Sensational Tales of
Mystery Men By WILT, rtOTJYSTON
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SENSATIONAL TALES OF MYSTERY MEN.
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{From the Original Drawing by Cowan Dobsoti, Ji.B.A.)
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SENSATIONAL TALES OF MYSTERY MEN. By WILL GOLDSTON.
An
Introduction by
HANNEN STAFFER.
LONDON :
WILL GOLDSTON, LTD., 14, GKKKN STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE,
W.C.2.
J. G. HAMMOND
AND CO., LTD.,
PRINTERS. BIRMINGHAM
AND LONDON.
COPYRIGHT, DECEMBER, 1929. BY
WILL GOLDSTON, LTD.
First Impression, Dccnnlwr,
CONTENTS. PA OF
Aii Introduction by Hannen Swaffer ... Foreword ... ... ... ... ... The Truth about the Zancigs The Tragedy of Hanco Whin G. \V. Hunter dried up How Denny and Will Goldston escaped Gaol The Truth of Horace Goldin's Arrest ... The Cornells and their Ghastly Publicity Stunt The Strangeness <>f Lafayette ... ... Dante Perplexed ... ... Dante's Experience in Russia ... ... Muller the Mystic Was Chung Ling Soo Murdered ? ... ... A Handcuft Escape that went wrong ... Ceeley and the Naked Lady ... ... ... Frank Van Hoven's Tragic Failure Frank Van Hoven and a Fellow Artist's Wife Frank Van Hoven—A Changed Man ... Wishart and the Dead Body Raymond and the Undertaker What Hannen Swaffer told the Magic Circle The M.P. who does Magic The Prince who stabbed his Partner A Foreword on Houdini Houdini ... ... •• ... ... My first encounter with Houdini ... Houdini and the Magical Illusions Houdini's Film Failure Houdini at the Palladium Houdini at Manchester
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9 11-5 15 24 26 28 33 39 42 48 52 60 63 70 73 76 80 82 88 91 95 102 104 110 111 118 123 125 128 129
CONTENTS. PAGE
A Regrettable Incident . The Houdini Peeking Case Escape ... . Houdini and the Unmasking of Robert Ihmdiii . Houdini objects to someone else's B<><>st . Did Houdini Fail ? . Is Houdini Earth Bound ? . Is Bessie Houdini a Cheat '( ... Maurice and the Girl in the Car The Great Maurice and a New Illusion How Magic is accepted in Nigeria ... Murray-—His Greatest Escape How Zomah delayed a Murder Carl Hertz—The Imitator The World's Cheapest Theatre Hertz and his Monte Carlo Syndicate ... Carl Hertz and the Bird Cage ... Harry Kellar's Search for a Successor ... Was John Nevil Maskelyne a Genius ? ... Facsimile Letter of John Xevil Maskelyne ... Facsimile Letter of Ne\ il Maskelyne The Mystery of my Resignation from (he Magic Cire le ... David Devant—The Master M.iejc'an ... My Impromptu Act ... The Battle of the Lierrots ... My Cemetery Adventure An Error that cost £1,000 Will Goklston's Spy Service ... My Quickest Vanish .. A <
i i n 1 >\ \ \ i l I ( , i i ! d s t < i
133 134 135 I3N NO 144
152 55 58
• s '5
SS 189 193 19<S 198 201 204 208 213 219 224 out)
234 240 ... 244
AN INTRODUCTION. Dear Will (ioldston, You have honoured me by asking me to write a foreword to your book. Frankly, I do not know what to say. It is usual, when such forewords are written, to pay some tribute to the character, or achievements, or personality of the author. As I am writing a preface and not a book, I must leave all that unsaid. As you know, when I think of magic, I think of your officeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; an office where, whenever I visit it, I meet magicians, famous and struggling, some so clever that I always start to eat my hat before they make it vanish into air, some so little known that they tell me they sometimes read what I write. From the walls, there look down photographs and paintings and sketches of illusionists known right around the world. I see the faces of the great Lafayette, (hung Ling Soo, Houdini, Carl Hertz, John Nevil Maskelyne and Horace Goldin, men who have mystified me when I was younger, men who, when I grew to know them, seemed even more clever at close quarters than they were, far away upon the stage. Always, when I see those portraits, there is
conjured up in front of me the spirit of Romance. 1 know that behind every one of those lives is a story of years of patient work. I know that,mixed up with their shows, there have been great moments of real drama. I know that in each life there has been some incident more striking than anything that the public has seen when they have paid to go in. When 1 read the proofs of " Sensational Tales of Mystery Men, " a great deal of those mysteries were revealed to me for the first time, and I saw, in cold, truthful print, explanations of many things that had puzzled me for years. My only quarrel with your book is that it is much too short. You could have made it ten time as long, and even then left me interested in every new chapter you wrote. When, quite casually, the other day, I talked with you and Horace Goldm, in your sales room, I saw on the counter a wooden box addressed to some missionary in a fardistant village of the Wrest Coast of Africa. Inside it was one of your Sealed Books of Mysteries, going thousands of miles, so that a Christian preacher might mystify the native members of his congregation, even more, he hoped, than did the witch doctors of the surrounding tribes. Tn that little incident,
was the making of a great romantic story. Your rooms are full of such possibilities. Your mind is a storehouse of entrancing memories. I wonder what will happen, when the missionary's box is opened, and the lock is turned, and the mysteries reveal themselves from each printed page. You suggested my election, one night, as a vice-president of the Magicians' Club, of which you are the head. I have presided over one of your dinners. I have addressed your gatherings. Every time I enter your world of Magic, trembling at the door, I realise more that you are the centre, and the clearing house, of a great trade in Mystery and that, so gentle and kindly is your approach to men, you are the custodian of a thousand secrets which, were they ever printed with diagrams, would kill Magic, once and for all. I remember Chung Ling Soo, the cheerful Scots-American. Well, your book takes us behind the scenes of his tragic end. Horace Goldin's solemnity and serious mien have often impressed me. Well, you have given us an idea of the humorous side of his character. Houdiniâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;well, he has always been a mystery. You have laid bare a great deal of that, with a daring courage.
The Zancigsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;their tricks will puzzle Mankind for years, though Julius has gone and his second wife has, of course, retired. Your Zancig chapter is most illuminating. Now, this is only a little of what I wanted to say. If I go on, I shall write the whole book. Then it will not be nearly as interesting as yours, for I do not know anybody in the world, except yourself, who could have written the chapters which I have read. They tell me there are 10,000 conjurers in England, amateurs and those who do it for a living. Well, there are at least 1,000,000 people who are fascinated by all that concerns Conjuring, or Magic, as your illusionists always try to make me call it. For that reason, I am sure your book will hnd 1,000,000 readers. HANNKN SWAFIF.R.