Published in the reign of Elizabeth I, Scott’s intention was to show that those who, at the time were being burnt at the stake for practising what we now know as the art of magic, were not heathens, wizards and witches, but sadly much of this fell on deaf ears and the monarchy ordered that copies of the book be destroyed

Our copy, open at Book 13 (chapter 13 as we would know it now) shows the section in the book which deals with magic, the remainder of the book concentrates on witchcraft. It is worth noting that some of the ‘tricks’ shown within this chapter, are still used today, such as the Cups and Balls, which HRH Prince Charles chose to perform for his audition piece to join The Magic Circle in 1975, and also included effects such as the ‘Cut and Restored Rope’, and a ‘Four Ace’ production

It is widely believed that Shakespeare had read Scot and that the book is one possible source for the witches of Macbeth, the mock trial of King Lear, and for Bottom’s transformation and the hobgoblin character Puck or Robin Goodfellow in A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Paperback versions of the book are still in print, but you would have to save your pocket money for many years for afford the original with an estimated value of over £50.000, and was written around the time that Sir Francis Drake was knighted (1581)

The book is considered of such importance in the history of magic, that it is depicted on the timeline mural on the beautiful helical staircase which greets you upon entry to The Magic Circle building

In 1634, Hocus Pocus Jr the first book solely written in English on the subject of ‘Magic’ was published:

But it wasn’t until the 1834 and the publication of Professor Hoffman’s Book ‘Modern Magic’, that the general public were introduced to a contempory book written on the art of Conjuring. The book was highly successful and sold over 60,000 copies in its first 30 years, which may not sound much by modern standards but this was written when William IV was on the throne of England

Next article will be on the subject of ‘A Brief History of The Magic Circle’

This Friday night show (see www.themagiccircle.co.uk/events) is always sold out, and due to popular demand, we have now started to put on a second show each month on a Thursday night, which is becoming increasingly popular as the original Friday night show. We cap the audience at 100 people, but this thursday the audience was up to 77, so we were nearly at capacity for both shows.

The evening consists of four first class magicians rotating round four close up tables, performing for 20 minutes at each table, and there is a chance for the audience to explore the building and visit the museum prior to the start of the show, and also during the interval

Whilst these evenings are great fun not only for the audience but also for the performers we were, this week saddened to hear of the passing of the oldest member of The Magic Circle Fergus Anchorn aged 99 years young.

(Photo Courtesy of Mark Hesketh Jennings)

Fergus was an icon of a man with a well publicised  story of his time in a Japanese POW camp and how he used his magic to gain food and favours for his fellow prisoners

I will write more about Fergus later, however, the performers wanted to dedicate this weeks Close Up Show to our friend Fergus Anchorn

Fergus Anchorn, a true Gentleman in every sense of the word, Sleep well my friend

(2^nd April 1861 – 24^th March 1918)

This article is chronologically out of sequence in my series on magical history however, as you may have noted from the dates above, it is 100 years ago today, that this, perhaps infamous Magician died, so to mark the date, I have published this today.

Born in Winchester County New York, William Ellsworth Robinson  became an established magician in the USA, however, at about the turn of the century an agent was looking for a Chinese magician to perform at the Folles Bergere in Paris, so Robinson rebranded himself as Chung Ling Soo, probably basing both his new character and act on a fellow performer of the time called Chung Ling Foo. In the photo below, of Soo’s display case in The Magic Circle museum, you can see photos of Robinson as he was in real life  and also in the character of Chung Ling Soo, together with one of his performance costumes

He completely took on this new persona, both in appearance and he never spoke English in public again, speaking only through interpreters. So why do I refer to this performer as infamous?

Soo was well known for performing the famous Bullet Catching trick, with a solid ball of lead being fired from a handgun (which can be seen in The Magic Circle Museum), and the projectile would be caught by Soo in a china plate and handed to the spectators, this plate would often be signed as a souvenir). In the Magic Circle Museum there are two such signed plates together with the lead shot and handgun, shown below

On 23^rd March 1918, Soo was performing at the Wood Green Empire theatre in North London, approximately 6 miles to the north of The Magic Circle, and included in the show was his famous ‘Defying the Bullets’ routine, this time using rifles, rather than handguns, in a scene based on the Boxer Rebellion, the climax of which was a firing squad where Soo was to be the victim.

Although the above poster shows five people in the firing squad, Soo employed just two, Dan Crowley and Jack Grossman, who later reconstructed the effect on The Paul Daniels Show in 1982.

Two members of the audience, usually soldiers, were asked to select and mark a bullet; the bullets were loaded into two rifles. Soo stood on the far right of the stage and was handed a porcelain plate, in which he was to catch the bullet(s)

The two Chinese riflemen crouched and raised their rifles, and Soo dramatically drawing in a large breath, held the plate over his chest

At 10.45pm the shots rang out throughout the theatre……

Soo reeling, twisted slightly to his right, his shoulders arched, dropped the plate, which smashed against the wooden stage floor

A stage technician, rushed on from the wings, responding to Soo’s knees buckling and eased him to the ground

His wife Suee Seen ran on and noticed the blood stains on his costume

The curtain was lowered and the audience ushered out of the theatre which was a Bioscope Screen and the projectionist took his cue.

The following day, the papers informed the the world that Chung Ling Soo had died in Wood Green Cottage Hospital at 5 am, as a result of the injuries sustained the previous night,

Weapons expert Robert Churchill who examined the guns stated that the bullet firing was due to a malfunction of the rifle due to poor maintenance and subsequently the East Middlesex Coroner Mr Forbes announced a verdict of ‘Misadventure’ which was widely accepted at the time, however, over the following years various conspiracy theories came to light:

Was he murdered by a jealous rival?

Was it suicide bought on by depression? This was fuelled by the fact that Soo alone was responsible for the custody and maintenance of the weapons and there were rumours he wasn’t wearing his ‘Flak Jacket’ underneath his costume, on the night in question, as per his contract, or did he ever wear it?

Chung Ling Soo posters are now very valuable and The Magic Circle has a large collection of them on display throughout the whole building

The photo below shows myself with Magic Circle President Scott Penrose at the house of the famous American Magician and Poster Collector Norm Neilson, in the background are some of Norms collection of Chung Ling Soo posters. His full collection was recently sold in the United States as separate lots and had a estimated value of approx $7 Million. I was lucky enough to have been shown the whole collection by Norn, on a visit to his Las Vegas home.

Next Article – ‘Where it all began…….”

This is in addition to performing Close Up Magic at The Magic Circle Christmas Show, hosting The Magic Circle Close Up Show, assisting in the running of its Educational and family days, as well as being involved in the History and Mystery Days, as well as giving talks to outside organisations.

I also host tours of The Magic Circle Museum, at many of the public events, and whilst the whole building is a wonder of magic memorabilia, posters and history, our museum is situated in the basement of our building contains even more treasures. It is often known as the House of 10,000 secrets, and it was this which gave me the idea of writing some small articles on here about some of the exhibits which you may well see on display, and also associated stories, introducing you to some of the people and characters, you would hear about should you visit our lovely headquarters in central London, which is not generally open to the public.

These also form the basis of some of the talks I give to outside organisations, giving an insight to the History of Magic and also of The Magic Circle, and will be the subject of future articles

(Museum Tour Photo – Courtesy of Michael Vincent Photography)

The plaque commemorates the first meeting of 23 Magicians in 1905 who met in a restaurant called Pinoli’s at 17 Wardour Street, and it was this meeting that lead to the formation of The Magic Circle

As it was then …..

 As it is now…..

A wonderful day sharing the history of the World’s most prestigious Magic Society, spent in great company, including Dynamo, David Berglas ( former President of The Magic Circle) and many of the country’s leading magicians, many of which I have had the pleasure of working with. It was a honour to be invited

Many thanks to those who organised the siting of the plaque and who arranged this fantastic day