"A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician"

-
Famed Nineteenth Century magician and illusionist, Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, once wrote, "a magician is an actor playing the part of a magician". 

During wartime, movies provided war-weary audiences an escape from the turbulence and sacrifice of war, while also providing an opportunity for nations to boost morale, through government-funded propaganda films. 

Some World War Two-era magicians were also actors, appearing in movies made between 1939-1945 to entertain the public.

The most famous of these was James Stewart. Before becoming a world-famous movie star, Stewart started out as an amateur magician, partnering with fellow magician Bill Neff. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and contributed several tricks to magic magazines. Turning to acting, Stewart appeared in more than 90 films, television programmes, and shorts. He starred in 12 films between 1939-1941, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It's a Wonderful Life (1939), and The Philadelphia Story (1940), for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Actor. When America joined World War Two in late 1941, Stewart became the first major American movie star to enlist in the U.S. Army. He become a bomber pilot, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and achieved the rank of full Colonel. After the war, he resumed his acting career but carried on serving his country in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, only fully retiring from military service at the age of 60. 

James Stewart
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)

Magician John Calvert broke into films making $600 a day as a hand-double for Clark Gable in Honky Tonk (1941). Scenes required Gable's hands to do some clever, tricky manoeuvring, which Gable couldn't pull off, so Calvert was brought in. He then appeared in Bombardier (1943, playing Calvert the Magician), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Are These Our Parents? (1944, playing The Great Gaspar - Magician), The Mark of the Whistler (1944), Youth on Trial (1945), The Return of the Durango Kid (1945), Ten Cents a Dance (1945) and Lawless Empire (1945). Other film appearances followed after the war. At the same time, Calvert continued working as a magician, with his own magic show running for five months in a Hollywood theatre during the war.
 
John Calvert
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)

Another magician-turned-actor, was Fred Keating. An American, Keating appeared in over a dozen Hollywood movies in the 1930s. During the war years, he had roles in the magic-themed Eternally Yours (1939), Society Smugglers (1939), and the musical film Tin Pan Alley (1940).   

Fred Keating
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)

Other magician-actors included Orson Welles. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Welles was an accomplished director, writer, and producer. By the outbreak of war, Welles had established himself in theatre and radio, and was only just breaking into the film industry. His directorial debut film (which he also co-wrote, produced and starred in) was Citizen Kane (1941); a film consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. His other wartime films were The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Journey Into Fear (1943). He made several radio series to support the war, and produced (and starred in) a spectacular magic show, The Mercury Wonder Show, to raise funds for military charities. Welles also had a cameo in the wartime salute Follow the Boys (1944), where he performed an excerpt of The Mercury Wonder Show.

Orson Welles
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)

An English-born American actor also known to perform magic, was Cary Grant. He was a member and one-time director of the Magic Castle (a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts in Hollywood). Grant enjoyed a long and successful performing career. During WW2, he appeared in sixteen films, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two of them. In Destination Tokyo (1943), Grant played U.S. Navy Captain Cassidy, leading a submarine crew on a secret mission. Hugely successful, the film built up the spirits and morale of American public.

Cary Grant
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)

Max Terhune, a former vaudevillian, was both a magician and a ventriloquist. An American actor, he appeared in nearly 70 movies over his career, making 30 of them during the war years. He specialised in B-westerns.

Max Terhune
(Source: Creative Commons Licence)
 
Another wartime American magician, Jack Gwynne, also acted. He appeared in eight films, film shorts or TV series from around 1937 to 1964. These included the seminal Citizen Kane (1941), in an uncredited role, with fellow magician Orson Welles. In fact, most of Gwynne's roles were minor appearances and were uncredited. In some of these, like Bagdad Daddy (1941), he played a magician.

Jack Gwynne in Bagdad Daddy (1941)
(Source: IMDb)

Royal Navy officer and amateur magician Cyril Branson (son of professional magician and former army officer, Major Lionel Branson) also turned his hand to acting. He had a minor role in the British patriotic war film, In Which We Serve (1942). ‘Chimmo’ Branson, as he is credited in the movie, appeared in the role of Midshipman while on a period of extended sick leave from the navy. Having served as a Midshipman on a battleship for real, Branson did not need much research or rehearsal to ‘find his character’. Written, directed, produced by, and starring Noël Coward (who later attended Branson’s wedding), the film remains "a classic example of wartime British cinema through its patriotic imagery of national unity and social cohesion within the context of war," according to social historian Clive Emsley.


In Which We Serve movie poster (1942)

Related article: Magic at the Movies, a blog about magic-related movies made during World War Two to keep the public entertained. Blog link

*** AVAILABLE NOW ***


The Colditz Conjurer tells the amazing true story of Flight Lieutenant Vincent ‘Bush’ Parker, Battle of Britain pilot and prisoner-of-war magician.

Written by the Magic at War team, The Colditz Conjurer is a remarkable tale of perseverance, courage and cunning in the face of adversity. It features over 55 original photographs and maps. 126 pages.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Magic at the movies

-
Image
During wartime, cinema remained an extremely popular pastime. In Britain alone, between 25 and 30 million cinema tickets were sold each week.  Movies provided war-weary audiences an escape from the turbulence and sacrifice of war, while also providing an opportunity for nations to boost morale, through government-funded propaganda films.  The epic American film  Gone With The Wind  (1940) was the smash hit of the war, but British films such as  In Which We Serve  (1942) and  Millions Like Us  (1943) were also highly successful.     Magic-related plots, scenes, or magician characters were a steady feature in films released during World War Two. Here's a selection : The Magician's Daughter (1938). Playing in British cinemas in the summer of 1939, as war was breaking out across Europe, The Magician's Daughter is a 'movie short' made by MGM Pictures.  Billed as a "miniatu re musical" the title character falls in love with a magazine reporter. When the magazi
Read more

Entertaining Hitler: Gogia Pasha, the gilly-gilly man (and war worker)

-
Image
Gogia Pasha (1910-1976) fooled the world by pretending to be an Egyptian for most of his career. In fact, he was born Danpat Rai Gogia in British India.  Gogia originally trained as a doctor and had studied medicine in Cairo and Edinburgh. But, he abandoned medicine to turn to the stage. Donning a turban and a set of brightly coloured robes, Gogia adopted the persona of a 'gilly-gilly' (or ‘gali-gali’) man, after the Egyptian slang for magic.    He became an established act, touring internationally with a large troupe, mostly his family; and even appearing in several movies.   According to historian John Zubrzycki: “ Gogia’s shows combined comedy, comment and humorous patter with tricks, and incorporated dancers between sets. His signature acts included cups and balls, producing live chickens from his mouth and a levitation feat where his assistant was placed upon the points of three swords, two of which were removed, leaving only one under her neck to support her ”.   Gogia Pa
Read more

Miss Blanche: 'The Lady Magician' uses magic to survive Nazi experiments

-
Image
This is the amazing survival story of Miss Blanche (aka Ruth Iris Wachsmann) who was one of the leading female magicians in pre-war Europe. An expert manipulator, she headlined in venues across the continent, until war intervened... Ruth Iris Wachsmann was a German Jew. Born in Berlin in 1910, she first trained as a ballerina. In her mid-teens, after seeing a performance by Austro-Hungarian magician Larette (Cornelius Hauer), she switched from dancing to magic. Wachsmann became Larette's student and she learned the art of manipulation. She could manipulate billiard balls and playing cards, but showed special aptitude for cigarette manipulation. Miss Blanche, performing cigarette manipulation, 1936 (Source: Artefake) Inspired by a brand of cigarettes designed to appeal to female smokers by the Rotterdam-based Vittoria Egyptian Cigarette Company, she adopted the stage name Miss Blanche. Larette was sponsored by Miss Blanche cigarettes and helped promote Wachsmann as another act to ma
Read more

The Magician of Stalag Luft III (Part 3)

-
Image
Part 3 of a three-part blog telling the compelling story of John Casson, magician, navy pilot, and Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war. His part in The Great Escape and how magic and performing helped him and others survive captivity. In this part, Casson's arrives at Stalag Luft III, where he becomes a leading producer of camp entertainment, continues sending coded messages to M.I.9 and supports The Great Escape. The Stalag Luft III commandant provides an additional introduction to this blog, with this quote: “The [POWs] were always pitting their brains against our camp systems, more or less on the lines of each man being an individual magician working out a trick to escape. This meant that in the camps we were faced with a lot of brainy young conjurors who had plenty of time in which to work out their various tricks against us…”  Showtime   In early April 1942, Lieutenant Commander John Casson was transferred to Stalag Luft III, a newly built  Luftwaffe -sponsored prisoner-of-war (P
Read more

"Don't be fright!": radio magician's catchphrase helps reassure the nation

-
Image
Sirdani was the most popular magician to entertain on British radio during World War Two.  Over the airwaves, he entertained millions of people, bringing  light   relief  to dark times. Although he played the role of an Egyptian gilly-gilly man, Sirdani's real name was Sid Daniels. He was born in Mile End, London in 1899. World War One broke out when Daniels was 16 years old.  Like many others, he enlisted by falsifying his age. He went on to serve in three campaigns, in West Africa, German East Africa and France.  A keen amateur magician, Daniels used to mystify his fellow soldiers in the trenches with his tricks. It was when shells came whining over just as he was in the middle of a particularly interesting bit of magic that he originated his famous phrase, "Don't be fright" . After his discharge from the army, Daniels took up magic full-time. He adopted the name Sirdani and the persona of an Egyptian gilly-gilly man.   Early in his career he performed Yogi type eff
Read more