Death by Magic.

Here's a neat essay I stumbled onto.

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/sutra160025.php

There is a fine line between 'magical illusion' death and 'complete disaster'. I'm am going to tell some stories of people that have crossed that line, and died performing for one reason or another.

Many people have performed the bullet catch . . . 12 have died, yet people are still performing the illusion. Others have died performing other illusions, or not even performing.

A rather humorous, but still sad, was Washington Irving Bishop, a mind reader/magician, performing his mental routine for a very prestigious audience in New York. During the performance, he collapsed, unconscious. He was taken to an upstairs room, where he was examined by doctors. They were unaware at the time that Bishop had suffered from Catalepsy. Catalepsy is a disease that gives the impression that all vital signs have stopped. Unaware of this, the doctors pronounced Bishop dead, and performed and immediate autopsy, removing his brain for study. They wanted to see if there was any physical reason for his mind reading abilities. Sadly, it was the Autopsy that killed him.

And then there are side-show performers . . . it is one of the most seldom considered, but more dangerous form of magic. There was one guy that took a dipstick from a car, and swallowed it, and it punctured right through his lungs, and he died of internal bleeding. There was also a great sword swallower in the turn of the century, who did this whole act with sword swallowing, but one guy didn’t believe it was real, so he ran up on stage and punched him in the stomach. I’m not a sword guy, but I don’t think that’s a good thing.

Some of the deaths in magic, are poor planning, or just bad timing. The Ex-Amazing James Randi (he doesn’t go with the Amazing anymore) has a first-hand experience with a trick going array, putting him in danger. As most know, Randi had been a professional Escape Artist for 43 years, when he took a dare that he could not escape from the Toronto Newspaper security safe. For Randi, the safe looked like and easy escape from a safe. I’ll use an exact quote from Randi now:

“I looked at this, and it was obvious to me that this was a fire proof safe, used for documents. They emptied it out, put me inside, and they closed the door. Then they spun the dial on the outside. Now, I don’t give away much secret, to tell you that I had a small flashlight with me, stuck it in my mouth, bent down on it, which turned it on. I also had a screwdriver with me so I started working on the screws that went to the combination dial. Well, as I was working on the screws, I noticed that the plate was pressing out at me, so I pushed on it, and it had a spring behind it. And I knew exactly what that was, if that spring were let loose, and it came out, the two deadlocks, and there were deadlocks, that were built into this door, and they shouldn’t have been, that would spring into the sides of the safe, and would seal it for good. And I would have to be cut out with a Sudaleen (sp?) torch, and I would be dead long before then. So, I was running out of air, and so I shifted around slightly inside the safe, and in the process, lost all of the screws, down at my feet, but I didn’t care by then. And I just spoke, in a good loud voice, I could hear everything that was going on outside, and I said ‘Open the safe, I have a problem here’ So I felt myself passing out, so I jammed my head against the plates, so that they would not spring out. I had a couple of the screws out, I had some of the screws in, and I was trembling, and so weak from depravation of oxygen, that I could barely get the screws turned in. And there was much rustling, and then the office manager said ‘It won’t open, it won’t open.’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘I didn’t touch the inside, there’s nothing wrong with that, it certainly should open. Moses, my assistant at the time, was pretty cool, and he figured out what had happened, he simply turned around, I could hear him plainly, and I’ve never heard better words out of the man’s mouth. He said ‘Who opens this safe every morning?’ and a young lady said ‘I do’ So he said to her, ‘Please open the safe.’ Zip, Zip, Zip, Clunk, and it opened. As soon as it did, the air rushed in at me, and I fell, and don’t even remember hitting the floor, I passed out.”

That was a very lengthy story told by Randi, but made a point about how tricks can’t go wrong, even for experienced professionals like Randi. He has done so many escapes, you can’t even count them, but there is one illusion he refuses to perform. . . The bullet Catch. The trick has not changed much, since its initial appearance by the Herrmanns.

Another magician known as Magic Marvo, illustrates one of the main problems with the illusion. . . too much audience participation. He successfully did the catch, but a guy in the audience, stood up and said ‘Catch this’, and took his own gun out and fatally shot him.

One of the more horrific stories of the bullet catch, involved Arnold Buck, a magician in the 1840’s. He gets a guy out of the audience , says ‘load the rifle’, they load the rifle. Then he instructs him ‘go over there with the rifle, and your going to fire on my command.’ When the man walked into the audience, he reached into his pocket, and took out a handful of carpenter’s nails, and dropped them down the barrel. Then he went and took his place. Buck didn’t see him do it. The audience doesn’t know what he is doing. The guy was thinking, “I’ve seen him do this many times before, ok, we’ll get our money’s worth.” 1, 2, 3, fire. And then Buck got nailed in the head, (quite literally, LOL). He was also thinking probably “He can catch a bullet, I’m just making it more interesting. He gonna do it, I saw him do it last night, now I’m loading the barrel. New show, big surprise.

The Story of John Henry Anderson, A magnificent magician in the early 19th century, is one of the best bullet catch story. He said “ Will you help me load the bullet, were gonna go through this, and you’re going to fire at my face” and the guy who was helping him was an amateur magician and he “foiled my trick” as Anderson writes. “He knew what I was gonna do, and he stopped it.” So when he took the rifle, Anderson saw him blow his trick apart. He walked into the audience, where they fired from. And Anderson said “Take very careful aim, at my face. Train right on my lips sir. You know as well as I do, you could kill me . . . will you? I will count to 3, and you will pull the trigger, my life will be in your hands.” He just mentally fenced him, he was like “Dude, are you gonna shoot me?!?” The audience member opted against firing the rifle, and set it on the ground. Anderson decided to exploit the moment “The man who had the rifle, could have taken my life, knew my trick, and has decided to let me, live” Later, Anderson got the guy his first performance, but ended up quitting anyways.

The Bullet Catch was also responsible for taking one of the most famous onstage deaths. Chung Ling Soo. The mysterious man from the east, had a legendary encounter, with the most legendary illusion. He was one of the top dogs in magic, thrilling audiences throughout the world. He had apprenticed with The Herrmann the Great, and the fabulous Harry Keller. Chung Ling Soo became one of the most recognizable Asian in show business. But there was one problem, he wasn’t Asian. Chung Ling Soo’s real name was William Ellsworth Robinson. He was born in 1861, and spent most of his life in theatrical circles. But after his apprenticeship with 2 of the magic greats, he had trouble making a name for himself. Robinson decided to head to Europe. He found that he was much more successful, with an Asian act, so he took the name Chung Ling Soo, after Hing Ling Foo, who was very popular, and was an actual Chinese person.

For a couple on decades, he actually carried through with the public, that he was actually Chinese. He did this by never speaking to the reporters, or to the audience, but always through interpreters, when he was in America. Now he could speak English better than anyone else. To make his act better, he added an illusion, that he had previously performed with Herrmann the Great.(Alexander.) You guessed it, the Bullet Catch. Except Soo’s performance had almost a whole story with it, it was very dramatic. On March 23, 1918, Chung Ling Soo was performing at the Woodgreen Empire theater. His show finally, as always, was the bullet catch. Two bullets, two guns, and on the stage hand’s command, they fired. Soo staggers back, rips open his robe, and a gusher of blood coming out of his chest. Now here’s the weird part, the audience, applauds. He staggers back more, falls to the ground and the fire curtain comes down. Pandemonium is now in the audience. “Oh my god, wait a minute, it’s real.” They take his handkerchief, and stop up the wound. He’s dying, and he says “my feet are cold,” first signs of death. Now, waiting for 911 back then is nothing like it is today; they had to wait for a horse-drawn carriage, to come to the theater, and see a star, who is on stage, bleeding to death. He dies, the next day. Immediately, rumors spread. Murder? Suicide? What was it? Scotland yard gets into it, they employ a gun specialist, and they take apart his trick, (literally). Robinson had kept the gun sequestered, never let anyone touch them, he cleaned them himself, and the verdict was, by being to miserly with his secret, he led to his own death. So it was ruled ‘Death by misadventure’. One of the side effects of Soo’s death, was that it revealed what had been known to magic’s insider’s for years, but had been kept a secret to the public. That in fact, Soo was not Asian, but Caucasian.

After Soo’s death, the bullet catch is so infamous, that even the most daring of illusionist wouldn’t do it. Excluding, Houdini until he got a letter from one of his conjurer’s, Harry Keller. Houdini said, “I will now do the trick that just killed my friend Robinson,” But he didn’t do it, because Keller just said, “Harry don’t do this, you moron, some guy is going to mess up your trick.” His exact word in his letter said, “Some Dog, will job you.”

50 years, after Chung Ling Soo’s death, magician Paul Daniels, set out to recreate it live, on British television. He used all of Soo’s original costumes, and, remarkably, one of the 2 men that fired at Soo that fateful day, was present to fire again. James Randi was there also to watch, and he says it was one of the most exciting moment of his life, because the audience was very tense.



If you would like more information on people that have died in the bullet catch, read Ben Robinson’s book “12 have died”, I have never heard it, but I have heard it has tons of good information.

Gonna see if I can't find a youtube video of that Paul Daniels thing.

coldwood92

well, did ya

zuroph

almost choked on a bullet tip once! I'd have been unlucky 13

zuroph

zuroph wrote: »

almost choked on a bullet tip once! I'd have been unlucky 13

I don't think that quite counts.

And I can't seem to find the video anywhere.

Red Sleeping Beauty

We had a Paul Daniels kiddy magic kit when we were kids. It was rubbish but great fun around Christmas and that when the cousins would be over.

magicusb

For more about the Bullet Catch go to http://BulletCatch.com
More about Milbourne Christopher, Houdini, Dorothy Dietrich, Carl Skenes, Twelve Have Died, etc.