Magic at War

Snippet: In this short post, we explore a snippet of a war-related story about an African magician, Prince Ali Raji.     Before becoming a magician, George Bondinei served as a lieutenant in the German military, presumably the army.   Pre-World War One, he was likely living in one of Germany ’ s African colonies, such as Togoland, Kamerun (Cameroon), German Southwest Africa (modern-day Namibia) and German East Africa (comprising present-day Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi). The Germans recruited soldiers from their colonies to fight the Allies there, while some also served on the Western Front.       After the war ended, Bondinei appears to have made his way to America, where he studied conjuring, briefly, with William Davis Le Roy (or Leroy). Le Roy ran a shop and “School of Magic” in Boston, Massachusetts from 1893 through to his death in 1919.   Post-war, Bondinei toured theatres as Prince Ali Raji–the African magician. He likely started off on America...

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 magaz...