Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Get Rid of Your Wife Instantly -- June 4, 2013

Harry Kellar was one of the great American magicians of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. Here he is featured at the Columbia Theatre in San Francisco. The ad is from the 07-November-1898 San Francisco Call.  Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version. 

An article on the same page said:

The Columbia.

Kellar, the magician, appears at the Columbia this week. The following is said to be a simple statement of what he did at Daly's Theater in New York every night during his four months' run there last season:
The stage is open and clear from all obstructions. There is one chair in the middle of the stage and directly above it depends a big electric arc light. Aside from these, there isn't a scrap of furniture or ornamentation of any kind. The stage is brilliantly lighted all the time, yet, in the full glare of the big light.  Mr. Kellar takes his seat in the chair, makes a few passes and commands his body to dissolve into thin air. It gradually and slowly fades until the back of the chair is seen through his form. Finally it disappears altogether, much as a cloud of mist would be dissipated by the morning sun. He doesn't walk off the stage at all; he simply sits still and slowly vanishes. Then he sits in the same chair and turns himself Into Mrs. Kellar, who steps to the footlights and speaks to the audience.

No comments: