Your Magic Teacher

While the very first great American-born magician is a subject

of some debate, an African- American named Richard Potter,

also known as “Black Potter,” was undoubtedly the first American

magician to gain recognition in his own country. Potter was a great

ventriloquist, and many stories exist about his amazing feats: It was

said that he could swallow molten lead, enter a heated oven with a

leg of lamb and stay there until the lamb was cooked, and dance

on eggs without breaking them!

Adelaide Herrmann, the wife of Alexander Herrmann, America’s

foremost magician of the late 19th-century, was one of the first

women to be fired from a cannon. She was also the first woman to

perform with an old-fashioned high-wheeled bicycle. In addition,

she was an accomplished dancer in her husband’s show, and after

his death she toured the world for almost 30 years with her own

spectacular magic act.

Several magicians have contributed important inventions to the

world. Jasper Maskelyne invented the typewriter keyboard, another

anticipated the telephone relay system, still another invented the

Microwriter, a pocket-sized typewriter with five keys and a computerized

personal organizer.

Magicians were very much involved in the birth of the movie industry. Not only

were many magicians exhibitors of films, but many were involved as performers and

producers. Harry Houdini made several silent films and was the creator of many

special effects; magician George Melies bought the Robert-Houdin theater and

exhibited the first motion picture seen in Paris.

Matthew Buchinger, one of the premier Cups and Balls performers of the 18th century,

was born without arms or legs and was 29 inches tall. Despite all that, he was a master

magician, a calligrapher and a musician who played the flute, trumpet, bagpipes and

dulcimer. He married four times and fathered 11 children.

Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic amateur magician. In August 1849,

in one of his most ambitious performances he introduced himself as

“The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos, educated cabalistically

in the orange groves of Salamanca and the ocean caves of Alum Bay.”

The skill of the magician is in getting an audience to focus its attention where

he wants it at a specific instant.

David Copperfield is the highest paid magician being named

on the fortune 500′s list.

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Doc Nixon, an american magicican who gained fame workining in an

Orental custome, literally vanished in late 1939. Persistant rumors that

he abandon all to become a Tibetian monk was never proved.