The Millionaire Magician: Sir Julien Cahn and Stanford Hall
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...