Magic at War

In Part Two of this blog about magician Danny Varney and the Hackney Empire, read about air-raids at the Empire and Varney’s encounters with Hitler’s V-weapons.  Danny Varney (Source: www.arthurlloyd.co.uk) Air-raids   Living in London, Danny Varney faced the dangers of German air-raids, even after the major period of bombings, known as the Blitz, ended. In 1943, he was watching a tightrope act on stage at the Hackney Empire. “The alert had sounded, but I didn't see anybody pay it any attention. Nobody left their seat. Ack Ack  [anti-aircraft]  guns were heard cracking away in the distance, but nobody bothered, we all took the chance somebody else would cop it. The performer was doing a difficult part of his routine and nearly fallen a couple of times - but always recovered - of course to build up tension. Then literally all hell broke loose! It seemed as if every gun in London had opened up on the Jerry  [German]  plane right overhead. It was a deafen...

In this two-part blog, we hear – in his own words – the wartime story of Danny Varney, an amateur magician and a regular audience member at the Hackney Empire, London.    Built in 1901, during the Second Boer War, the Hackney Empire was one of the top music halls of its day. Located in London Borough of Hackney, in northeast London, it provided the people of Hackney with their mass entertainment, taking them through two World Wars, poverty, economic depression and post-war hardships.    A grand venue the Empire has more recently been described by  The Guardian  newspaper, as  “the most beautiful theatre in London.”  For over a century, the Empire has seen variety, vaudeville, plays, musicals, films, political rallies, bingo, and more on its stage.    Hackney-resident Danny Varney was a regular audience member at the Empire over the years.   Born in the late 1910s, Varney first started visiting the Hackney Empire as a babe ...

During World War Two, Lionel King (real name Lionel Klimsch) was one of hundreds of magicians employed by national governments to entertain sailors, soldiers and airmen.   When the war started, not all men and women were required to join the armed forces. Some were too young or too old, in reserved occupations, or failed the medical standards. King was too old to be conscripted. Instead, he served in a different capacity, as an entertainer-in-uniform. Lionel King - The King of Magic (c1945) (Source:  ‘Card   Tricks Without Skill, ’  edited by Paul Clive) Born just before the start of the Twentieth Century, Lionel King was an established act in the British music halls by the onset of World War Two. A professional magician he was a long standing member of The Magic Circle. Billing himself as ‘The King of Cards,’ or ‘Joker-Ace High,’ he earned a living with an act which used just a pack of playing cards and his personality to entertain the audience. His act was the epit...

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...

*** COMING SOON - FROM THE MAGIC AT WAR TEAM *** The Colditz Conjurer  tells the amazing true story of Flight Lieutenant Vincent ‘Bush’ Parker. A school-boy magician from the Australian outback,  ‘ Bush ’  left home to become an assistant to a master illusionist. With World War Two looming, he gave up this promising career to train as a Spitfire pilot.   One of Churchill ’ s  ‘ Few, ’  he fought in the Battle of Britain until he was shot down in a dramatic dogfight. As a prisoner-of-war in Germany, Vince Parker earned a reputation as a persistent escaper. He ended up in the infamous Colditz Castle, a high-security fortress from which the Germans thought escape was impossible. In the footlights of the castle ’ s theatre, this charismatic officer used his magic skills to boost the morale of his fellow prisoners. But, behind locked doors, he applied the secrets of stage magic and escapology to the real-life challenge of getting back home. A remarkable tale of ...