Hiding The Elephant

Jan 31, 2025 8:12 PM

Author:Jim Steinmeyer

Hiding The Elephant

This is the story of the Golden Age of magic and of the world's most legendary magicians: the eccentric personalities who patented the first ghost and competed fiendishly in the race to make things materialize, levitate and disappear.We meet Harry Kellar, the ruthless thief of secrets who was the model for the Wizard of Oz, and PT Selbit, the first man to saw a woman in half on stage.We meet John Nevil Maskelyne, whose Egyptian Theatre was a London institution for sixty years. Hiding the Elephant is the masterwork of a man who has dedicated his life to magic, who knows the tricks inside out, and still believes.

Reviews

An extremely entertaining history of magic

—— Sunday Telegraph

Highly readable... fascinating... remarkable

—— The Mail

Steinmeyer's history of the golden age of stage magic was a dazzling read, and has given me a few ideas about how to keep the family entertained at Christmas

—— Matthew Sweet , Independent

A highly entertaining study of magic's Golden Age

—— The Times

Highly readable ... fascinating ... A remarkable collection of strongly motivated egomaniacs and charlatans, all depicted in the boldest of colours

—— Marcus Berkman

A fascinating history of mirror illusions and the magicians who created them

—— Nicholas Blincoe , The Telegraph

Steinmeyer ... has a gift for translating stage performances to the page

—— Time Out

This is a really marvellous book, the most uninhibitedly intimate portrayal ever of the short, hard life and overall musical triumph of Lady Day...With Billie vividly reflects the chaos that Billie Holiday was born into and only rarely escaped from

—— Spectator

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