Variety acts had to have 'bill matter', the by-line that followed their name on the bills (never referred to as posters by professionals). What thought and stress must have gone into creating these. Turns would try to conjure up a catchy line that would capture the essence of the act, help sell it, and most important, be completely different to everyone else's. Jack Le Dair's 'bill matter' was “That Amazing Trickologist” and I saw him at the Hull Tivoli Theatre on February 18 1946. His act consisted of mainly small tricks presented in an entertaining manner. He opened with the Cut and Restored Newspaper which, instead of tearing, he cut with a paper knife making a neat bundle of cut papers. With a shake of his hands they became beautifully restored. Then followed 'Cigarette Making'. Jack selected a cigarette paper and made his hand into a fist, he pushed in the paper,followed by some tobacco and on pushing them through his fist, they were transformed into a cigarette. Jack lit the cigarette and performed some sleight of hand moves with it. But, suddenly, the audience were aware that he was no longer smoking a cigarette, it had changed into a cigar. Blowing a cloud of smoke he reached up and produced a shower of cigarettes. It's a good job that there was no ban on smoking in theatres in those days!

Members of the theatre band were often involved in an act's antics and occasionally were the butt of the comedian's jokes. Jack performed an intriguing mystery next involving the participation of a musician. Le Dair asked a violinist in the theatre orchestra to lend him his bow. Taking a piece of newspaper he wrapped the bow in it and then proceeded to crush the paper. The bow had disappeared. The violinist was not amused, but the magician
reached under his jacket and produced the missing bow. A spectator was then asked to take a playing card, tear it into eight pieces and to keep one. The other pieces were wrapped in tissue paper and put in an envelope. A cigarette was borrowed from a member of the audience, lit and smoked for a few seconds. The magician tore open the cigarette and a playing card was taken from it. The card was discovered to be the one selected earlier, minus the piece held by the spectator who was asked to fit the two pieces together. They fitted perfectly. When the envelope that contained the torn pieces was opened it was seen to contain tobacco.

The act concluded with an unusual demonstration. Le Dair presented a number of matchstick puzzles that he had adapted for the stage. The display board he used measured four-feet-sixinches square and the matches were
ten-inches in length and one-inch wide. After showing half-a-dozen puzzles he demonstrated 'Match Geography' - how to represent the names of towns and places using only four matches. The following are examples:
DUBLIN - Two matches taken from the board and laid on top of the other two - Doubling.
ALTRINCHAM - Move four matches about the board into any odd position - Altering 'em.
TRURO - Four matches set in perfectly straight row - A true row
ROTTEN ROW - All matches set askew
OLDHAM - Two matches held high - Hold 'em
CLAPHAM - “My last is without matches; I leave you to guess” - Clap 'em.

Well they were funny in 1946 - maybe someone could get some laughs with these even now. Closing Jack Le Dair's show was a Music Hall show, in miniature! This included a performer on a horizontal bar, a skeleton dancer, a chair balancer, two trick cyclists and a unicyclist on a tightrope. The artiste closing the show was a magician. All of the artistes were matchstick figures used as string puppets.

Jack Le Dair was born in Plymouth    in 1880 and lived until 1952. His real name was John Albert Warton. The year I saw Jack perform in Hull (1946) he published his Tricks of a Trouper. Like many visiting magical performers Jack was invited to attend a supper with Hull Magicians' Circle members after one of his performances.

This performer appeared at the Tivoli Theatre, Hull in England, on a number of occasions; each time with the same act of small magic. .He was born, an Indian Moslem, in Calcutta on 26th August 1906, his real name was Mohari Ali. I watched Shek Ben Ali’s act at the Tivoli on 6th.August 1945. On stage he wore a traditional costume and turban. He had a catch-phrase which he repeated every time he had to show a prop empty – “Nobody inside, Nobody Outside”. He used the catch-phrase as his bill matter in his directory entries as you can see in the picture of his entry in The Performer in September, 1948. By the way at the Tivoli that week in September Naughty Girls of 1948 were playing!

He entered stage right, carrying a large, empty Nutall’s Mintoes (sweets) tin to which he drew attention saying, “Nobody inside, Nobody outside”, and then plucked a coin from the air and dropped
it in the tin, occasionally repeating his catch-phrase, “Nobody inside, Nobody outside”. Taking a coin he did a few coin sleights which were well received by the audience. Then followed a comedy
routine in which a small boy from the audience assisted. After removing more coins from the air the magician began plucking coins from various parts of the boy’s anatomy. One of the biggest
laughs was when he produced a stream of coins from the boy’s nose (the Miser’s Dream remained the trick for which he was best known). Thanking the boy for his help, the magician took a pack of cards and showed more sleight of hand culminating in the production of fans of cards. As he dropped the last fan of cards something coloured appeared in his hand, a billiard ball. Again he showed some sleights with it, and then produced another ball. These were followed by two more which were deposited between the fi ngers of his left hand. Shek Ben Ali signalled that this was the conclusion of the magic with billiard balls by dropping the balls into a container, then standing perfectly still, and receiving his applause which was generous.

After this ovation Shek Ben Ali showed a stand on which was displayed anumber of razor blades. Removing one of them, he took a thin card and sliced off a piece, showing the sharpness of the
blade. He placed the blade on his tongue and apparently swallowed it. This same procedure was carried out with the remainder of the blades. He took a glass of water, drank the water, and in placing the glass on the table showed it to be empty. Taking a reel of thread he broke off a length which he put in his mouth, making sure that the audience could see that his hands were empty at all times. About an inch of thread was left hanging over his lower lip. Turning sideways to the audience and making sure that the spot-light was focussed on him, he took the piece of hanging thread and slowly pulled, drawing the thread from his mouth. The audience were amazed to see that the razor blades were tied at intervals along the thread. Having drawn them from his mouth the magician held the glittering pieces of metal between his outstretched arms, bringing more applause.

For his concluding effect Shek Ben Ali took three eighteen-inch silks and placed them in a velvet bag, and with a, “Nobody Inside, Nobody Outside,” he waved his hand over the bag and withdrew the contents showing that they had changed into a Union Flag, which he displayed. Instead of bowing at the end of his act he stood at attention and gave a left handed salute. Roy Hudd, in Roy Hudd’s Cavalcade of Variety Acts, has Shek Ben Ali’s birth date as 1912 and says that in 1936 he produced and appeared in an all-Indian show at Yarmouth which he toured all over the world. But he is best remembered as a solo act that played all the leading UK venues. According to Bart Whaley’s Who’s Who in Magic this professional variety performer died in March 1978 – this information, his birth date of 1906 and name is annotated ‘Daw2’ which means its source is HMC President Eddie Dawes, so it must be right! Coincindentally – in The Linking Ring (Vol 85 No1 January 2005) Eddie Burke has contributed Ezee Miser’s Dream to the British Ring Parade inspired by Shek Ben Ali’s own Miser’s Dream routine.

This was the second time that HMC had hosted this quiz, generously sponsored by Michael Shepherd of Castle Magical Services. A good time was had by all and not just because of the result. Hull’s team of magical all-stars – Eddie Dawes, Arthur Setterington and Richard Morrell – beat off strong competition from Huddersfield, York and Barnsley to retain the Castle Magical Services Trophy.

Mike was, as usual, an entertaining question master and Bob West somehow managed to convert all the responses onto a score sheet.There was an excellent mix of questions based not only on magical knowledge but also on a team’s ability to identify strange-looking props and come up with their value. At the end of the first few rounds of questions three points only separated the York, Hull and Barnsley teams and a thrilling finish looked to be on the cards. The teams nervously enjoyed the excellent refreshments provided by Dave Foster and, as is now the tradition on these occasions, the chips arrived spot on time.

Whether the sausage rolls were spiked or not, their effect on the teams after the break was quite dramatic, with Hull emerging worthy winners by quite a distance. This was a superb evening of fun and magical fellowship which helped bring local societies closer together. Quick wit and ready repartee were the order of the evening and there were times when the room rocked with laughter. I think Tom Wilkinson should have been given a special prize for his razor-sharp ad lib to the question “What magical society did Rudyard Kipling belong to?” Quick as a flash Tom said “I don’t know but I expect it was an exceedingly good one.”

Mike Shepherd was at his best, and I can say no more than that! He encouraged participation throughout the evening and even had twenty questions for the audience. Our own knowledgeable Walt Lees won the prize. On a couple of previous inter-society quiz evenings held in Huddersfield there was only me and Joan Senior in the audience. On this occasion thirty or so members of HMC came to give their support, making it a very successful and convivial evening. Well done to everyone.

In Oracle (Vol 9. No1) Milton Woodward is featured on the back page, From Berts Scrapbook. It reminded me of seeing Milton Woodwards act when he appeared at the Tivoli Theatre in November 1944 with his colourful magical act.
Milton was known as Jack to his friends, his real name was John. He was dressed in top hat and tails and the act commenced by producing a number of silks from his, previously shown empty, hat. His evening cane transformed into more silks. After rolling a piece of paper into a tube he produced, from it, a doll. The doll was placed into a cabinet and changed into a real woman.
A box representing a Chinese Temple was shown empty and an idol removed from it, then a large production of flowers was made from the box and finally a Chinese Lady. Milton then displayed a metal blancmange mould and a dish. Placing the empty mould and bowl together a blancmange was produced.
After borrowing two finger rings from members of the audience, Milton rammed then into the barrel of a pistol which was aimed at a box and fired. This box was a Nest of Boxes and the rings were found safely in the innermost box. The act concluded with a large floral production.
Milton did not become a professional magician until the age of thirty seven. His early years were spent in his fathers Drapery business.
He created a fourteen-minute act of tricks and illusions in which he was joined by Millicent Cooper who assisted him in the act and managed to change her costume no less than nineteen times.
Milton Woodwards daughter Betty had assisted in the act but when she married it was Millicent who suggested that they should present a different kind of act. It was to be an any drink called for act. Unlike other similar acts, which used essences and chemical imitations of drinks, Miltons act used only real and genuine drinks. This act was called The Wunderbar and also played The Tivoli where I saw it. I much preferred his illusion show.

Well, actually Arthur enters his sixtieth magical year in 2005 but rather than wait until January we celebrated on Thursday November 18, fairly close to the date of his original initiation show on November 1. As Arthur said, “At my age I want to be sure I am at the celebration!” And we can have another one next year.

In 1945 when HMC President, Ernest Connolly (of Connolly Shield fame), and about ten other members watched Arthur’s audition act they would have no idea that here was a young man destined to become internationally known for his writing, his creativity in dreaming up new effects and his knowledge of magical history. In those days HMC met at The Lord Collingwood public house (no longer in existence, but not far from The Sailmakers). Arthur performed Vanishing Wand, caused a thought of card to vanish from an envelope and appear in a matchbox, vanished a cigarette, changed a cigarette to a ribbon and a silk to a ball. Despite a slight slip – a wand tip fell from the wand shell as Arthur was screwing it up - Arthur was unperturbed, he picked it up and vanished it with a French Drop, and reproduced the wand. He was accepted into membership.

At this celebration of Arthur’s tremendous achievement, HMC President, Eddie Dawes introduced the evening by describing Arthur’s many talents and mentioned some of the awards that Arthur has received. Eddie acknowledged the enormous contribution that Arthur has made to the development of many young magicians. The evening was divided into two parts – the first consisted of presentations by some of Arthur’s friends performing tricks that Arthur had selected.Arthur called it, Tricks I Remember.Eddie Dawes was first on with Visible Penetration by Charles Waller from Greater Magic – one of Arthur’s early magical books. In this effect a silk, representing Houdini “escapes” from the prison of a glass covered with a larger silk. Arthur spoke about the background to his writing The Joe Smith Mysteries and his liking for monologues. He invited Bernard Reubens to perform The Indian Rope Trick and Richard Morrell to perform Joe in London. Then followed a blindfolded card divination effect by Arthur, sans glasses. Arthur is credited with starting the magical Elastic Band movement and Ray Burrell presented Stargazer with elastic bands to mark this. One of Arthur’s favourite tricks – Selbit’s Blocks was shown by Michael Harrop. A regular visitor to our Annual Dinner and old friend of Arthur, Irwin Wallace, had made the long trek from Penrith, in Cumbria, to be present. Irwin paid tribute to the hospitality, help and friendship he and his friend Alan Workman had received from Arthur over the years. Irwin and Alan had appeared on television with Arthur at the time of a book launch of the Dawes and Setterington Book of Magic, and we were able to view the video of the broadcast.Malcolm presented Tom Harris’s version of Gasometer, lighting a gas mantle with his breath! Arthur has had a great interest in Houdini and invited Jon Marshall to perform his Siberian Chain escape and Seven Keys routine with patter about the famous German Houdini Libel trial.Finally Derren Litten, having driven up specially from London, performed an excellent Book Test.

After the break it was “My Latest Trick” and Arthur showed several of his latest creations, some published and some shortly to be seen in Abra.They included Four Aces, a Jumbo Card routine and Word upon Word - a trick with alphabet cards (to appear in the January 2005 Linking Ring). After a trick with a tube and ball was explained, Arthur showed Colorite, published recently in Abra and followed-up by Phil Goldstein. From The Oracle Arthur presented Calendar Cards. The Card Gadget and Spin a Ring completed the lecture demonstration second half. Elsie was present and Arthur thanked her for her support and help over the years.The evening can be summed up by Derren’s comments, he said, “I wouldn’t have missed this night for the world. I’ve known Arthur and Elsie since I was ten and a magical beginner. I have received and valued their kindness, help and magical advice. I had to be there.” Those who were enjoyed an outstanding and entertaining night and Eddie thanked Arthur, and the performers, on behalf of the members.

Many magicians know the wonderful act of Mr. Electric – Marvyn Roy. The subject of my In Town Tonight article, Voltaire, was the progenitor of this dynamic act when, on his retirement, he sold the rights to a number of his electric effects to Marvyn Roy. Voltaire was the stage name of William Jean Arrendorff. Known as Bobby Arren he was born in Britain on December 7 1909. While still a child he moved to Canada and later became an assistant in a Medicine-Show. Bobby returned to Britain and performed various acts without great success. On one occasion he appeared in Hull in a Wonders of the World show presenting a robot that carried out domestic chores including shaving an audience volunteer with a cut-throat razor. Then he created a novelty magic act that was very popular.

He was the first person to perform an entire magic act using electric light bulbs. I saw him in August 1945 at The Tivoli Theatre. Voltaire began his act by Voltaireproducing light bulbs from the air and causing them to light in his hands. He took a red bulb and it changed colour to yellow. He continued with a neat Floating Bulb routine. The sensational part of his act came when, after donning gloves and a pair of tinted goggles, he magically illuminated a huge lighthouse bulb which lit up the whole theatre. Rapturous applause followed this feat but his next and final effect was, I felt, an anti-climax. Voltaire showed a number of bulbs in a box, placed the front on the box and lit the bulbs. It could be seen that the front had the word EXIT cut out and the lights shone through. He explained that “exit” meant go and with that the box front dropped open and the bulbs had vanished, a cue for his exit.On his retirement he became a farmer and he died on April 26 1986.

A few weeks ago I was invited to a reunion at The Central School of Speech and Drama (or Central School of Screech and Trauma as we used to call it) and I must say an old saying of my Grandmother’s sprang to mind, “I’d rather go and boil my head”. You see I went to drama school to ‘do plays’, something I wanted to do ever since I had my ‘theatrical appetite’ whetted by Richard Green of Northern Theatre (hmm, something tells me that last bit doesn’t look too good in print). But in the first two years of drama school all we seemed to do was lie on the floor with a book under our heads reciting John Dunne and when we weren’t doing that we were jumping around pretending to be the animals we’d been ‘observing’ that morning in Regents Park Zoo (yes, sadly, your tax really did go to support me jumping from desk to desk as a meerkat).

Anyway, the point of me telling you all this is because it got me thinking how I started as an actor and I remembered the reason I got my first few jobs was not because I’d studied the Alexander Technique or that I could scuttle across the room with a more than a passing resemblance to an African mongoose, it was because I was a magician. Minder, Pie in The Sky (Series V), A Touch of Frost; in all of these jobs I remember getting on much better with the director at the casting interview after I was asked what I did before I went to drama school. There can’t have been many actors who said, “I was a magician”. I feel very lucky to have been able to make my living from acting over the past ten years (and more recently by writing for television) but it is my association with magic that has provided me with so many great memories and even greater friendships. While planning a recent holiday to Las Vegas I decided to look at a few web sites to see what shows would be on offer. I noticed a special show at The Monte Carlo hotel that had a tremendous line up including Lance Burton (its resident star), The Great Thomsoni, Jeff McBride and Norm Nielsen.One minute led to a couple of hours (as surfing on the internet can) and I found myself on Norm’s web site marvelling at the wonderful original posters he has for sale. I saw a Sorcar poster I remembered admiring in a book years before and wondered if I should treat myself; the holiday would, after all, be during my birthday! I fired off an email to Norm Nielsen immediately asking if it was still for sale and suggesting I could maybe pick up the poster while I was in Vegas (name dropping our President as a mutual friend of course; thanks Eddie!).

The next day I received a very nice email from Norm giving his home number and telling me to give him a call when I got to Vegas. Fast forward a few weeks and I found myself sitting in my hotel room at The Aladdin Hotel (where Elvis was married!) and calling Norm Nielsen! It was, I thought, amazing that I am in a profession where I meet television ‘celebrities’ as a matter of course but there I was getting very excited about calling a magician I had grown up watching on The Paul Daniels Show. I remember as a teenager watching Norm’s act over and over again, I was familiar with the back palm but trying to work out how on earth those cards continued to appear from his empty interlocked fingers nearly wore out the tape. Not only did Norm and Lupe (his charming wife) invite me to their fabulous Las Vegas home to chat about magic and to view his astonishing collection of original posters (most of which are hung in a climatically controlled building adjacent to their house) but he insisted that they pick me up from my hotel and take me back again (they live some forty minutes away from the ‘Strip&rsquo. Where else but in the world of magic would you find such generosity between relative strangers? Acting has been very good to me and something I feel very privileged to call my job but magic will always be my first love. All together now, “aaaaahhhhhhhhh”.

Fire-eating acts were few and far between at The Tivoli. I can only remember three the whole time I visited the Theatre. One was our own Jon Gresham who launched his professional career as, “Europe’s Youngest Fire Eater”. Jon appeared in theatres, circus, cabaret, films and television.

The second was Koringa, who could be described as a lady fakir. Her act consisted of fire eating, climbing a ladder of swords and hypnotism. She had a number of crocodiles on stage, one by one she hypnotised them, leaving each creature with its jaws wide open. They remained like that until the end of her act. Two men, picked from the audience, laid Koringa on two trestles, her neck resting on one and her feet on the other. Despite the space underneath, she remained rigid. A concrete block was placed on her stomach and the men were given sledge hammers, with which they smashed the block. The lady remained rigid and was apparently none the worse for her ordeal. To conclude, she was placed in a box and a quantity of sand was tipped Fire Eatersover her. She remained in the box, under the sand for a lengthy period of time. The sand was removed and she emerged from the box to loud applause. Koringa gained plenty of publicity because of her unusual act.

The third fire eater was Donna Delbert, billed as the “Demon Fire Eater” She was beautifully gowned with shoulder length hair and striking features. She greatly impressed the Tivoli audience as she extinguished lighted torches in her mouth and blew a veritable inferno of fire to conclude her act.After leaving Hull she appeared in Newcastle where she was arrested by the police. Acting on a tip-off the police went to the theatrical digs where she was staying. The United States Air Force later accused Donna Delbert of leading a double life. It was revealed that “she” was in fact a “he” - Private Delbert Hill of Philadelphia, a deserter for four years. A girl who assisted in the fire eating act said she had been with Delbert for a month without suspecting anything. Hill was later court martialed. Jon Gresham continued his fire eating career for many years and often appeared on HMC shows, a welcome breath of variety amongst all the magicians. How good it is that our member Tim Cockerill has recreated Jon’s act and the tradition continues.Jon GreshamJon Gresham posterTim Cockerill

Jon Marshall, Richard Morrell, Rex and Jan Stott from Hull Magicians’ Circle made the trip to The Hague and had a great time.

There isn’t room for a complete review of all the FISM events in Oracle but here are Eddie, Jon, Rex and Richard’s highlights. [Read More]

Las Vegas is often considered to be the magic capital of the world. What better place to get married and to spend our honeymoon than watching a shed load of magic shows. [Read More]

Eddie Dawes received The David Devant International Award on November 16 2002 at The Magic Circle awards Banquet. This award, initiated to celebrate the opening of the Centre for the Magic Arts in 1998, is presented to a person who, in the opinion of The Magic Circle, has made a significant contribution in advancing the art of magic or given outstanding service to magic internationally. [Read More]