Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.Houdini, Harry
History
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.
Houdini, Harry
Magic tricks -- History; Magicians -- Biography
In the tradition of the "Female Sampsons" noted in Chapter Eleven, I
recall two strong-women who were notably good; Yucca, who lifted a
horse by means of a harness over the shoulders; and La Blanche, who
toyed with heavy articles in a most entertaining way. I remember these
ladies particularly because both were remarkably good talkers--and I am
referring to conversational quality, not to volume.
Lulu Hurst--known variously as The Georgia Magnet, The Electric Girl,
The Georgia Wonder, etc.--created a veritable sensation a generation
ago by a series of feats which seemed to set the law of gravitation at
defiance. Her methods consisted in utilizing the principles of the
lever and fulcrum in a manner so cleverly disguised that it appeared to
the audience that some supernatural power must be at work. Although
she was exposed many times, her success was so marked that several
other muscular ladies entered her province with acts that were, in
several instances, superior to the original.
One of the cleverest of these was Annie Abbott, who, if I remember
rightly, also called herself The Georgia Magnet. She took the act to
England and her opening performance at the Alhambra is recorded as one
of the three big sensations of the London vaudeville stage of those
days. The second sensation was credited to the Bullet-Proof Man. This
chap wore a jacket that rifle bullets, fired point-blank, failed to
penetrate. The composition of this jacket was a secret, but after the
owner's death the garment was ripped open and found to contain-ground
glass! The third sensation I must, with all due modesty, (business of
bowing) claim for myself.
The Magnet failed to attract after about forty-eight hours, for a
keen-witted reporter discovered her methods and promptly published
them. The bullet detainer also lasted only a short time only. When my
opening added a third sensational surprise, one of the London dailies
asked, "Is this going to be another Georgia Magnet fiasco?"
That they were gunning for me is proved by the fact that the same
newspaper investigator who exposed the Magnet, came upon the stage of
the Alhambra at my press performance--the same stage where the unhappy
Dixie lode-stone had collapsed--and though he brought along an antique
slave iron, which he seemed to think would put an end to my public
career on the spot, I managed to escape in less than three minutes.
When I passed back his irons, he grinned at me and said, "I don't know
how you did it, but you did!" and he shook me cordially by the hand.
Some twenty-six years ago I was on the bill with Mattie Lee Price, who,
though less well known, was in many ways superior to either Miss Hurst
or Miss Abbott. For a time she was a sensation of the highest order,
for which thanks were largely due to the management of her husband, a
wonderful lecturer and a thorough showman. I think his name was White.
He "sold" the act as no other man has sold an act before or since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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