Spirited Con-Artistry

In the early days of photography, before people knew how the process worked, a photographer by the name of William Mulmer stumbled upon a double exposure.  Recognizing an opportunity he passed himself off as a spiritualist who could contact, and photograph dead loved ones.  Once of his well known photographs shows the widow Mary Lincoln with her husbands ghost.   Spiritualism had great advocates, like Sir Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but also had detractors like Harry Houdini, who devoted some of career to exposing fakes.

Houdini preparing prop 'spirit' hands for a demonstration

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with a spirit, and the book he wrote defending the concept.

A demonstration by Houdini of how he too, could be photographed with Abe Lincoln

Antique Automata

      
     An automaton (plural: automata or automatons) is a self-operating machine.  These hold fascination for me - especially some of the older ones shown in this posting.  They've been around for a long time (since Greek times) but the golden age is considered by many to be 1860-1910.   During this period many small family based producers thrived in Paris.  The main French makers were Vichy, Roullet & Decamps, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou and Bontems.


      In addition to being fine examples of mechanical competence, these early machines were used in magic acts and performances to demonstrate mystical abilities (before audiences were sure about how these machines worked).  Good examples are those used by French magician Robert Houdin.  There is also a famous example of a hoax  -  The Turk (a chess-playing automaton), which dates back to the late 1700s (photo below toward end of posting).  This supposed mechanical chess player beat scores of opponents, but was ultimately revealed to have been a hoax (there was a small person was hidden inside the contraption).  Nevertheless, the machine is still quite beautiful.


     I've also included in this posting a piece I made recently (last series of photos).

close up of clown from Automatomania

A few good sites to check out:


Automatomania -   Excellent collection with good photos.
http://www.automatomania.co.uk/


Dugnorth Automata blog  - A great source for all things automata http://blog.dugnorth.com/


Deskarati -   (good succinct history of automata)
http://deskarati.com/2011/05/08/automata/


Atlas Obscura's Amazing Automata section - A great site for anything bizarre and obscure (its also on this blog's list of links on the right side bar).  http://atlasobscura.com/category/inspired-inventions/amazing-automata  


Fantasma Magic Shop in New York City - This is one of the few great magic shops left.  It's located right near Penn Station and well worth a visit (books, tricks, costumes, antiques, live birds!)   They carry some great pieces of antique automate too.  And the best part may be the mechanized Houdini that comes down from the ceiling and gets out of a straight jacket (I understand the shop's owner is a big Houdini fan and expert). 
http://www.fantasmamagic.com/shopping/

click images to enlarge

Henry Phalibois Automaton of a Chinese Magician and Vanishing Assistant, c. 1920

From the site of Skinner Inc.

Top view

A flea circus in a suitcase

Vichy Acrobat

The Undertaker

Baking bread

A writing woman - this was a popular type of automata - one where the machine writes a name or a message.

A reconstruction of the hoax automata, The Turk.  The original was built in 1770s and appeared to be a "thinking" chess playing machine, but there was a small person hidden inside the box.

Here's a piece I made - it's my first shot at a very simple, hand cranked automata:

In process:

Magicians, Houdini exhibit and more

There is a great exhibit at the Jewish Museum (Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street) called Houdini: Art and Magic.  It's on until the end of March and I highly recommend it.   There are great artifacts used by Houdini, but also art inspired by him, including an installation piece with live birds.   The exhibition book is excellent too.  It has most of the items from the exhibit, as well as several good essays on Houdini.  You can get it from Amazon or from the Jewish Museum.

Houdini was exceptional for his ambition.  In addition to being a magician, he was known as an escape artisits, a de-bunker of fradulent spiritualists, a writer, an aviator, and an actor.

If this topic interest you, you may also want to see a the postings I did back in October on the beauty of vintage magic paraphernalia and on the Taschen's large format book, Magic 1400-1950's. 

Houdini Exhibition Book 
(Houdini: Art and Magic)


click images to enlarge

Cover of book

Pages from Houdini's travel diary

Early shot of Bess and Harry Houdini with their famous Metamorphosis Trunk.

Paining by Joe Coleman

For a while, he was called "The Handcuff King"




Here are more items of interest on the topics of magic and illusion:

Pepper's Ghost 

John Henry Pepper, of The Royal Polytechnic (a permanent science-related fair, first opened in 1838) modified an existing design to create the illusion of a ghost on stage.  The first time it was used was in a performance of Charles Dickens's The Haunting, in London.  

Robert Houdin

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (December 7, 1805 – June 13, 1871) was a French magician. He is widely considered the father of the modern style of conjuring. (From Wikipedia)

Houdin was a great influence on many magicians that came after him.  Erik Weisz was so influenced that he changed his name to a modification of Houdin's:   Harry Houdini. 

click photos to enlarge

Robert Houdin

Houdin developed the famous Orange Tree Illusion, where full oranges appeared to grow from a tree in front of the eyes of the audience.  Houdin would then cut them open and toss some to the audience to show that they were real.  Here's a picture of Ed Norton performing it in The Illusionist.

Spiritualism:

The Davenport Brothers and their Spirit Box

(from Wikipedia)

The Davenport Brothers (Ira Erastus Davenport (September 17, 1839–1911)^[1] and William Henry Davenport (February 1, 1841–July 1877) were magicians from Buffalo, New York.  During the beginning of the Spiritualist movement, they toured the country with a performance called the Box Illusion.  The brothers were tied inside a box which contained musical instruments. Once the box was closed, the instruments would sound. Upon opening the box, the brothers were tied in the positions in which they had started the illusion. Those who witnessed the effect were made to believe supernatural forces had caused the trick to work.

Howard Thurston (July 20, 1869 – April 13, 1936) was a stage magician from Columbus Ohio.  He was known as the "King of Cards".  I am not sure whether this photograph was done with a double exposure, or, as some have suggested, done with a stand-in look a like.  (My guess is the former). 

Harry Houdini in the Hippodrome (New York City), with the elephant he used for his Hide the Elephant illusion.  In addition to performing magic and escape feats, Houdini was active in exposing supposed mediums.  He was  a good friend (and later) an adversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Doyle, the writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and a man of reason, turned to spiritualism in his later years, after his son died in the war.  This caused friction with Houdini.  Houdini (after his mother died), wanted to believe, but  found no compelling evidence to do so, and he devoted his energy to debunking the spiritualist frauds.

Chung Ling Soo

This is genuinely fascinating.    Chung Ling Soo was known as the  "Original Chinese  Conjurer"  He performed for years in this name, and his true identity, William Ellsworth Robinson (1861-1918) was only revealed to the public when he died during the performance of a bullet catching trick.

The bullet catching trick that went tragically wrong.

A book about the life of Chung Ling Soo was written by Jim Steinmeyer.  He is an excellent historian of magic.  Two of his more well known books are  Hiding The Elephant, and Art and Artiface.  He is also one of the authors of the Taschen Magic book, referenced in a previous post.