Charles Joseph Carter was born on June 14, 1874, in New Castle, Pennsylvania. From a young age, he was captivated by performance and mystery. By ten, he was already performing as “Master Charles Carter, the Original Boy Magician,” enchanting audiences at museums and lodge halls with sleight of hand and small illusions. As he matured, Carter became determined to dedicate his life to magic, quickly surpassing the crowded American variety circuits. Faced with intense competiti

Servais Le Roy was born on May 4, 1865, in Spa, Belgium. He began his professional career in Belgium in the late 1880s developing a passion for Soccer and Adventure, before moving to England in the early 1890s. Leaving home at the age of 12 he went to London. Attending a school in Plymouth. Later, while in Wales pursuing a soccer career, LeRoy witnessed a man perform the "Cups and Balls". Captivated by it, he practiced until he could deceive the very man who had initially

Goldin, of Polish Jewish heritage, was born Hyman Elias Goldstein in Vilnius, which was then part of Russia and is now Lithuania's capital on the 17th December 1874. A childhood accident of falling into a well left him with a speech impediment. It is said that he discovered his talent for magic tricks at a young age after learning from a gypsy performer.

Joseph Bautier, born in Caluire-et-Cuire (Rhône, France) on November 18, 1847, was the son of fabric merchants Mariette Rambaud and Claude Buatier. At six, he assisted a traveling magician and received his first magic book, which he thoroughly studied. However, his wife later claimed he was actually 18 at the time. Although inspired by a magician, his parents hoped he would become a priest. Joseph was one of three brothers; the youngest, August, did become a priest.

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (7 December 1805 – 13 June 1871) occupies a pedestal of his own in the history of conjuring. While sleight-of-hand performers existed for centuries prior, with magicians populating fairs across Europe, Robert-Houdin would redefine the image of 'The Magician' throughout the 19th Century. He transformed conjuring from fairground amusement into a theatrical fine art. His life intersected with science, mechanics, performance, politics, and technology,

In the early 1900s, Claude Alexander Conlin (1880-1954) captivated audiences across the United States with his performances as a mentalist and psychic reader. Widely recognized as "Alexander, The Man Who Knows," Conlin is said to have made several million dollars from his stage performances over his career. He was also notorious as a con artist and swindler, frequently encountering legal issues. A habitual womanizer, he married at least seven times. Claude Alexander Conlin w

Eric Weiss was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874, although he claimed his birth date was April 6, 1874, in Appleton, Wisconsin, and used this date on legal documents, including his passport, (likely due to insurance requirements to ensure continued payments to his wife Bess after his death, fearing they might stop paying out) . His father moved to the United States in 1876, but Eric and his family didn't arrive until July 1878 when he was four years old. They settl

In late-sixteenth-century England, fear of the supernatural was deeply ingrained in daily life. Witch trials, accusations of sorcery, and fears of unseen forces influenced how communities interpreted misfortune. Reginald Scot, an unlikely revolutionary from Kent, whose groundbreaking 1584 work, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, became one of the first major sceptical treatises in English. Scot not only questioned the belief in witches but also revealed the mechanics behind illus

Isaac Fawkes (c.1670–1685?–1732) also spelled Fawks, Fawxs, Fauks, and Faux) Would emerge in the early eighteenth century as one of London’s greatest Conjurers Although his origins remain obscure for there are no baptismal records, apprenticeship documents or early references to the character barre first hand accounts and promotional material. Historians infer that he was born sometime between 1670 and 1685. Noted as a seasoned performer by the early 1720s. The fact that his

Cheltenham born illusionist John Neville Maskelyne (1839-1917) Cut his teeth in the Cotswold's and across the country as The Chief of UK magicians of the Victorian-Edwardian era. Maskelyne was also an inventor behind inventions such as the Pay Toilet. The proclaimed 'Father of British Magic's' illusions and ideas are still present today in some form or another. John Nevil Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham on December 22, 1839, at 20 White Hart Row. He hailed from Wiltshire,

Theodore John Squires was Born February 22nd 1907, Waverly, New York. Their family would alter their surname to Annemann early on in life after Fred Squires; the natural father of Theodore, left him and his family when Theodore was just 2 years old. Flavilla, Theo's mother would soon remarry Stanley Anneman. He would gain an interest for magic around the age of 10 when shown The classic Ball & Vase routine by a friend at his school. From this point forth he dedicated much of

It’s 1905, over a century ago. You’re at an elegant charity event in a Park Avenue apartment. As you glance around, you spot well-known names from the newspaper’s society column. Everyone who is anyone seems to be present. Suddenly, a short, gruff-looking guest arrives at the door wearing a thick overcoat. His peculiar appearance catches the room's attention. Without uttering a word, the stranger takes a hand drill from his coat, approaches the wall, and drills a hole in it.

John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) Born in Aberdeenshire. Anderson is credited in bringing magic from the streets into theatres as a form of professional entertainment. One of three children, his brother Sandy; a night-watchman at Justice Port would die at sea. and Gordon; a gardener who fell in to poor health and would die in the Nelson St. Poorhouse. Anderson would be Orphaned from the age of 10, and go on to join a travelling drama company in 1830, performing at the famed 'S

Born to German Immigrant parents in Erie, Pennsylvania. (July 11th 1849) Heinrich Keller was an adrenaline junkie from a young age. With a love for Dangerous games he was known to play Chicken with oncoming trains to amuse his friends. He would go on to being an apprentice under a local druggist, frequently experimenting with a variety of chemical mixtures on the upper level of the store. Young Kellar, terrified of the potential repercussions of this act both from the store o

Walford Bodie, Born Samuel Murphy Bodie 11 June 1869 to William Walford (A Travelling Baker) and Margaret Bodie, 33 George St Aberdeen, Scotland. A Charismatic and Enigmatic teenager developed an interest in magic from an early age. Practising pocket tricks and performing ventriloquism and sleight of hand from the age of 10 for pupils of his school. His introduction and professional work life started as an apprentice for the National Telephone Company in 1883 at age 14, de

It's the night of March 23rd 1918, you're sat in the stalls of the Wood Green Empire. Anticipation and excitement fills the air as you wait to see Chung Ling Soo perform his famous Bullet Catch, "Condemned to Death by the Boxers." Little do you know this is the last effect you would ever see him do... You watch as his assistant fires the Musket. Gun powder residue fills the air. The Great Chung Ling Soo staggers back, collapsing to the floor as the bullet punctures his lung

On returning the hat, he'd pull a pristine white rabbit inside. Herrmann would stroke the rabbit, pulling it apart at the ears duplicating it, one in each hand. Placing the rabbits on both sides of the table in a thick Parisian accent he'd state "if you notice... the rabbits are the same size, no?" Scooping them together morphing them into one. "Now, you see the rabbit, she is much fatter!" Pulling a pistol from his pocket he'd toss the rabbit into the air, shooting at it...

Born July 20th 1869 in Columbus Ohio, Thurston had four siblings. His elder sister May (Myrtle), Charles, Howard, Harry and William. His father an amateur tinkerer with a plethora of unsuccessful inventions, had a carriage business which collapsed in 1873. With no means to support his family he spent much of his time at the local saloon, an alcoholic abusive man who often struck both his wife and children.