Kellar’s Wonders by Mike Caveney, Bill Miesel

Details: Harry Kellar is acknowledged as one of the greatest names in American magic but how did he rise to the pinnacle of his field? By combining Mike Caveney’s experience as a biographer of magicians (The Great Leon, Carter the Great and Servais Le Roy) and the vast resources of his Egyptian Hall museum with Bill Miesel’s thirty years of research into the life of Harry Kellar, the complete story has now been told.

Kellar’s life reads like a Hollywood movie script complete with wild Indians, Mexican bandits, harrowing shipwrecks, exotic diseases and tragic deaths. His career carried him through the rough and tumble camps of South Africa’s diamond mines to the royal palaces of Queens, Sultans and Emperors.

As the story unfolds you will meet Robert Heller, Alexander and Adelaide Herrmann, Charles Carter, Howard Thurston, Harry Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, David Devant, Floyd Thayer, John Nevil Maskelyne, the Martinka brothers, Theo Bamberg, Buatier DeKolta, Guy Jarrett, Charles Morritt and dozens of others who helped shape the history of magic.

Here also is a behind the scenes peek at some of magic’s greatest illusions: The Blue Room, Flyto, The Mascot Moth, OH!, The Gone Chair, Psycho, The Queen of Roses, Will the Witch and the Watchman and Kellar’s legendary levitation of Princess Karnac.

Kellar’s Wonders is the largest book yet in our award-winning series of Magical Pro-Files. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, playbills, programs, advertisements and diagrams plus forty-five rare Kellar posters reproduced in full color. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies.

Contents:

iii Title Page
v Limited Edition (“This is number ‘presentation copy’ of 1,000 copies”)
vii Table of Contents
xi Publisher’s Note (Mike Caveney)
xiii Preface (Bill Miesel)

017 Chapter 1: A Boy from Erie 1949 – 1869
– Immigration
– The Kellar Family
– Carter’s Drug Store
– The Fakir Ava
– First performance
– Escape from Beaver Dam

029 Chapter 2: Fay and Keller 1873 – 1875
– Havana, Cuba
– Mexican bandits
– $10,000 donkey
– South America
– Disaster at sea
– Broke in london
– de Kolta’s bird cage

051 Chapter 4: The Royal Illusionists 1875 – 1879
– A. Litherland Cunard
– West Indies
– Ling Look & Yamadeva
– South America again
– The Simla Séance
– California gold
– Australia
– Keller to Kellar
– Singapore, India, China
– Death in the company
– Kellar Flower Growth
– African diamond fields
– The Hindustani Android Psycho
– Robert Heller
– Down to Rio

097 Chapter 5: Second World Tour 1879 – 1884
– Royal patronage
– London’s Egyptian Hall
– Haidee Heller
– Balmoral Castle
– Kellar & Cunard
– South Africa
– India
– Australia
– Eva Medley
– Japan
– China
– The Royal Palace in Siam
– Home at last

123 Chapter 6: Kellar’s Egyptian Hall 1884 – 1887
– Barney
– Philadelphia’s Masonic Temple
– Frederick Eugene Powell
– Seybert Commission
– Return of the Fakir
– John L. Sullivan
– A Magician’s Tour

143 Chapter 7: Kellar Conquers America 1885 – 1887
– Erie home coming
– New York City
– 102 nights in Chicago
– Another home coming
– Eva Medley comes to America
– Boston Museum

159 Chapter 8: Mrs Eva Kellar 1887 – 1889
– William Robinson
– Achmed Ben Ali
– Black Art
– Dot Robinson
– Wedding Bells
– D’Alvini
– Le Cocoon
– Kellar vs Herrmann
– M.B. Leavitt
– Mexican stand-off
– Eva’s toe
– Astarte

191 Chapter 9: Kellar’s Second Egyptian Hall 1889 – 1892
– The Steens
– Karmos
– Dudley McAdow
– Charled Morritt
– The Blue Room
– Cassadaga Propaganda
– OH!

215 Chapter 10: A Hero at Home 1892 – 1894
– Flyto
– Out of Sight
– Billy and Dot defect
– Carl and Fritz Bucha
– Princess Karnac
– Strobridge Litho Co.

265 Chapter 11: The Shrine of Koomra Sami 1894 – 1895
– Kellar vs Herrmann II
– Morritt Cage
– The Mystery of L’Hassa
– Yoge’s Lamp
– H.J. Burlingame
– Home in Yonkers

301 Chapter 12: The Blue Room 1895 – 1899
– The Queen of Roses
– Herrmann expires
– Hopkins’ Magic
– Silent Mora
– Mahatma
– Hindoo Clock
– Martinka’s head
– Leon Herrmann’s a bum

331 Chapter 13: New Century – New Features 1900 – 1904
– Keene the Magician
– Adelaide Herrmann
– Exposure
– Aerial Fishing
– “Big” Bill Hilliar
– Sphinx Magazine
– Ching Ling Foo
– S.A.M.
– Crystal Ladder
– Demon Globe
– President Roosevelt
– Levitation of Princess Karnac

373 Chapter 14: Paul Valadon 1904 – 1905
– John Northern Hilliard
– “Well, I’m___”
– Charles Carter
– Chicago Footlights
– Dr. A.M. Wilson

399 Chapter 15: The Witch, the Sailor and the Enchanted Monkey 1905 – 1907
– Hilliard unleashed
– An obtuse rift
– W.W. Durbin
– Catalina Island
– A less than Sterling moth
– The Golden Buttefly
– The King of Cards

435 Chapter 16: Kellar and Thurston 1907 – 1908
– Spectres of the Sanctum
– Mr. Maskelyne
– Pepper’s Ghost
– Linden Heverly
– Princess Kiyo
– Edward Maro
– Bella Hussan
– That blankety Hilliard
– Ford’s Theatre
– Farewell performance

461 Chapter 17: A Wizard Retired 1908 – 1917
– Atlantic City
– Wilshire Place
– Farewell Eva
– Farewelll Valadon
– S.A.M. banquet
– Ardmore Avenue
– David P. Abbott
– A rise from Dr. Hooker

493 Chapter 18: End of an Era 1917 – 1922
– The Mighty Hippodrome
– Thayer Studio
– Psycho home coming
– Farewell brother Eduard
– Hollywood studios
– Farewell Barney
– Santa Catalina
– Levitation perignations
– Farewell Harry Kellar

529 Appendix 1: Autobiography
533 Appendix 2: Genealogy
537 Appendix 3: Kellar Timeline
569 Bibliography
573 Acknowledgements
575 Index

submitted by Evan Shuster

• Publisher: Mike Caveney’s Magic Words
• Pages: 584
• Location: Pasadena, CA, USA
• Dimensions: 9″x11″
• Date: 2003
• Binding: hardbound

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