“A Carnival of Magic”
By The Society of American Magicians
JULIET SAWYER, aged 18, the Assistant-Secretary to our worthy Secretary, Mr. Van Dien, has written a letter in detail describing the Carnival of Magic Performance, and we think it will be of interest to our members to see how a Magical Performance looks through the eyes of this young girl.
April 17, 1923.
Dear Aunt Bess and Uncle Harry :
I am sending you a program of Sunday night's entertainment and will try to describe what happened. We are also keeping a program here for you.
Mr. and Mrs. Sachs sat right next to Aunt Julia and me. Ben Burke was sitting in the same row we were in, too. The place was very crowded, and although we liked the show very much and it was very good we missed you and Uncle Harry. There seemed to be something lacking all of the time. Even the Ladies' Night didn't seem right without you.
Commissioner Enright stayed until the very end of the performance.
I sold nine dollars' worth of programs at the theatre Sunday night before the show started.
Well, now for the show:
First we saw on the screen Houdini's telegram, his picture, Houdini being nailed in packing case. The people around us said how weird it seemed to see Dean Harry Kellar with Houdini on the screen when we knew he was dead; and then we saw Houdini at the Police Games, getting out of the strait jacket, talking to Commissioner Enright, etc.
After the picture was over, the Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Loney Haskell, came out; said Will Rogers was supposed to be Master of Ceremonies but he had met with an accident and so he was there in his place. He then said he wanted to apologize for his appearance (he didn't wear a dress suit or a tuxedo) but that he rushed down to hire a suit but found that all the magicians had been to the same place ahead of him. He said we would see a lot of misfits tonight, all right.
Then he introduced us to Commissioner Enright who sat in box. He said that if the Commissioner watched close enough he might be able to learn a thing or two. He said, "Now let's give Commissioner Enright three cheers." At which the whole audience applauded and yelled "hooray".
The Commissioner looked very much pleased at this ovation. Mr. Haskell explained that number one on the program would be six magicians and that they were young and needed lots of applause to encourage them. Also, although there was supposed to be six, one of the gentlemen would not appear.
This he said was magic already because instead of six we were only going to see five. (Mr. Guissart did not appear, although he was in the theatre as I sold him a program.) Perhaps Mr. Hardeen knows why he did not appear.
The tricks were supposed to be impromptu tricks but of course each person did the trick he could do best.
The five men sat around a table on which there were a number of boxes, glasses, etc. Mr. Nagel was first, and Mr. Haskell would pick up some article and say, "Well, perhaps you can do something with this, or this,'' etc.
Finally, Mr. Nagel picked out a sort bag which he showed us was empty. Then, putting his hand in same, he brought out a rabbit. He then put the rabbit back in the bag, minus the rabbit—empty.
Next came Mr. Burrows. He did the water changing into wine illusion. (We saw him do this once before at a Ladies' Night.) He told us about company coming and having nothing in the house to drink. He showed us what to do the next time company comes and pours from the pitcher of water he has first a glass of water, then a glass of wine, etc. At the finish he pours all the glasses of water and wine back into the glass pitcher where it all turns to water again. He also says "Now I am sure it is perfectly clear to you all."
Mr. Rullman came next juggling a soup plate. He had a little story about how a certain waiter treated him in a restaurant. How he brought the soup in spinning, etc. After juggling the soup plate awhile, he lays it face down on the table. He then asks the waiter for a napkin. (At this Mr. Rullman takes a handkerchief out of his pocket, rolls it into a little ball, says "Presto, change") and turns up the soup plate, saying the while, "Your napkin is under your plate, sir,'' and sure enough there is the napkin.
Mr. Heller selected a derby for his trick. Into the derby he placed two eggs, showing us first, of course, that the derby was empty. He then put his hand in same again and brought forth two little baby chicks.
Mr. Mulholland did his thimble trick. He selected a large cardboard box for his trick, saying he would cause whatever was in the box to leave it and then showed his finger with the thimble on same. (He did not have the story about his Aunt dying and leaving him a magic thimble), but just said, "And now by doing this, you can have two thimbles," etc. "Then by putting them all together we will cause them to disappear and leave only the one thimble," which he does, and then causes the one thimble to leave him and go back from whence it came.
No. 2. Next came Mr. Werner as Ah Fang On. Mr. Werner, dressed as a native of China and speaking the language so well, we didn't understand it, and thought it was real Chinese, tore colored strips of paper about one inch in width and then, after showing us the pieces, called an assistant and asked him to hold the pieces and he, Ah Fang On, produced them whole again, one color following the other in one strip, yellow, red and blue. Then he did the bill tearing trick. After this he showed us a small cabinet which was on a stand. This he showed us was absolutely empty. After drawing the curtains and making a few magic passes, on opening them again out jumped two Chinese (Mr. and Mrs. Servais LeRoy) singing a Chinese song.
End of No. 2
No. 3 was Zazelle Bosco, presenting "Amelia". He carried all his own props. "Amelia" was a small gray duck. He then told a story about beautiful Amelia, the pride of her father, the Baron Stowaway. (All the other characters he mentioned he would take out of his pocket. They were wooden figures, on the bottom of which was a nail, so that he would bang it into the floor and it would stand up on stage. The side towards the audience had a painted face, hair, clothes, etc. He picks up Amelia and says one night she came home to her bedchamber. (He has a sort of screen which he called the castle.) He puts Amelia into the top of this, opens it, Amelia is gone. He hires Sherlock Jones, the famous defective, to search for her. (As he says this he takes one of the wooden figures out of his pocket and stands it up.) It is painted in the likeness of Sherlock Holmes, cap, pipe and all.
Sherlock Jones finds Amelia, but she is spirited away by the villain, Marmaduke Fenton, who owns the castle on the mountain. He has a small papier-mache rock which he says is the mountain with a screen on top of same which he calls the castle on the mountain.
Sherlock Jones searches the castle on the mountain for Amelia but she cannot be found. Her father, Baron Stowaway, is worn to a shadow. (As he says this he turns Baron Stowaway's figure around so that we see the black unpainted side, saying this is the shadow).
After many years Amelia returns home sadly changed. As the Baron calls "Amelia," in walks a large white goose followed by a small gray and white duck. The goose is Amelia and the duck her child, Angelina. Baron Stowaway says, "Come Amelia,'' come Angelina, come home."
Saying this, Zazelle Bosco walks off the stage, followed by the goose and the duck.
End of No. 3.
No. 4. Harry Rouclere and Mildred Rouclere. Mr. Rouclere causes Mildred Rouclere to go to sleep in a chair. He then goes into the audience requesting a number of people to whisper in his ear what they want her to do. After he has a number of requests, she rises from the chair, goes down to the audience and performs these requests (no communication having passed between her and Mr. Rouclere). For example, she ties a certain number of knots in a ladies handkerchief, tells a gentleman the numbers on his watch. She returns to stage, writes the name Martinka on the blackboard as she has been requested to do, writes Mexico and what time it is on the blackboard, waltzes for a lady and finally returns to chair where she is awakened by Mr. Rouclere.
End of No. 4.
No. 5. Frank Ducrot was next. He had a committee on the stage. Two gentlemen tied Mr. Ducrot's thumbs together and then the metal rings were thrown towards him and he caught them on his arms, they having passed through his tied thumbs. After this trick, he allowed the committee to examine a rifle, giving one gentleman a piece of red ribbon, a card in which a hole was made and ribbon drawn through. The gentlemen then placed their identification marks on same and the ribbon and card were pushed into the rifle. The rifle was loaded (one bullet). Then one of the gentlemen was requested to hold a pack of cards at which Mr. Ducrot was to shoot. But he said he was afraid the gentleman was nervous and he would call his assistant. The assistant happened to be little Miss Daisy White. She held the cards and as Mr. Ducrot fired she yelled that she was shot. We then saw that the bullet with the ribbon had gone right through her. When one side of the ribbon was pulled the other side grew shorter and vice versa. The committee identified their initials on the card which was on one side of the ribbon and amidst much applause No. 5 was ended.
The Master of Ceremonies then made a very catty remark, saying it was a good thing the bullet went through her stomach and not her head as there would have been nothing there to stop it.
No. 6. Miss Mabel George did not appear.
No. 7. Then came Hardeen (brother of Houdini). He did handcuffs and strait jacket. First, having three pairs of handcuffs and one pair of leg irons put on him. On retiring behind a cabinet with just his head sticking out, in a short time he came out entirely free and showed handcuffs opened and not slipped.
He next demonstrated how hard (and from what we saw, we'll say it was impossible) it was to get out of a pair of Bean handcuffs even if one had the key for same. He demonstrated this by putting a pair of these handcuffs on one of the committee and allowing this gentleman to have the key for same in his pocket. After a few minutes the gentleman after much squirming manages to get the key out of his pocket. He then tries to open lock holding the key in one hand, but does not succeed. He tries same with key between teeth, but in all ways he is unsuccessful. Finally, Hardeen unlocks the handcuffs and has gentleman put the handcuffs on him (Hardeen) while his hands are behind his back. Retiring to cabinet he says, "To assist me, I sometimes use this hand," immediately putting his hand out of the curtain and after a few seconds he emerges with handcuffs unopened.
Next he is strapped in strait jacket. When he is all ready he says, "Regular Sheba creation," looking at Miss Schieber. In a short time Hardeen extricates himself from the strait-jacket and so ends No. 7.
No. 8. Servais Le Roy. He first caused his white gloves to disappear and informed us if we did not see where they had gone it was our own fault as we had not been watching closely enough. As he makes his second glove disappear a beautiful white dove appears. He next did some card tricks, making queens change into different cards. He also rolled up a plain white sheet of paper into a cone, and after shaking same, caused enough paper flowers (green, red and pink) to come out of the cone to fill a large colored umbrella such as are seen on the beaches. Still again he produced from an empty cabinet, three beauteous maidens.
End of No. 8.
The Zancigs, No. 12, came next. Mr. Zancig came down into the audience requesting anyone to draw anything they wished on a card or a piece of paper. After collecting a few he returned to the stage. Mrs. Zancig stood further back on the stage next to a small blackboard. He would look at a card and on saying "ready" Mrs. Zancig would draw whatever was on the card on the blackboard and the person who gave the card to Mr. Zancig was requested to acknowledge same.
End of No. 12.
No. 9. "Zarbra'' was an Arab magician. On the stage we see the inside of his tent and one of his illusions. He says it is a sort of a guillotine. It consists of a tube in which the assistant is placed and on top of this is a row of swords. The swords are lowered and pierce straight through the tube.
A Turk finds out that his wife, Eleanor, who is an Englishwoman, is in love with an Englishman who had been visiting them. As he looks at the illusion he bribes Zarbra to ask his wife to act as the assistant and to kill her, pretending it was an accident. After a little persuasion and one thousand pounds in English money, Zarbra agrees.
The Turk then brings in his wife and the Englishman. His wife is persuaded to act as Zarbra's assistant. She is placed in the tube and when the swords pierce through she is heard to scream.
Zarbra, very much excited, says there has been an accident. The Turk goes out and the Englishman is beside himself with anger, grief and excitement.
When the tube is opened, the wife is found alive and just as she was before she got into it. Then Zarbra tells them that he had let himself be bribed but that he owed the Englishman a debt as he had saved Zarbra's life some years ago in Mecca.
End of No. 9. Everybody happy except the husband.
No. 10. Arthur Lloyd. (He was at the banquet last year.) He is the fellow who can find any kind of a card in his pocket anyone asks for. He finds a marriage license, divorce certificate, rooms to let, etc., etc., etc. As he says, the fun isn't in taking the things out, all the fun is in putting them back again after his act is over.
End of No. 10.
No. 11. Max Holden did not appear.
No. 13 was Horace Goldin. He did the turban trick but did not burn the ends, merely cut them, made knot, and then passing his hand over same, caused the knot to disappear. He then showed some of his moving pictures. After this he grabbed a small gold painted chair, folded it up and lo, it became a small valise, and so he bade us farewell.
No. 14. Spiritualism, or, as Mr. Le Roy said, what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would call Spiritualism and what we call—at this he gave one of his magnificent French shrugs and said we could call it whatever we pleased.
Mr. Estelle acted as the medium. He had a committee on the stage.
Mr. Estelle's hands were tied behind his back with black tape, he was placed in a bag which had a string at the neck which was pulled tight and sewed.
The cabinet was shown to be empty with the exception of a plain wooden chair. The curtain on the cabinet was arranged so that a space was left on the bottom and the audience could see the floor. Mr. Estelle sat on the back of the chair with his feet on the seat of the chair. The curtain was drawn, within a few seconds two hands appeared over the top of the curtain. Mr. LeRoy put two bells into the hands, whereupon they were rung and a tambourine was shaken. Mr. Estelle was examined by the committee, especially by Mr. Werner.
Then some slates were brought forth. The committee examined them and they were put on top of a glass.
The curtain was drawn again. Almost immediately the hands appeared with some beautiful red roses in each. The committee was given the red roses. Next came some beautiful pink roses and lovely lilies which were thrown to the audience. Finally, two lovely corsage bouquets of sweet peas were produced, which were given to the two ladies in the Commissioner's party.
Then Mr. LeRoy went to Commissioner Enright's box and requested him to whisper in his ear on which slate he wanted some writing to appear. Mr. LeRoy went back to the stage and said the Commissioner wanted the writing to appear on the second slate from the bottom, whereupon the slate was shown and sure enough it was the only one on which there was any writing.
So ended the fourteenth and last act on the program.
It certainly was very entertaining and we enjoyed it very, very much. We heard one man say to another the show was worth as much as $10, and the other gentleman agreed.
The Master of Ceremonies, dear Aunt Bessie will remember Leonard Haskell, he was the good natured, well-fed man who introduced Don, the Talking Dog, at Hammerstein's when Unk Houdini had those long engagements.
I will close now. I know it has been very long but I thought Uncle Harry would like to know all about it and did not know whether anyone else was writing or sending him a report or not of the "Carnival of Magic."
Hoping you are both well and with love from us all,
From
JULIA (SAWYER).
Originally published in the M-U-M in Vol. XII, No. 10, (Whole No. 121) in New York, April 1923.
