Theodore "Theo" Annemann (born Theodore John Squires; February 22, 1907 – January 12, 1942), stage name Ted Anneman, was an American professional
magician
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
who specialized in the field of
mentalism
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognit ...
. He is most famous for inventing and refining many of the standard mentalism routines that continue to be used by mentalists today.
Biography
Early in his life, Annemann began working as a railroad
clerk
A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...
and then got into
showbusiness
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...
as a
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors i ...
singer and a magician's assistant. He eventually became interested in mentalism and used his invention and performance skills to become one of the most talented and respected mentalists of the 1930s. Annemann perfected his own version of the famous
bullet catch
The bullet catch is a stage magic illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at them — often in the mouth, sometimes in the hand or sometimes caught with other items such as a dinner plate. The bullet catch m ...
illusion, performing the effect outdoors. Accounts of his performance describe the feat as a dramatic effect wherein Annemann would collapse from the apparent force of the gun and then produce the bullet from his blood-drenched mouth.
In 1934, Annemann began publishing the famous magazine ''
The Jinx'', for magicians. The magazine was focused on mentalism, but also featured ground-breaking effects from other fields of magic. The publication of the magazine ceased after Annemann's death and copies of it have become colle