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
We worked together at Kohl and Middleton's, Chicago, and the following
week at Burton's Museum, Milwaukee; but when we made the next jump I
found that White was not along. They had had a family squabble, the
other apex of the triangle being a circus grafter who "shibbolethed" at
some of the "brace games," which at that time had police protection, so
far as that could be given. He had interfered between the couple, and
was, I am sorry to say, quite successful as an interferer; but he was a
diabolical failure when he attempted to duplicate White's work as
lecturer, and the act, after playing a date or two, sank out of sight
and I have heard nothing more of her professionally. Lately I have
learned that she died in London in 1900 and is buried in Clements
Cemetery, Fulham.
This was one of the most positive demonstrations I have ever seen of
the fact that showmanship is the largest factor in putting an act over.
Miss Price was a marvelous performer, but without her husband-lecturer
she was no longer a drawing card, and dropped to the level of an
ordinary entertainer even lower, for her act was no longer even
entertaining.
In Chapter Eleven we read Dr. Desaguliers' analysis of the mechanics of
what may be called strongmanship. Similar investigations have attended
the appearance of more recent performers.
For instance, reviewing one of Lulu Hurst's performances, the New York
Times, of July 13th, 1884, said:
The "Phenomenon of the Nineteenth Century," which may be seen nightly
at Wallack's, is not so much the famous Georgia girl, with her
mysterious muscle, as is the audience which gathers to wonder at her
performance. It is a phenomenon of stupidity, and it only goes to show
how willingly people will be fooled, and with what cheerful asininity
they will help on their deceivers.
Then follows a description of her performance, which was far from
successful, thanks to the efforts of one of the committee, a man
described as "Mr. Thomas Johnson, a powerfully-built engraver connected
with the Century magazine." Mr. Johnson had evidently caught her
secret, and he got the better of her in all the tests in which he was
allowed to take part.
A disclosure of the methods employed in a few of her "tests" will serve
to convince the reader of the fact that she possessed no supernormal
power, the same general principles shown here being used throughout her
performance.
These explanations are taken from the French periodical La Nature, in
which Mr. Nelson W. Perry thus sums up the attitude of the public in
regard to this class of performance: "Electricity is a mysterious
agent; therefore everything mysterious is electric." Of the performance
of the Electric Girl this magazine says:
It is a question of a simple application of the elementary principles
of the laws of mechanics, chapter of equilibrium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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