![]() ![]() Magicians played vaudeville, but a lot of them found it was more profitable to actually go out and tour on their own.”Īv Yaga, Alexander, Crystal Seer, Sees Your Life from the Cradle to the Grave, 1915. “It wasn't until the end of his career that he even did a full evening magic show like we assume that he did…. “Houdini was a star of vaudeville,” Cox notes. Consisting of 10 to 15 short acts, these variety shows offered opportunities for “even a guy with a card act to become a star if he was skillful enough,” explains Houdini expert John Cox, author of the blog Wild About Harry. “They played the room.”Ī number of factors fueled the rise of superstar magicians in the late 19th century, including the burgeoning popularity of vaudeville in the late 1800s. “These guys were broad,” he says, puffing out his chest. Looking around at the posters that line the AGO exhibition space, Ben admires his predecessors’ boldness. He began studying the lives and careers of the performers who came before him, and today publishes a magic history journal. Ben first became enthralled with magic when he was 12 years old, after his father gave him a magic handbook. “Imagine these on billboards when you're walking in your town,” says David Ben, guest curator of the exhibition and a magician who performs on both stage and screen. Purchase, funds graciously donated by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso. Thurston the Great Magician – Do the Spirits Come Back?, 1915. “The wonder show of the universe!” cries a poster flaunting a performance by Howard Thurston, who could seemingly make a car vanish into thin air. “The greatest sensational mystery ever attempted in this or any other age!” declares an ad for Houdini’s Chinese water torture cell act. Colorful and alluring, the posters are rife with headless figures, floating cards, crystal balls and big promises. The show explores the fantastic feats and sensational showmanship of performers during magic’s “Golden Age”-a period that spanned roughly from the 1880s to the 1930s and saw magicians soar to unprecedented heights of international celebrity. Purchase, funds graciously donated by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso.Ī selection of Kellar’s ads are among 58 historic magic posters on display at “ Illusions: The Art of Magic,” a new exhibition at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario. Thurston's Greatest Mystery – The Vanishing Whippet Willys- Overland Car, 1929. ![]() Posters were key to enticing audiences to his productions they often show the magician conversing with devilish figures, as if in league with them-a promotional ploy that proved irresistible to Victorian audiences. He staged big, lavish shows, during which fans might see him make live canaries disappear, or even decapitate himself. Though his name has been all but forgotten, Kellar was once a pioneering showman and global star. Two rows of little red devils bow at the magician’s feet, as though supplicating a supreme figure of dark and mysterious powers. The illustrated poster depicts Kellar dressed in a stiff tuxedo with his hands held above a floating, raven-haired woman. ![]() Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about memorabilia auctions.At the turn of the 20th century, magician Harry Kellar commissioned a poster to advertise one of his most famous tricks, “The Levitation of Princess Karnac,” in which he appeared to make a hypnotized woman-whom he claimed was a Hindu princess-hover in mid-air. “Several outlets wondered if we’d set a new world record. “Chatter on social media included considerable speculation about just how high the price would go. Gabe Fajuri, president of Potter & Potter, said: “Advance buzz for the auction was high, and especially for the Houdini posters. It was printed in Chicago in 1898, a year before Houdini got his big break performing an escape routine on the Orpheum Vaudeville circuit. Houdini would be manacled upside down in a glass tank filled with water, before a curtain closed around him.Ī stagehand would be posted with a fire axe nearby.Īs the minutes ticked agonisingly away and audience tension reached its peak, Houdini would emerge soaking wet from behind the curtain.Īnother Houdini poster, titled The King of Cards, realised $24,000. The illusion is among the most famous ever performed. ![]() It was the lead lot of a February 4 auction at magic specialist Potter & Potter in Chicago. The previous record was $55,000, set for another poster advertising Houdini’s illusion in 2004. Houdini's Water Torture Cell was among his most celebrated illusions That makes it the most valuable magic poster ever sold at auction. It soared past its estimate of $80,000 by 42.5%. A 1912 poster for Houdini’s Water Torture Cell has sold for a world record $114,000. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |