Harry Kellar (1849-1922) was a huge name in American magic in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. And he went out on top; after being named the first "
Dean of American Magicians,"
Kellar retired a year later. But while he was performing,
Kellar had arguably the
finest posters of any performer. (
Houdini's are dismal by comparison.)
As to
Kellar's act, I can't really comment, but
self-decapitation? Please. It's all done with
smoke and mirrors and floating heads. (The guy supposedly had some pretty impressive
levitation skills as well.)
These images are both from the Library of Congress; see my subset of them here or the whole LoC shebang here.
No comments:
Post a Comment