Magic at War

Sir Julien Cahn made a fortune from furniture, fielded one of the most successful private cricket teams of the inter-war years and gave generously to medicine, agriculture and public causes. He was also a serious amateur illusionist who built one of Britain’s finest private theatres. Then war transformed Stanford Hall: an Army unit moved onto the estate, wounded soldiers recuperated beside his stage and Cahn’s magic found a military audience. More than eighty years later, Stanford Hall is again devoted to the rehabilitation of servicemen and women. Sir Julien Cahn Bt. (1882-1944) (Source: Unidentified and AI enhanced) In December 1938, a newspaper described an extraordinary new addition to Sir Julien Cahn’s country estate at Stanford Hall, near Loughborough. The theatre seated hundreds and was equipped for cinema, elaborate lighting and the owner’s increasingly ambitious magical illusions. Then came a less theatrical detail. Beneath it was a “bomb-proof dug-out”. Nine months later Brit...

In 1945, Major Douglas Kelley was sent to examine Hermann Göring and the other leading Nazis awaiting trial at Nuremberg. Kelley was an American Army psychiatrist experienced in treating combat casualties. He was also an accomplished magician and prominent figure in American amateur magic, a prize-winning performer who became a national officer of the Society of American Magicians. Doctor and magician Douglas McGlashan Kelley was born at Truckee, California, on 11 August 1912 and grew up in San Francisco. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, qualified in medicine at the University of California School of Medicine in 1937, and later undertook postgraduate work at Columbia University, receiving a Doctor of Medical Science degree in 1941. Magic had been part of his life long before then. As a student Kelley performed escapes, card magic and public stunts. Contemporary newspaper reports record Houdini-style feats, including freeing himself while restrained inside a mail s...