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The Magic Circle (organisation)
The Magic Circle is a British organisation dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of magic. Applicants must qualify for membership, either through a performance exam or by a written thesis on a branch of magic, after which they are designated Members of The Magic Circle (M.M.C.). Further distinctions may earn them the titles Associate of the Inner Magic Circle (A.I.M.C.); and Member of The Inner Magic Circle (M.I.M.C), a select group limited to 300 members. The Circle was founded in 1905, and was male-only until 1991. There is a junior branch, the Young Magicians Club. History The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians at London's Pinoli's Restaurant. At this founders meeting, chaired by Servais Le Roy, those present decided upon the name of the Society: it was initially felt that the name of the Society should be the Martin Chapender Club, in memory of the performer and founding member who had recently died at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euston, London
Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to Kings Cross, London, King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston Hall, the family seat of the Duke of Grafton, Dukes of Grafton, who had become major property owners in the area during the mid-19th century. The road was originally the central section of New Road, London, New Road from Paddington to Islington which opened in 1756 as London's first Bypass route, bypass. It provided a route along which to drive cattle to Smithfield Market avoiding central London. Traffic increased when major railway stations, including Euston railway station, Euston, opened in the mid-19th century and led to the road's renaming in 1857. Euston Road was widened in the 1960s to cater for the increasing demands of motor traffic, and the Euston Tower was built around that time. The road contains several significant buildings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and Investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales, his investiture was held in 1969. He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, he married Lady Diana Spencer. They had two sons, William, Prince of Wales, William and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Harry. After years of estrangement, Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cups And Balls
The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the balls can vanish, appear, transpose, reappear and transform. Basic skills, such as misdirection, manual dexterity, sleight of hand, and audience management are also essential to most cups and balls routines. As a result, mastery of the cups and balls is considered by many as the litmus test of a magician's skill with gimmick style tricks. Magician John Mulholland wrote that Harry Houdini had expressed the opinion that no one could be considered an accomplished magician until he had mastered the cups and balls. Professor Hoffman called the cups and balls "the groundwork of all legerdemain". Instead of cups, other types of covers can be used, such as bowls or hats. The shell game con is a rogue variant of the cups and balls used as a co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Houdini
Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as Harry "Handcuff" Houdini on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904, thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's ''Daily Mirror'', keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists, pursuing a persona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Cooper
Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised in magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television. By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, effectively ending offers to front new programmes and relegating him to performing as a guest star on other entertainment shows. On 15 April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack on live television. Early life Thomas Frederick Cooper was born on 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Nixon (magician)
David Porter Nixon (29 December 1919 – 1 December 1978)GRO Register of Births: MAR 1920 3a 1125 EDMONTON - David P. NixonGRO Register of Deaths: DEC 1978 17 1052 SURREY SE - David Porter Nixon, DoB = 29 Dec 1919 was an English magician and television personality. At the height of his career, Nixon was among the best-known magicians in the UK. Early life Born in Muswell Hill, London, Nixon attended the Westcliff High School for Boys in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. His father was a lawyer whose hobby was magic and who took Nixon to watch performers such as Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant. One magician who made an early impression on the young boy was Stanley Collins, who had a gentlemanly image which influenced Nixon's later performing style. Nixon started performing magic himself after an aunt bought him an Ernest Sewell Magic Box for Christmas. On leaving school he gained a job with the ''Henley Telegraph'', the in-house magazine of the W. T. Henley Telegraph company, a publica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Corbett
Harry Corbett Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 January 1918 – 17 August 1989) was an English Magic (illusion), magician, puppeteer and television presenter. He was best known as the creator of the glove puppet character Sooty in 1952. Biography Corbett was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, to James W. Corbett, a coal miner, and his wife Florence, née Ramsden. He had a younger brother, Les, a saxophonist, whom he played duets with, and who would sometimes appear on ''The Sooty Show''. Deafness in one ear precluded him from pursuing his musical ambitions to become a concert pianist, although he played the piano in the Guiseley fish and chip restaurant owned by his mother's brother Harry Ramsden. His parents had a fish and chip business in Guiseley called Springfield, which remains open and is now known as Springfield Fisheries. He worked as an engineer with Leeds City Council prior to his time in show business. He married Marjorie ('Tobes') Hodgson in 1944. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sooty
Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in '' The Sooty Show'' in 1955. The main character, Sooty, is a mute yellow bear with black ears and nose, who is kind-hearted but also cheeky. Sooty performs magic tricks and practical jokes, and squirts his handler and other people with his water pistol. The franchise itself also includes several other puppet characters who were created for television, as well as an animated series, two spin-off series for the direct-to-video market, and a selection of toy merchandising. The franchise remained in the ownership of Corbett until his retirement in 1976, before being passed on to his son Matthew. The rights to the franchise were sold in 1996 to a development firm who formed a holding company for the property, with Matthew later retiring and handing over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chung Ling Soo
William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918) was an American magician who went by the stage name Chung Ling Soo (). He is mostly remembered today for his extensive use of yellowface in his act to falsely represent himself to be a Chinese man who spoke little English, as well as for his accidental death due to a failed bullet catch trick. Early years Robinson was born in Westchester County, New York, the first of three children born to James Campbell Robinson and his wife Sarah Robinson (''née'' Titus). Both of his parents were of Scottish descent. The family settled in Manhattan while James Robinson toured in Charles "Charlie" White's minstrel shows. James Robinson variously performed under the names "James Campbell", "H. J. Campbell" and "Professor Campbell", and his specialties included impersonations, "dialect singing", hypnotism, ventriloquism and magic tricks. He later taught his son how to perform magic tricks. Career Robinson performed his first mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zig Zag Girl
The Zig-Zag Girl illusion is a stage illusion akin to the more famous sawing a woman in half illusion. In the Zig-Zag illusion, a magician divides an assistant into thirds, only to have them emerge from the illusion at the end of the performance completely unharmed. It was invented in 1965 by magician Robert Harbin. Harbin was frustrated by his illusions being pirated by other magicians, and this inspired him to publish the method in his book ''The Magic of Robert Harbin'' (1970). The book was limited to 500 copies, and owners of the book were granted permission to build or have built the Zig Zag Girl (or indeed any other of the items in the book). The rights to the book and the Zig Zag illusion were then in time passed to The Magic Circle in the wake of Harbin's death. The concept of dividing a lady assistant into two or three parts was something that Harbin experimented with throughout his career before creating his ultimate divide, the Zig Zag Girl. Evidence of his fascina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin (born Edward Richard Charles Williams; 12 February 1908 – 12 January 1978) was a South African-born magician and author. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the '' Zig Zag Girl''. He also became an authority on origami. Career The young Edward first got interested in magic after an unknown ex-serviceman appeared at his school with a magic show later described as "rather poor". Williams came to London at the age of 20 and began by working in the magic department of Gamages toy shop. He began performing in music halls under the title "Ned Williams, the Boy Magician from South Africa". By 1932 he was appearing in the ''Maskelyne's Mysteries'' magic show in various London theatres. He was the first British illusionist to move from stage performing to television, appearing in the BBC TV show ''Variety'' in 1937''The Times'', "Broadcasting", 9 February 1937, p.9, col. A and numerous times after the war when the BBC resumed broadcastin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
