<b>Chronicles is made possible by a grant from the Erie Community Foundation,</b> <b>a community assets grant provided by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority,</b> <b>support from Spring Hill Senior Living,</b> <b>the Regional Science Consortium,</b> <b>and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagan.</b> <b>This is WQLN.</b> <b>Something in our DNA as human beings connects with magic.</b> <b>That's why it's been around for so many thousands of years.</b> <b>I remember when I was a kid, first time I saw a magic show,</b> <b>when the magician reached behind my ear and pulled out the silver dollar,</b> <b>that was the greatest thing in the entire universe.</b> <b>The art of magic doesn't really exist in the</b> <b>magician's hands or on the magician's stage.</b> <b>It exists in the minds of the audience.</b> <b>Krenzylle, is that correct?</b> <b>Open that up please and show it to the camera.</b> <b>No matter what language you speak, what color your skin is,</b> <b>how big or small you are, what age you are,</b> <b>there's a sense of wonder that gets instilled</b> <b>and pulls out that childlike sense of wonder.</b> <b>You walk out of it feeling anything is possible.</b> <b>I just saw something on stage that everything about me says cannot be done,</b> <b>and it's impossible, and yet I just saw it.</b> <b>There's no doubt that there was always an element of a magical entertainer.</b> <b>They stand on Harry Kellar's shoulders.</b> <b>Harry Kellar were here, he would say.</b> <b>Kellar had approached him several times wanting to buy it.</b> <b>Harry Kellar made that woman appear from nowhere.</b> <b>Actually, he was the first magician that I read about in second grade.</b> <b>For many years, the leading magician in America.</b> <b>I think Kellar had an amazing effect on</b> <b>American magic and absolutely changed the game.</b> <b>He was an incredible inspiration for magicians for probably 40 years.</b> <b>He was America's greatest magician,</b> <b>recognized by the public, at the very end of the 1800s.</b> <b>I love Harry Kellar, and I wrote a big fat book about Harry Kellar,</b> <b>and I've collected as many posters and photographs from Kellar's career as I could.</b> <b>So I realize that the name Harry Kellar to most people, doesn't mean anything.</b> <b>But in this house where I live, it is a very important name,</b> <b>and I'm interested in all of the old magicians.</b> <b>In fact, I have a special interest and love for the lesser-known names.</b> <b>Harry Kellar was not a lesser-known name.</b> <b>He was the big guy at that time.</b> <b>Few have earned the reverence and recognition bestowed upon the great Harry Kellar.</b> <b>He carried his magic across oceans and continents.</b> <b>The Dean of American Magicians</b> <b>But before fame, before the legacy, he was</b> <b>simply a boy named Heinrich, born in a quiet</b> <b>town on the shores of Lake Erie.</b> <b>It seems that all magicians, when writing about themselves for the general public,</b> <b>no story was too outrageous to include.</b> <b>The story of blowing up the drugstore that he</b> <b>worked in when he was 10 years old in Erie, Pennsylvania,</b> <b>and getting on the next train out of town because</b> <b>he didn't want to have to face the consequences.</b> <b>And you can read those and say, "Well, here's the story.

"</b> <b>But now when you start doing historical research</b> <b>looking through old newspapers and all of that,</b> <b>you find out, "None of this is true!

"</b> <b>So it's always tough to determine what's the real story.</b> <b>Kellar was born in Pennsylvania and had a modest childhood.</b> <b>We know that he worked for a local druggist.</b> <b>We know that he had a kind of average childhood in those days.</b> <b>I don't think his family was especially well off.</b> <b>At some point, he did run away from home, and he was taken in by a minister.</b> <b>You should pursue the ministry.</b> <b>It is a noble thing to do.</b> <b>That is the path that young Heinrich Kellar was starting down.</b> <b>Until he saw the Fakir of Ava, this amazing</b> <b>magician, and that turned him around 180 degrees.</b> <b>He now knew not what someone else wanted him to do with his life.</b> <b>He discovered what he wanted to do with his own life.</b> <b>In the 'Meiser's Dream' routine, the magician</b> <b>pulls out a silver dollar, lets the audience</b> <b>examine it.</b> <b>It's a real silver dollar.</b> <b>The magician gets a little kid up on stage</b> <b>and he reaches behind his ear and he pulls</b> <b>out a silver dollar.</b> <b>That's a year's wage.</b> <b>That's extremely valuable.</b> <b>And then he finds another one behind the</b> <b>other ear, on top of the head, on the elbow.</b> <b>And then he pulls out another, and another,</b> <b>and another, and another, and another, and</b> <b>everyone goes wild.</b> <b>If you could really do magic, what would you do?</b> <b>Would you find a card someone selected or would you pluck money out of the air when</b> <b>you got hungry or thirsty?</b> <b>The money.</b> <b>Today when you see it, you see a magician just producing a whole lot of coins.</b> <b>But back then, that was very valuable.</b> <b>He sees this ad that says the Fakir of Ava is looking for an apprentice.</b> <b>Young Harry goes to this address and knocks</b> <b>on the door and this great wizard opens the</b> <b>door with his dog.</b> <b>And the dog had a bad reputation of not liking anybody.</b> <b>He got the job because he made friends with</b> <b>the faker's dog when he showed up to audition.</b> <b>And there were other kids, other boys that</b> <b>were auditioning for the role of assistant,</b> <b>but he got it because the dog liked him.</b> <b>Harry said, "I would love to be your apprentice and travel and learn about magic.

"</b> <b>And as such, he learned about magical arts.</b> <b>He learned about what it took to put a show on.</b> <b>And he was fortunate, I think that's the</b> <b>word to say, he was fortunate at that time, to</b> <b>work with an inspired performer.</b> <b>The mentor-apprentice relationship is vital in magic.</b> <b>Nothing can replace that one-on-one, back and forth with a teacher.</b> <b>Someone that knows the ropes that can kind of guide you.</b> <b>Kellar spent his teenage years apprenticing under Hughes.</b> <b>Together they traveled from town to town,</b> <b>moving through the northern states, as the</b> <b>nation around them felt the strain of growing tensions.</b> <b>The conflict over slavery is what drives all of the tensions.</b> <b>There is no way to solve this that is going to please both sides.</b> <b>We are either going to become entirely a</b> <b>slaveholding nation or we're going to become entirely</b> <b>a nation free of slavery.</b> <b>The American Civil War has begun.</b> <b>By eighteen, Keller had spent years under Hughes' mentorship.</b> <b>But he was ready to strike out on his own.</b> <b>It was around this time that Heinrich became Harry.</b> <b>So I'm sure that the Fakir of Ava was a great</b> <b>teacher to Kellar and a very successful performer.</b> <b>And Kellar learned a lot from him.</b> <b>I think at some point Harry realized, I can't be that guy because I'm not that guy.</b> <b>I'm Harry Kellar and so I'm going to use</b> <b>what I am to try and become a success with.</b> <b>He's working in show business at a time when nothing was rougher.</b> <b>Promoters would walk away with money,</b> <b>producers would steal the box office receipts.</b> <b>You've got a situation where in a small</b> <b>office, in a building in downtown, enormous amounts</b> <b>of money are being put into a box and then</b> <b>everyone runs to the other side of the building</b> <b>for two hours and watches a show.</b> <b>And Kellar was very often a victim of that</b> <b>strictly because of his slightly second class status.</b> 142 01:08:24,266 --> 01:08:28,395 <b>You know, he spent many, many years struggling to become a successful magician.</b> <b><font color='#000000'>And so he was just ripe for that sort of abuse.</font></b> <b>But he also was working at a time when an</b> <b>amazing thing happened, which was the Davenport</b> <b>brothers were bringing spiritualism to the</b> <b>stage and performing magic as a kind of form</b> <b>of supernatural ability.</b> <b>Many spiritualists today will put the</b> <b>beginnings of the religion of spiritualism with the Fox</b> <b>sisters.</b> <b>In 1848, two sisters, Catherine and Maggie,</b> <b>were living in a cottage with their family</b> <b>in Hydesville, New York.</b> <b>They began to converse with spirit through</b> <b>a kind of series of rappings or knockings.</b> <b>The adults in the room began to take them seriously.</b> <b>The girls are freaking their mom out.</b> <b>She brings some neighbors in, she brings some</b> <b>people in the community and hey, what's going on?</b> 162 01:09:26,871 --> 01:09:27,663 <b>Listen to what's going on.</b> <b>And it kind of just takes out from there.</b> <b>Very quickly after the Fox sisters began</b> <b>experiencing the rappings, many other young</b> <b>women around Western New York and then around</b> <b>the nation began to experience the same things.</b> <b>It's something new, it's something strange and unusual.</b> <b>It's something that gets people talking and</b> <b>feeling a little tingly because what's going on?</b> 172 01:09:51,645 --> 01:09:54,899 <b>This is when spiritualism had just started.</b> <b>The Fox sisters had created this crazy</b> <b>thing where people heard rappings and they were</b> <b>convinced they came from the other side, from the dead.</b> <b>And the Davenport's jumped on that bandwagon and created their spirit cabinet.</b> <b>So the Davenport brothers were two American</b> <b>performers, real American originals, who took</b> <b>the stage and were roped and tied inside of</b> <b>a cabinet and when they were tied inside the</b> <b>cabinet doors were closed and various supernatural things happened.</b> <b>And the doors would close and all hell would break loose.</b> <b>Tambourines are ringing, bells are ringing,</b> <b>things are flying out the window and they'd</b> <b>open the doors and they would still be tightly tied to their chair.</b> <b>The ostensible explanation for all of</b> <b>this is that the Davenports were surrounded by</b> <b>ghosts.</b> <b>At that time spiritualism was a new religion</b> <b>and they were actually demonstrating spiritualism</b> <b>on the stage.</b> <b><font color='#f60000'>They were demonstrating the power of ghosts to appear in proximity with people.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>There's no doubt about it, they were</font></b> <b>tricksters, they were magicians, they were charlatans.</b> <b>They were using trickery to make these</b> <b>claims and as such they were brilliantly original</b> <b>performers because they were topical,</b> <b>because everyone was talking about spiritualism and</b> <b>then you could actually go on stage and buy a ticket and see it.</b> <b>But it was enormously controversial in its day.</b> <b>They were spectacularly successful and they took this act to England.</b> <b>It was unbelievable, they'd never seen anything like it.</b> <b>And Kellar joined that act.</b> <b>I think that was a great education for Keller to travel with those guys.</b> <b>He was sort of the manager of the group and</b> <b>he got to learn that side of the business.</b> <b>He didn't have to worry about putting people in seats.</b> <b>I mean people flocked to see the Davenport brothers and they were a sensation.</b> <b>At 23, Keller had learned how to manage a traveling show.</b> <b>He'd also picked up valuable secrets from</b> <b>the Davenports, especially their famous spirit</b> <b>cabinet routine.</b> <b>Eventually, the two left the Davenport's to form a show of their own.</b> <b>Fay and Kellar.</b> <b>They performed in the US and Canada only</b> <b>briefly before taking a gamble further south.</b> <b>So Kellar and Fay then had both come from the Davenport stable,</b> <b>and then they imitated that act and took it around the world.</b> <b>So Kellar really learned the basis of that spiritualism act,</b> <b>that seance act on stage, and popularized it in his own right.</b> <b>I'm going to go to Central America.</b> <b>I'm going to go to Cuba and Mexico and then down into South America,</b> <b>where they didn't have a lot of these big, spectacular or famous magicians working.</b> <b>And the audiences down there, they've never seen anything like this.</b> <b>Their success was immediate.</b> <b>They toured Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and deep into South America.</b> <b>To the locals, their magic seemed supernatural,</b> <b>perhaps even the work of the devil.</b> <b>The controversy only boosted their fame.</b> <b>They even performed for Emperor Dom the Pedro of Brazil.</b> <b>Remember, when you're going from country to country,</b> <b>what are you gonna get paid in?</b> <b>The safest thing to get paid in was gold and silver.</b> <b>And these guys would carry chests full of gold and silver.</b> <b>Again, it was the Wild West.</b> <b>And so these guys often had a lot of money with them.</b> <b>And they decided they were gonna cross the ocean</b> <b>and keep this tour going.</b> <b>And they got on a ship.</b> <b>And as so many ships did,</b> <b>this ship went to the bottom of the ocean</b> <b>and he lost all that money that he had earned.</b> <b>But he also lost his show, which was more valuable to him.</b> <b>Go out and do more shows and earn that money back.</b> <b>But now he has no show.</b> <b>So this is just absolutely crippling.</b> <b>Fay left Kellar in South America.</b> <b>He went back with the Davenport's, which was a sure thing.</b> <b>And that left Kellar on his own to now start again.</b> <b>So Kellar worked with a number of partners,</b> <b>changed the nature of his routine.</b> <b>He always included some seance type of material.</b> <b>But now he was working solely on his own</b> <b>and he was his own entrepreneur</b> <b>and doing his own performances.</b> <b>Fay returned to the Davenport's.</b> <b>Keller stayed behind.</b> <b>Still determined he made his way to a legendary venue,</b> <b>Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London.</b> <b>There are great manufacturers of magic</b> <b>in various countries, certainly in France,</b> <b>certainly in Germany, certainly in England.</b> <b>A lot of the illusions of the early magician come from London and in Europe.</b> <b>They seem to be performing a little</b> <b>earlier than over here, and so a lot of the great</b> <b>stage illusions comes from Baudier DeKolta, and Maskelyne, and Devant.</b> <b>Kellar loved studying magic that was being</b> <b>performed by other magicians, and sometimes</b> <b>that magic worked its way into his shows.</b> <b>He definitely counted on the ingenuity of a</b> <b>British magician named John Nevil Maskelyne,</b> <b>who had a theatre in London called Egyptian Hall,</b> <b>which was very popular with the audiences in London</b> 275 01:15:28,315 --> 01:15:30,817 <b>It was called England's Home of Mystery, and</b> <b>it truly was, and Kellar went there whenever</b> <b>he could to see what was new.</b> <b>These were astonishingly clever inventors in London.</b> <b>Every year they would invent fantastic new</b> <b>illusions, and they also hired the greatest</b> <b>magicians that were available to them to come and perform in that theatre.</b> <b>It was a constant flow of new fantastic magicians, fantastic illusions.</b> <b>One way to do them is to invent them.</b> <b>He didn't do that.</b> <b>One way is to go to these manufacturers and buy them, and he certainly did that.</b> <b>So Maskelyne would sell him ideas.</b> <b>There were other ideas that he wouldn't sell it, and it drove Kellar crazy.</b> <b>Kellar regularly went to Egyptian Hall.</b> <b>He would go once a year.</b> <b>He would watch the shows.</b> <b>He would talk to Maskelyne.</b> <b>I think they had a very frosty relationship.</b> <b>I don't think Maskelyne very often indulged his offers.</b> <b>Kellar nonetheless sometimes came back to America with copies.</b> <b>Reinvigorated, Kellar sold his ring, his last possession of value.</b> <b>He used the money to rebuild his act and find a new partner in A. L. Cunard.</b> <b>I think Keller was very aware of what he was</b> <b>capable of delivering to an audience and what he wasn't.</b> <b>He didn't do sleight of hand.</b> <b>He didn't do comedy.</b> <b>He teamed up with these two brothers, the Güter brothers.</b> <b>And their stage names were Ling Look and Yamadeva.</b> <b>And they brought a whole new quality to Kellar's show.</b> <b>One of them was a contortionist, and one was a</b> <b>juggler, and he created the Royal Illusionists.</b> <b>So this was added great, great variety to Keller's show,</b> <b>which he didn't already have.</b> <b>And maybe he just thought,</b> <b>now we truly have something for everybody,</b> <b>a great variety show.</b> <b>They traveled the world back then.</b> <b>Australia, Singapore, modern day Indonesia, Japan,</b> <b>China, and even the courts of the kings of Burma and Siam.</b> <b>Steam ships carried them from port to port.</b> <b>When roads failed, ox drawn wagons carried their gear.</b> <b>Both brothers died very tragically of diseases</b> <b>pretty close together.</b> <b>Another huge setback for Kellar.</b> <b>I mean, this was heartbreaking</b> <b>that he would lose A, these two dear friends</b> <b>that he had made,</b> <b>and these two integral parts of his show</b> <b>that were now gone, and he had to go on on his own.</b> <b>He wrote to his father,</b> <b>"I must fulfill my engagements alone,</b> <b>although my heart is heavy as lead.

"</b> <b>He hired new assistants and continued the tour.</b> <b>India, the Middle East, Africa.</b> <b>In 1878, he returned to Egyptian Hall.</b> <b>There, he saw something extraordinary.</b> <b>Magicians always think they're one trick away</b> <b>from having that one that puts them over the top</b> <b>and now I've made it.</b> <b>And they're always looking for that new spectacular trick.</b> <b>So on one of Keller's trips to London,</b> <b>he goes to Egyptian Hall and he sees</b> <b>John Nevil Maskelyne perform Psycho.</b> <b>This amazing little man that sits</b> <b>and is able to play a game of Wist,</b> <b>which was a very popular card game at the time,</b> <b>and reach out and pick up cards.</b> <b>And there was apparently nothing controlling this,</b> <b>and there was just no explanation for it.</b> <b>Kellar loved this.</b> <b>The original Psycho of Maskelyne and Devant's</b> <b>Egyptian Hall, was built in around 1875</b> <b>by a farmer, believe it or not,</b> <b>that came to John Nevil Maskelyne</b> <b>with this idea of how to control animated figures.</b> <b>Harry Kellar, after three years, I believe,</b> <b>in 1878, he came over to London to see the show</b> <b>and he saw it and he says, "I want one of those.

"</b> <b>Maskelyne had built this thing, figured this thing out,</b> <b>and he said, "I'm not gonna sell this to anybody.

"</b> <b>Well, not to be undone, Keller found a company in England</b> <b>that built figures for ventriloquists and automata,</b> <b>which is what this is.</b> <b>And Kellar said, "I want you to build this machine Psycho.

"</b> <b>And this company built it,</b> <b>and Kellar brought it back to America</b> <b>and became famous performing his version of Psycho.</b> <b>People were fascinated by that kind of stuff.</b> <b>Robots were, automatons were part of presentations</b> <b>as like a novelty.</b> <b>They were owned by the extremely wealthy,</b> <b>you know, as a display of their ostentatiousness,</b> <b>for lack of a better term.</b> <b>He's sitting up on top of a glass tube</b> <b>that you can clearly see through.</b> <b>There's certainly no one hiding inside this little machine.</b> <b>How could this possibly be controlled unless by magic?</b> <b>And again, Kellar, a smart guy,</b> <b>just finding a way to build more into it</b> <b>than just the basic guts or mechanism or effect.</b> <b>The glass stand is everything.</b> <b>It isolates the illusion from any surroundings</b> <b>in the minds of the audience.</b> <b>Psycho?

Are you there?</b> <b>Ahh he is.

He is.</b> <b>That's amazing.</b> <b>And he also used to answer questions </b> <b>with this, didn't he?</b> <b>Yes, the bell.</b> <b>With, what was it?

One ring for 'Yes'</b> <b>and two for 'No'?

</b> <b>Correct.</b> <b>And three for 'Maybe'?</b> <b>Ok!

Is that correct?</b> <b>*Bell Rings Once*</b> <b>Yes!

(laughter) </b> <b>That's good that isn't it?</b> <b>Well, I'll ask a question then.

</b> <b>*Clear's Throat*</b> <b>Am uh...

I the greatest </b> <b>magician of today?</b> <b>*Bell Rings Once*</b> <b>Well Thank------- </b> <b>*Bell Rings Again*</b> <b>Oh!

?</b> <b>*Bell Rings for Third Time*</b> <b>Oh!

Thank You!</b> <b>Well at least I got a maybe!</b> <b>I got a maybe!

That's nice.</b> <b>He used to take people--</b> <b>And it's amazing because I think that these routines</b> <b>would go on for 15 and 20 minutes.</b> <b>And you go, how on earth do you make this interesting</b> <b>and entertaining for so long?</b> <b>Well, Kellar did.</b> <b>Again, a testament to his ability</b> <b>as a performer and magician.</b> <b>He planned to premiere it in America.</b> <b>He wrote home, "Should I succeed,</b> <b>I will never leave America again.

"</b> <b>But trouble followed.</b> <b>That same year, Robert Heller died.</b> <b>Despite having no connection,</b> <b>the public accused Kellar of capitalizing on his name.</b> <b>The damage was done.</b> <b>He took the Royal Illusionists on another world tour.</b> <b>Once again, South America welcomed him.</b> <b>The Brazilian emperor remembering Keller</b> <b>from years before saw the show again.</b> <b>He performed classic illusions, featured</b> <b>multiple automatons, and mastered the Spirit Cabinet.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>A full year in Great Britain followed, including a performance for Queen Victoria.</font></b> <b>In 1882, while performing in Melbourne,</b> <b>Keller met Eva Medley, a young Coronet player.</b> <b>They exchanged addresses.

She promised to</b> <b>write.

He promised to send postcards from the road.</b> <b>As Kellar continued to tour, audiences</b> <b>remained astonished.

Over time, his partners moved on.</b> <b>He became a true solo act.

By 1884, now 34 years old, Kellar returned to America.</b> <b>He was ready to conquer the stage at home.</b> <b>In those early days, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s,</b> <b>after he had toured the world and built up this</b> <b>fantastic show, performing in the eastern states,</b> <b>because that's where all the people were</b> <b>then.

If you think about our modern-day Rust Belt,</b> <b>right, so cities like Buffalo and Cleveland</b> <b>and Pittsburgh, those are the places that are</b> <b>producing the steel that is creating this</b> <b>massive wealth that America is experiencing.</b> <b>People would go see his show every year.

He would always try to have something new,</b> <b>and people would go, "Oh, Harry, the great</b> <b>Kellar's coming to town.

We have to go see his show.

"</b> <b>Entertainment is changing.

You have the rise of</b> <b>vaudeville.

You have essentially these variety</b> <b>shows where you've got acrobats, you've got</b> <b>magicians, you've got singing, you've got dancing.</b> <b>A typical vaudeville show would be eight or ten acts of 10 or 12 minutes each,</b> <b>with a big headliner at the end.

It was how the world was entertained.</b> <b>And again, this is kind of part of the</b> <b>democratization of entertainment, right?

It's no</b> <b>longer going to the theater with full-length</b> <b>opera gloves, and it's reserved for the well-off</b> <b>and the rich, right?

Now this is the working</b> <b>class, immigrant populations.

Anybody can go into these</b> <b>venues and watch this entertainment.

They say</b> <b>that back then there were maybe a thousand variety</b> <b>theaters in America, a thousand.

There were</b> <b>10,000 vaudevillians in America.

Kellar was the</b> <b>difference.

It wasn't the only one.

There</b> <b>were certainly other ones, but Kellar was not a</b> <b>vaudevillian like those ten-thousand other guys.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Kellar offered a full evening show over two hours long</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>of Harry Keller doing magic.

It is a magic show.</font></b> <b>So they're not going to work in vaudeville theaters.</b> <b>They go have to find a legitimate theater</b> <b>that might normally have a play in it.

When Harry</b> <b>Kellar came to town, he performed in the leading</b> <b>theaters and he performed in the leading cities</b> <b>in America, the places where all the great</b> <b>performers played.

Kellar would perform at</b> <b>McVickers Theatre in Chicago, and the other acts that performed at McVickers</b> <b>came through town regularly.

Might be Edwin</b> <b>Booth in Hamlet, might be the latest production of a</b> <b>Broadway show, might be a musical spectacle</b> <b>that just came from New York, might be a touring</b> <b>specialty of a leading opera singer.

So these</b> <b>were all equivalent shows.

In many ways, a magic</b> <b>show was considered a little bit like a circus in</b> <b>that it was its own thing, but it wasn't a circus</b> <b>in the sense that it played on a dirty lot.

A magic</b> <b>show played in a legitimate theatre and one of the</b> <b>great theaters of your city.

And when Kellar</b> <b>came, he played to virtually the same group of people.</b> <b>I think there were more families that came to see</b> <b>Kellar.

There were lots of stories about the kids</b> <b>that remember seeing Kellar when they were young</b> <b>and then later became fans of magic because of that.</b> <b>People grew up and later would take their kids</b> <b>to see Kellar because they remember seeing Kellar</b> <b>when they were kids.

And the show was</b> <b>conducted completely on the stage with curtains and with</b> <b>costumes and they were performed as as a kind</b> <b>of showpiece for that performer.

Each season, he</b> <b>performed in new theatres across the country.

In</b> <b>the off months, he visited Egyptian Hall for new</b> <b>material and returned to Erie to visit his</b> <b>family.

In 1885, he performed at Erie's Opera House.</b> <b>His hometown was proud.

Two years later, he</b> <b>married Eva.

She joined him in America and</b> <b>played in his orchestra.

Eventually, she became</b> <b>part of the act.

Ava was a performer originally</b> <b>from Australia and she played cornet.

She</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>played music instruments.

His wife was quite elegant,</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>wore beautiful gowns and did a mind-reading act</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>with him.

She clearly learned a very, very difficult</font></b> <b>act.

Touring in those days was very difficult and</b> <b>I think that there was probably comfort in working</b> <b>with his wife for years.</b> <b>Springs, yeah.</b> <b>Ooh, that's a good one.</b> <b>Magicians are always trying to outdo each other.</b> <b>And I think it's probably an ego thing.</b> <b>I still think magician rivalries are common,</b> <b>but not as common.</b> <b>The public probably thinks everyone gets along,</b> <b>but secretly there's some rivalries</b> <b>that go on behind the scenes.</b> <b>There was a time, and I would say this was</b> <b>in the early 1890s, where there were two magicians</b> <b>in America, there was Alexander Herrmann,</b> <b>and there was Harry Kellar, and they were very different.</b> <b>That was an epic one between Herrmann and Kellar.</b> <b>Alexander Herrmann wasn't from America.</b> <b>Alexander Herrmann was born in Paris.</b> <b>He came from a family of magicians.</b> <b>And the easiest way to explain Herrmann is to say</b> <b>that he is the magician that you see</b> <b>when you close your eyes.</b> <b>He was a wiry little man that looked like Mephistopheles.</b> <b>He had a mustache that was waxed and stood out.</b> <b>He had a little goatee.</b> <b>He had a big magic show.</b> <b>He had a beautiful wife, Adelaide,</b> <b>who assisted him on stage.</b> <b>He spoke with a French accent,</b> <b>a kind of tortured French accent.</b> <b>He was the magician that would wave the wand and say,</b> <b>et voilà!</b> <b>Brilliant entertainer and sleight of hand artist.</b> <b>And he became our vision of a great magician.</b> <b>Was just really funny and charming</b> <b>and a great personality.</b> <b>I would say that Alexander Herrmann might have had a leg up</b> <b>on Harry Kellar.</b> <b>He performed in nicer theaters, very sophisticated audiences.</b> <b>One of the enormous frustrations for Kellar</b> <b>was it was clear to him that audiences always gave</b> <b>Herrmann an easy time.</b> <b>They loved him, they were charmed by him.</b> <b>Even when Herrmann made a mistake,</b> <b>the audiences loved him, watched him get out of it.</b> <b>And Kellar was always held to a higher standard</b> <b>because he was the local boy.</b> <b>And they battled each other.</b> <b>And I mean really battled each other.</b> <b>It seems like there was only room</b> <b>for one big magician in America at a time.</b> <b>They were battling it out in theaters.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>They would sometimes change their routes to go</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and play a territory before the other one got there,</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>to play it out.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>When the other guy comes through,</font></b> <b>they've already seen magic</b> <b>and people wouldn't want to buy a ticket.</b> <b>Kellar would take down Herrmann's posters</b> <b>if he was in the area.</b> <b>Herrmann would have his men take down Kellar's posters.</b> <b>They would play in rival theaters.</b> <b>They would chase each other across the country.</b> <b>I think to some extent they inspired each other.</b> <b>And certainly Kellar was inspired</b> <b>to be better and better.</b> <b>That went on for several years until Hermmann's death,</b> <b>which surprised everyone in 1896.</b> <b>And suddenly Kellar woke up one morning</b> <b>and discovered that he was America's greatest magician.</b> <b>And that left Harry Kellar</b> <b>as the absolute top dog magician in America.</b> <b>It changed of course his career.</b> <b>It changed his focus on magic</b> <b>and it changed the way the public looked at him.</b> <b>Kellar's success was not just as a magician,</b> <b>but as a leading performer of any kind.</b> <b>What was his secret for winning over so much of the populace?</b> <b>(gentle music)</b> <b>When people come here</b> <b>and they see my collection of magic posters,</b> <b>they always say,</b> <b>"What's with all these devils and demons</b> <b>in all of these posters?

"</b> <b>That's when I point out, around 1894,</b> <b>Kellar went to the Strobridge Litho Company</b> <b>to have new posters printed.</b> <b>I think that we're not surprised</b> <b>to talk about advertising being a legacy</b> <b>in American pop culture,</b> <b>but I think it doesn't happen very often</b> <b>with products from 1900.</b> <b>Keller managed to create images,</b> <b>beautiful, beautiful images,</b> <b>to advertise his show.</b> <b>You can't advertise your show on TV.</b> <b>You can't advertise your show on radio.</b> <b>They don't exist.</b> <b>You can put an ad in a newspaper.</b> <b>Kellar, the great magician,</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>appearing at this theater on this week.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Not very exciting.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>So how do they sell these tickets?</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>They have to sell tickets or they're out of business.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>He wasn't an artist by any means,</font></b> <b>but I think he appreciated the artists at Strobridge,</b> <b>which was America's leading lithographic company at the time.</b> <b>All over the city,</b> <b>on the side of buildings,</b> <b>on every available fence,</b> <b>in store windows on Main Street,</b> <b>Keller the Great is coming with a little strip</b> <b>at the bottom saying when and where.</b> <b>And you can see that they worked really hard</b> <b>to make Keller happy.</b> <b>They redid images.</b> <b>They did variations of images.</b> <b>They allowed him to see variations.</b> <b>So you can see that they thought to great extent</b> <b>their art was being supported by a patron.</b> <b>And this was not someone who just wanted to slap up</b> <b>anything on the side of a building.</b> <b>He wanted it to look right.</b> <b>He wanted it to look as magical as it could.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>They were a little bit fictional,</font></b> <b>certainly a little bit idealized,</b> <b>but they created this magical atmosphere</b> <b>and lured people into the theater.</b> <b>And he said, "I need a whole new line of posters printed</b> <b>"and I would like a portrait of myself.

"</b> <b>A very formal portrait.</b> <b>We think the artists at Strobridge were the first to</b> <b>suggest the idea of adding magical creatures</b> <b>into these images.</b> <b>So what you'll see is Kellar was the first American magician</b> <b>who put little red devils on his shoulder,</b> <b>whispering in his ear as if they're giving him secrets.</b> <b>And they put a little imp on this shoulder</b> <b>and a little imp on this shoulder,</b> <b>whispering the secrets of magic into Keller's ear.</b> <b>Oh, Kellar loved that.</b> <b>Well, so did every other magician there was.</b> <b>The next generation of magicians that came along,</b> <b>they all wanted to grow up and be Harry Kellar.</b> <b>And when they came time for them to print their posters,</b> <b>they all put imps on their shoulders.</b> <b>They all copied that style.</b> <b>So in that way, Kellar's kind of beautiful artwork,</b> <b>beautiful logos, beautiful images worked its way down</b> <b>into American culture.</b> <b>And there were also other magical creatures</b> <b>in these posters.</b> <b>Kellar had little men in little swallowtail coats</b> <b>who were the wise men who knew all the secrets.</b> <b>And you can see them very often at the bottom of the poster</b> <b>watching very carefully as Kellar did his magic,</b> <b>even though no one saw that on stage</b> <b>when they went to see it.</b> <b>You have this fantasy image that Kellar's show</b> <b>was surrounded by magical creatures.</b> <b>Kellar was a wizard.</b> <b>Kellar was somebody who created magic,</b> <b>who dreamed it up and then had the courage to test it out</b> <b>and try it out and make it happen.</b> <b>It's a big difference between a cover band</b> <b>and a group that writes their own songs.</b> <b>When you see a performer perform something that they created</b> <b>that they birthed, you're watching a relationship</b> <b>between a performer and their art.</b> <b>That is what Kellar was.</b> <b>And that's what makes him a wizard</b> <b>is that he wrote the spells.</b> <b>Kellar was not trying to be something that he wasn't.</b> <b>He said, "I'm a magician and I'm performing magic for you.

"</b> <b>Back then, it was very easy for people to believe</b> <b>that, oh, he must be getting help from beyond.</b> <b>So by populating his images that advertise his show</b> <b>with these spirits and ghosts and devils and demons,</b> <b>I think it just created great interest.</b> <b>What is it?</b> <b>Is there really something to this?</b> <b>Or is he just pulling our leg and he's just performing magic?</b> <b>And the only way to find out was to buy a ticket and go.</b> <b>I think Kellar's illusions and big grand illusions</b> <b>were really popular because you could describe them</b> <b>in one sentence.</b> <b>Do you wanna go see someone levitate a woman?</b> <b>Yeah, like one sentence, I wanna go see that.</b> <b>I think that's why those were so popular and still are.</b> <b>Keller did the Kellar Levitation,</b> <b>which was the Maskelyne Levitation,</b> <b>which I always insist came from Bautier DeKolta</b> <b>and his work on stage illusions.</b> <b>But my generation never saw it.</b> <b>The last person to do the Kellar levitation</b> <b>was Harry Blackstone Sr.</b> <b>He retired sometime in the early 50s.</b> <b>The most crowning achievement and the most notorious</b> <b>and slightly even mysterious to this day,</b> <b>theft was the levitation of Princess Karnak.</b> <b>That's what it was called in Kellar's show.</b> <b>Kellar, who had a fascination for levitation illusions,</b> <b>he was always improving his levitation illusion.</b> <b>He had several of them over the years</b> <b>and he was never fully satisfied.</b> <b>And right around the turn of the century,</b> <b>he went to London and was satisfied.</b> <b>It was known as the Maskelyne Levitation.</b> <b>The Maskelyne Levitation.</b> <b>The great illusion where the lady lays on a couch</b> <b>and floats up in the air,</b> <b>they pass a hoop over her body proving there's no support.</b> <b>This is the trick Kellar wanted more than anything else.</b> <b>He already had a floating lady trick,</b> <b>but he knew that masculine was better.</b> <b>Masculine invented this thing and it was groundbreaking.</b> <b>I mean, it wasn't only fooling audiences,</b> <b>it was fooling magicians.</b> <b>Nobody could figure out how this particular effect</b> <b>was accomplished.</b> <b>It's in the middle of the stage.</b> <b>It can't be wires because he's passing a hoop over it.</b> <b>It's like, what is going on here?</b> <b>He saw Maskelyne do this trick and he wanted it</b> <b>and he had to have it.</b> <b>And we don't exactly know to this day how he got it.</b> <b>We think that it involved someone that he hired</b> <b>that worked for Maskelyne,</b> <b>who was on his staff the following year.</b> <b>A magician who performed for many years at Egyptian Hall,</b> <b>Paul Valadon.</b> <b>And he said to Valadon and his wife,</b> <b>"How would you like to come to America,</b> <b>be the co-star of my show, do your own act?

"</b> <b>And so they agreed, they came over.</b> <b>Now, having spent years at Egyptian Hall Theatre,</b> <b>they knew all the details of Maskelyne's famous levitation.</b> <b>And at that point, Kellar's levitation</b> <b>made a quantum leap improvement based on what Valadon knew.</b> <b>But it was Kellar who really started it</b> <b>with that kind of drum roll, with that sort of presentation.</b> <b>And it became famous.</b> <b>It also became controversial in the world of magic</b> <b>because Kellar told everybody that it was his invention.</b> <b>And of course, within months,</b> <b>people started to realize that this had all been assembled</b> <b>through some nefarious means by using other people</b> <b>and by using other secrets.</b> <b>Kellar continued to add new illusions to his show,</b> <b>most from his contemporaries at Egyptian Hall.</b> <b>These illusions were performed by a master</b> <b>who always added his signature storytelling and flair.</b> <b>I believe this is true,</b> <b>and because it makes such perfect sense,</b> <b>that proves that he was America's foremost magician</b> <b>at this time,</b> <b>was because of L. Frank Baum.</b> <b>And that is the man that wrote "The Wizard of Oz,"</b> <b>this fantastical story that we all know about a little girl,</b> <b><font color='#0000ff'>Dorothy Gale, that ends up in this magical land</font></b> <b><font color='#0000ff'>and meets a scarecrow and a tin man and a lion.</font></b> <b>And now this book is gonna be published.</b> <b>It's 1900.</b> <b>And so he finds an artist named Denslow</b> <b>and says, "I need you to illustrate this book,"</b> <b>and he describes the story.</b> <b>So tell me about this wizard.</b> <b>What does he look like?</b> <b>The image that would have popped into both of their minds</b> <b>at that time was Harry Kellar.</b> <b>A very good speculation.</b> <b>Baum is using a very liberal interpretation of Harry Kellar,</b> <b>the traveling wizard that Americans</b> <b>would have known at that time.</b> <b>The greatest, most famous magician in America,</b> <b>a balding Midwest guy, very ordinary features,</b> <b>but with these amazing magical powers.</b> <b>Baum, who wrote "The Wizard of Oz,"</b> <b>based the wizard on Harry Keller,</b> <b>his personality was so large that he was almost just famous</b> <b>for being this grand person,</b> <b>that you're in the presence of greatness.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>If you look at the drawings that were done,</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>if you read the descriptions, it's absolutely believable.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>The difficulty is that Kellar was not a tiny man.</font></b> <b>Kellar was a large man.</b> <b>Kellar was about six feet high.</b> <b>It's Harry Kellar.</b> <b>I mean, to me, it's just so obvious.</b> <b>Now we fast forward later</b> <b>and we see in other posters that Kellar has,</b> <b>the flying cherubs, which became flying monkeys in the film.</b> <b>And of course, there's some little people in the front</b> <b>that are watching Kellar on one of the posters.</b> <b>Those might be the munchkins.</b> <b>So wow, all of the details are hidden in the posters.</b> <b>And that's what makes Kellar one of my favorite illusionists.</b> <b>By 1908, Kellar had performed for decades.

He passed the torch to Howard Thurston.</b> <b>Mr.

Keller says, "Mr. Thurston will be the</b> <b>greatest magician the world has ever known.

"</b> <b>They did a season together where they each did</b> <b>part of the show, and of course at the end of the</b> <b>season there was one final night in Baltimore</b> <b>where they both performed and roses were brought up on</b> <b>stage and Kellar of course being a sentimental</b> <b>old fool, he burst into tears and Thurston cried as</b> <b>well because he was very very moved by seeing</b> <b>how honored Kellar was.

And the show was officially</b> <b>handed over to Thurston, but they worked well</b> <b>together.

They were kind of a natural pairing</b> <b>when this started and Thurston was kind of the</b> <b>natural person to hand it off to and also in the</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>sense that he was really a born and bred, you</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>know, American.

He was a real product of America.</font></b> <b>We have a poster now of Kellar presenting the</b> <b>mantle of magic and putting it on the back of</b> <b>Howard Thurston.

The official robe, he's being</b> <b>given the robe and he's being crowned and he's,</b> <b>the America's being told that he's going to be</b> <b>the great magician.

None of that's true.

There never</b> <b>was another situation like that ever again.

It</b> <b>was completely manufactured for publicity for those</b> <b>two performers.

It was such a good story.

It was</b> <b>such a good myth that, you know, like the secrets</b> <b>are handed down from one magician to another and</b> <b>one magician picks the next magician and approves</b> <b>the next magician.

We just couldn't give it up</b> <b>and so it survived for many many years.

But you</b> <b>have to step back and look at what that really</b> <b>means.

What it means is you're signing a contract</b> <b>and you're going to be paying me money for this</b> <b>show and in return you're going to get the agents</b> <b>that I work with.

You're going to get my tour</b> <b>dates.

You're going to get my theaters.

You're</b> <b>going to get my tricks.

You're going to get all</b> <b>of the connections that I have and you're going to</b> <b>be paying dearly for those.

And in return for the</b> <b>new performer, they had the blessing of the great</b> <b>magician and that's what Thirston started his</b> <b>career.

He started his career with the official</b> <b>blessing of America's greatest magician.</b> <b>Kellar is remembered as one of the great</b> <b>magicians of all time, and particularly in America.</b> <b>He started the, what's referred to now as</b> <b>the Royal Dynasty, passing on the mantle of</b> <b>magic to his successor Howard Thurston.</b> <b>Thurston to Dante.</b> <b>Dante to Lee Grabel.</b> <b>Lee Grebal to some punk kid named Lance Burton.</b> <b>[ACTION]</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Hi I'm Lance Burton.

</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>I'm standing in the middle</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>of the Nevada Desert</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Just outside Las Vegas</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>the magic capital of the world.

</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>On a clear day you can see for a hundred</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>miles in every direction</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and when you're in a magical place like </font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>this, it's a good idea to keep your</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>eyes open at all times.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>You never know what's gonna happen.

</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Come on, let's get started.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>I'm a kid from Kentucky that just loved magic</font></b> <b>and magic took me out west to Las Vegas</b> <b>and around the world and Europe and Tokyo and you know,</b> <b>but eventually I came back to the farm.</b> <b>Of course, when I was a kid,</b> <b>I read about the passing of the mantle</b> <b>from Kellar to Thurston.</b> <b>Then as I grew older, I read Lee Grabel's book</b> <b>and he recounts about how it was passed on to Dante</b> <b>and then passed on to him.</b> <b>So I was aware of the whole lineage.</b> <b>And then back in 1994,</b> <b>Lee Grabel came to see my show in Las Vegas</b> <b>and I was thrilled to meet him</b> <b>and I knew who he was, I'd read his book.</b> <b>And the next thing you know,</b> <b>he contacted me and said that he wanted</b> <b>to pass the mantle on to me.</b> <b>And I was, I was shocked, you know,</b> <b>and thrilled at the same time.</b> <b>There's a famous poster of Kellar's last tour,</b> <b>Kellar and Thurston toured together</b> <b>and he is placing his cape on Thurston's shoulders.</b> <b>Well, when we held the ceremony in Las Vegas in 1994,</b> <b>Lee Grabel put his cape on me</b> <b>and there's a photo of that and I have that cape.</b> <b>(gentle music)</b> <b>It's a really meaningful part of magic history</b> <b>that I got involved in.</b> <b>And one day I'll pass it along to somebody else</b> <b>and he or she will hopefully carry it on</b> <b>into the next generation.</b> <b>Kellar was actually one of the few</b> <b>who had a big successful career</b> <b>and ended up with a big pot of money</b> <b>at the end of the rainbow.</b> <b>He moved out to Los Angeles</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and he built a big beautiful house.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>And some years later, he built a bigger,</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>more beautiful house</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and he bought a big beautiful car</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and he really enjoyed himself.</font></b> <b>The tragedy was shortly after he retired,</b> <b>his wife, Eva, who had been through all of the hard work</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and all of the trials and tribulations</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>of that later career passed away very early on.</font></b> <b>And I'm sure it just crushed him</b> <b>because you wanna live out your years of retirement</b> <b>and enjoy what you've worked for.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>She didn't get to do that, but he certainly did.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Kellar actually retired at the top of his game,</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>moved out to Los Angeles, lived in a beautiful house,</font></b> <b>traveled, went and saw magicians,</b> <b>went and saw his friends,</b> <b>talked about magic, went to the magic clubs.</b> <b>He was no longer performing,</b> <b>but he wanted to see magic.</b> <b>He wanted to hang around with magicians.</b> <b>He wanted to know what they were doing.</b> <b>He would constantly write to his friends back East,</b> <b>to certainly to Thurston, his protege,</b> <b>and said, "You must come to Los Angeles.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>I will take you in my car and we'll drive to the beach</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>and we'll drive up into the mountains</font></b> <b>and see the waterfalls</b> <b>and we'll drive through the orange groves.</b> <b>It's paradise on earth.

"</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Family from Erie came to live with him.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>He remained involved in the world of magic,</font></b> <b>often watching performances with his friend,</b> <b>Harry Houdini.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>I think that Houdini met Kellar very early in Houdini's career.</font></b> <b>Kellar would have been the great magician that Houdini knew at that time.</b> <b>Houdini was really aggressive.</b> <b>He wanted to do his own thing, and his own</b> <b>thing in those days was not just a magic act,</b> <b>although he started that way, but was an act of escapes.</b> <b>Houdini was famous for having friends that were not quite in the business.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Houdini's best friends very often were not in a position to be competition to him.</font></b> <b>If you retired, Houdini loved you.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>But I think if you were another magician working at the same time,</font></b> <b> there was always a little bit of friction.</b> <b>And so Kellar was in a wonderful position because he retired.</b> <b>He was no threat at all to Houdini.</b> <b>And of course he was just precisely the</b> <b>personality to support Houdini as a kind of son.</b> <b>And they became more and more friends as the time went on.</b> <b>Harry Kellar and Harry Houdini were greatest of friends all their life.</b> <b>And Houdini always looked to Kellar for questions on all levels.</b> <b>How something worked?</b> <b>To how should I do this or handle this situation?</b> <b>There's no question that Houdini admired</b> <b>Kellar greatly and would not have been ashamed to</b> <b>have kind of shared a little bit of his fame early in his career like that.</b> <b>They had a great personal relationship.</b> <b>Kellar treated him as a son in many ways.</b> <b>Houdini loved to share gossip with Kellar.</b> <b>He would hear gossip from the magic</b> <b>community and he would send letters off to Kellar and</b> <b>say here's what's just happened and we're all wondering what this means.</b> <b>And Kellar of course would write back and say oh I knew that guy years ago.</b> <b>You can't trust him.</b> <b>Avoid that.</b> <b>Don't do it.</b> <b>Tell me if you hear anything else.</b> <b>So you can see that they had a fantastic kind</b> <b>of intergenerational relationship where they</b> <b>swapped secrets.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>They wrote so many letters back and forth to each other.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Just amazing how they would have time to do that.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>These letters are worth a fortune</font></b> <b>nowadays and yet they've written ten thousand letters</b> <b>in their lifetime.</b> <b>He taught tricks to Houdini.</b> <b>He taught his rope tie to Houdini which of</b> <b>course was of enormous interest to Houdini.</b> <b>Houdini had already had a successful career as an escape artist.</b> <b>But to have Kellar show him the details of</b> <b>his rope tie and how Kellar had done it over</b> <b>these years, how he'd escaped out of a</b> <b>rope, that was a fantastic thing and Houdini was</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'> honored to have had Kellar do this.</font></b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Houdini admired Kellar, I think, for the achievements that he reached in magic.</font></b> <b>And Kellar couldn't help but admire Houdini.

Houdini was aggressive and</b> <b>spirited and wouldn't take no for an answer and was in many ways a kind of</b> <b>modern version of Harry Kellar.

And so there was nothing about him that he</b> <b>wouldn't like.</b> <b>When I grew up here in Erie, Pennsylvania,</b> <b>I was about 16 years old.</b> <b>I was doing magic at a restaurant here.</b> <b>I was the house magician.

I'm 16.</b> <b>And I meet this lady who's 72 years young.</b> <b>She goes, "My uncle was Harry Kellar.

"</b> <b>And at that moment, that's when my life changed.</b> <b>At first, people were, I think, maybe a bit</b> <b>hesitant because they wanted to just to see comedians</b> <b>only.</b> <b>And once I brought my friends, who I lived</b> <b>in Hollywood for 28 years, so I had access</b> <b>to some of the greatest magicians.</b> <b>I picked the ones that were like part comedian, part magician.</b> <b>Perfect.</b> <b>You've done this before, haven't you?</b> <b>And they would open for the comedian.</b> <b>And they would get the standing ovation.</b> <b>And all of a sudden, people in the area started talking about it.</b> <b>And it made me feel so good.</b> <b>And now we've had everybody from Piff the Magic Dragon.</b> <b>I will never... ever... come back.

No.

*Laughter*</b> <b>To Michael Carbonaro's coming in a couple months.

After the show,</b> <b>everybody's at the bar and they can watch</b> <b>the sleight of hand magic, which I think is</b> <b>the purest form of magic.</b> <b>You really are there.</b> <b>And of course, the more alcohol people drink,</b> <b>the better the magic tricks are looking, which</b> <b>is great.</b> <b>It is so surreal because I knew who he was when I was a little kid.</b> <b>But when I moved to Los Angeles, I was 20 years old.</b> <b>I had to wait a whole year to get into the world famous match of castle.</b> <b>When I walked in at 21, Harry Kellar was everywhere.</b> <b>And people were like, oh my God, you're from Erie?</b> <b>Harry Kellar is from Erie.</b> <b>I knew I had something no one else had.</b> <b>I had the home of the Dean of American Magicians, Harry Kellar.</b> <b>And as soon as you walk in, there is this life-size image of Harry Kellar.</b> <b>And it tells a quick story about him.</b> <b>And then there's Harry Houdini and Houdini's</b> <b>water torture cell that he would escape from.</b> <b>And as you continue on, it keeps telling the</b> <b>story of how he was born and raised in Erie</b> <b>PA at St. Mary's Catholic Church, where his</b> <b>house was and we have a photo of his house, directly</b> <b>across the street from the club, another</b> <b>synchronistic event that I go, okay, this is magic.</b> <b>Sometimes I feel like he's looking over me.</b> <b>And as you keep going through the club, you</b> <b>see some of the original letters from Harry</b> <b>Houdini and Harry Kellar.</b> <b>They were best friends.</b> <b>And that right away, people just, they get to</b> <b>come here and learn, not just be entertained</b> <b>and have amazing food and cocktails and shows, but it really tells the story.</b> <b>And then if you meet me, I'll give you a private tour every single time, I promise.</b> <b>And I love Harry Kellar, so that's why I do it.</b> <b>In 1917, Houdini convinced him to take the stage one last time.</b> <b>A benefit performance at the Hippodrome in New York.</b> <b><font color='#ff0000'>Kellar reprised his most famous illusions with Houdini as his assistant.</font></b> <b>One reporter wrote, "He's just as good as ever.

"</b> <b>At the curtain call, fellow magicians lifted Kellar onto their shoulders.</b> <b>Applause, thundered.</b> <b>Three days later, he wrote to Houdini,</b> <b>"I shall look back to this grand farewell</b> <b>performance as one of the happiest events in my whole life.

"</b> <b>In 1922, Harry Kellar passed away in Los Angeles.</b> <b>The Erie newspaper published a final tribute.</b> <b>It's safe to say that no man living has done more to make this dull world forget</b> <b>its cares and lose its sorrows and its worries than the wizard Kellar.</b> <b>I've always said, and many magicians will say,</b> <b>the greatest trick in magic, you know, what is it?</b> <b>John Nevil Maskelyne's Levitation is it David Copperfield's vanishing Statue of Liberty</b> <b>I don't know.</b> <b>No, it's when a spectator holds out their hand and you put a little red sponge ball</b> <b>in it and you take a sponge ball and put it</b> <b>in your hand and it disappears from my hand.</b> <b>And now you open your hand.</b> <b>Boink and two balls pop out.</b> <b>They lose their mind.</b> <b>Turn it over and open your hand.</b> <b>As a kid, everything amazes you.</b> <b>You're seeing something that's not possible.</b> <b>That's when you become that kid again.</b> <b>That's what's wonderful about magic.</b> <b>I think the magician serves the role of entertaining people to be able to give</b> <b>someone something they can't know or they can't explain.</b> <b>Today, I believe a magician's job is to teach people</b> <b>critical thinking, to get people to question everything.</b> <b>But a magician was always symbolically whatever a person needed.</b> <b>Well, to get someone to move, to get someone to change the rut they're stuck in,</b> <b>you either need to give them something to run to or run from.</b> <b>And the magician doesn't care.</b> <b>If you want to villainize him, fine, I'll be your devil.</b> <b>If you want to celebrate him, fine, I'll be your angel.</b> <b>Just as long as it gets you to move.</b> <b>Heller was one of the people who could break the bounds of reality and let the</b> <b>audience see beyond what they are as to what they could be.</b> <b>It's an emotional experience.</b> <b>It's not just a theatrical experience.</b> <b>Anybody who goes to it doesn't just experience a magic show.</b> <b>They experience something they will literally remember for the rest of their lives.</b> <b>To have people say things to us that they don't say to anybody else in their life</b> <b>or in their world, only at a magic show do they say.</b> <b>I'll never forget what I saw tonight.</b> <b>I have no idea how you did these things.</b> <b>It seems impossible.</b> <b>That's the real payment for the magician.</b> <b>There's nothing that a magician does that's any more deceptive than what a novelist</b> <b>does or what a director does or what an actor does.</b> <b>They're creating a fantasy and they're using little</b> <b>bits of deception to make that fantasy more real to you.</b> <b>A magician always gives you something to hold on</b> <b>to and says, "Is this real or is this not real?

"</b> <b>And always teases the audience into this</b> <b>acceptance that they've seen something amazing.</b> <b>That's a really delicate art and that takes a lot of sophistication.</b> <b>And I think in Kellar's days, it probably took as</b> <b>much sophistication or more than it takes today.</b> <b>Harry Kellar to me is probably the greatest name in American magic and illusion.</b> <b>I think if Harry Kellar were here, he would say there's a lot</b> <b>of wonder out in the world that you should pay attention to.</b> <b>Chronicles is made possible by a grant from</b> <b>the Erie Community Foundation, a community</b> <b>assets grant provided by the Erie County</b> <b>Gaming Revenue Authority, support from Spring Hill</b> <b>Senior Living, the Regional Science</b> <b>Consortium, and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagan.</b> <b>We question and learn.</b>