ended up in Buffalo, New York and responded to a
... See moreTeller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Mostly, they stayed out of his way, as he tended to view any performing magician as a rival.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Early in his career he was famous for his manipulations with billiard balls or silk handkerchiefs. A famous Buatier deKolta sequence involved the production of small, variously colored silk handkerchiefsat his fingertips. He then showed two porcelain soup bowls, placing them mouth-to-mouth on his table.