Magic at War

Even more examples of war-themed tricks invented by magicians to keep their acts topical for audiences and capture the national mood during World War Two.  Electro and The Victory Stand Electro was a popular magician ’s trick during World War Two. The effect  involving swallowing and reproducing small lit electric light bulbs. It was invented by a magician called Cyro, and first published in Eric C. Lewis’  Studies in Mystery  (1941) with the title ‘Lighted Bulbs From Mouth’. Later, the effect was marketed by London-based magic dealer Lewis Davenports & Co. using the name Electro. It received rave reviews from their   customers: “Your Electro is the best effect for a good many years,”  wrote Danilla in The Demon Telegraph magazine.  While Ravelle reported, “I used ‘Electro’ for the first time (publicly) at a troop show last Friday. It was a SMASH HIT, they wouldn’t stop applauding” .  The Victory Stand ( Source:  Author, courtesy of The ...

A shorter article this time, retelling a few stories from Vic Taylor's wartime experiences as a magician and showman... When World War Two came, thousands of magicians and other performers across the United Kingdom and other nations joined the armed forces. Some did so voluntarily. Others were conscripted, or else were forced to sign-up due to reduced levels of theatrical work during the war years. Vic Taylor, an Englishman born in 1900, had experienced this before. As a youngster, he'd learned magic from his father, a travelling magician. Young Vic suffered for the sake of art, cramped into a little box as the working parts of 'Zeedah, the Mysterious Talking Hindu Head,' (a fake automata) until he progressed to learning tricks and developing his own act. With his father, Vic spent m ost of his teenage years touring the south of England, working at fairs and seafronts. A natural showman, Vic's act  embraced magic, hypnotism, ventriloquism and Punch and Judy.  Vic Ta...