Buatier de Kolta

Buatier de Kolta (real name Joseph Buatier) is perhaps the greatest inventor of stage tricks and illusions in the history of Magic. From his brain came, among others: The Vanishing Bird Cage, The Handkerchief Pull, The Multiplying Billiard Balls, Spring Flowers, and The Human Cage. He had a patent for Black Art and, according to some authors, introduced the use of silk handkerchiefs in Magic.

He was a Frenchman, having been born in Lyon the 18 of November, 1847. He gave his first magic performance as an amateur in 1868 and became a professional magician in 1870 when he partnered with an excentric Hungarian showman named Julius Vido de Kolta, from whom he took his stage name. Bautier de Kolta is a world famous illusionist. He developed a very famous trick known as "Expanding Die".

The magician walks on the stage which carrying a satchel, de Kolta states that the satchel contained his wife. He opens the satchel and remove a die which the size approximately 6 inches on a side and it is placed on the table. However, the die grew in size until it was a cube measuring two and a half feet on a side visibly. Then the cube is lifted to reveal his wife.

Another illusion known as "Vanishing Girl" which considered very astounding. A plain metal bridge chair is placed in the center of the stage. Then, a few sheets of newspapers are spread and placed under the chair to eliminate the idea of trap doors.

Next, the magician's assistant is sat on the chair and covered with a cloth. The magician make a conversation with the assistant, whose voice still can be heard and in a sudden, the sheet was whisked aways to show that the girl has vanished. Since this illusion performed at the center of the stage and free from fancy props and in a strong light, this appears that there are no answer as how the girl vanished.

Andrew Loh

Ching Ling Foo

Ching Ling Foo was born Chee Ling Qua in 1854, Beijing, China. He studied traditional Chinese magic and he moved to United States which he became a headliner in vaudeville following a successful career in his native China.

In his performance, he breathed smoke and fire, produced ribbons and a fifteen foot long pole from his mouth. He caused a sensation when he took an empty piece of cloth, produced a huge bowl, which the bowl full of water, and then pulled out a small child!

In New York, he was offered a reward of $1,000 which a great deal of money in those days to anyone who could produce a bowl full of water like he did. He did it for publicity and he never actually meant to hold a contest, but American magician William Robinson didn't know that.

On the other hand, Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of American magician William Robinson. He was inspired to take the name by the work of magician Ching Ling Foo. William Robinson was a New Yorker which he came from a Scottish family who sometimes worked by himself as a magician, but also worked on-stage and built props for other magicians such as Harry Kellar, Adelaide Herrmann and Alexander Herrmann.

Not long after that, Ching Ling Foo refused to let William Robinson try for the $1,000 reward, Robinson went to Europe with a new Chinese-style show of his own and recreated himself as Chung Ling Soo, a Chinese magician. Robinson called himself as "The Original Chinese Conjurer." Even offstage, he was also known as Chung Ling Soo. When the press wanted to interview him, he brought an "interpreter" because he claimed not to speak English.

From the newspaper stories, many European believed that he was a Chinese. However, after a few years later, Robinson's make-up was removed at the hospital due to a fatal performance of the bullet-catching performance. Since then, the public found out that he was not a Chinese.

Andrew Loh

Dai Vernon

Dai Vernon was born on June 11, 1894 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His real name is David Frederick Wingfield Verner. He got the nickname of "Dai" when a typo in a newspaper gave him Dai instead of David. His last name "Vernon" came from the dancer, Vernon Castle, who with his wife was a dancer in the 1920's. While in New York, his name Vernon was carried over since most New Yorkers could not pronounce it correctly. Vernon is the most influential conjuror of the 20th century.

Magicians know him affectionately as ‘The Professor’ because of his apparently endless fountain of magical knowledge and also regarded as 'The Man Who Fooled Houdini.' Harry Houdini boasted that no one could fool him if he saw a trick performed three times in a row. In 1919, in Chicago, Vernon took up his challenge. He performed an old version of 'The Ambitious Card' eight times in a row, and Houdini had no idea how it was done. He also known as the man who "fooled" Houdini.

At the age of 12, Vernon learned and mastered all the sleights of hand tricks in the classic book on card handling - The Expert at the Card Table. Vernon fell in love in magic and he spent his rest of his life baffling everyone with his great ability. He spent the last 30 years of his life in Hollywood, as a mentor for many great close-up magicians.

Conjurors, amateur or professional will immediately have their undivided attention if you mention his name. Vernon improved known tricks and created new ones such as Twisting the Aces. He knew old magicians like Max Malini and Harry Houdini. He had friendship with magicians such as T. Nelson Downs, Allan Shaw, Manuel, and Welch Miller just to name a few.

In 1963, Dai Vernon visited the Magic Castle for the first time to see Jay Ose. Vernon is probably the most notable resident magician of the Magic Castle. Magicians from all over the world came to the Magic Castle to learn from the him. His clinical mind was responsible for many modern classic routines adopted by numerous magicians today. He set new standards, and elevated the art of conjuring more than almost any predecessor.

He is probably the greatest contributor to the art of close-up magic. However, he was a modest person blessed with indescribable charm. He was a true gentleman and everyone loved him. It was very rare to hear Vernon say anything unkind about anybody. Even if the person deserved it, he would always find something positive to say about them. He had the rare ability to fill anyone in his company with renewed enthusiasm for their art, magic. There was only one conjuror that he spoke of negatively, and that was Harry Houdini.

Many of today's great magicians such as Michael Ammar, Bruce Cervon, John Carney, Larry Jennings, Ricky Jay, just to name a few came to learn from Dai Vernon and many of their ideas are came from Dai Vernon. In October 1965, journalist, and amateur conjuror Richard Buffum recorded a series of interviews with Vernon.

This amounted to seven miles of tape. An edited transcript of these interviews appeared in the book, The Vernon Chronicles - Dai Vernon a Magical Life, published in 1992, and edited by Bruce Cervon and Keith Burns, both very close friends of Vernon. It is sad that ‘The Professor’ passed over shortly after the publication of the book. He died at the age of 98, in Hollywood, California in 1992.

Andrew Loh