Power of Love and Magic in This Week’s LiveAuctionTalk.com Column Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller, a record keeper. She honors those who’ve come before in her weekly art and antique column through objects that marked their lives.
News-Antique.com - Dec 09,2009 - “Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.” -- Nora Roberts
Santa Fe, Dec. 9, 2009 -- At the height of Howard Thurston’s vaudeville magic career he needed ten railway baggage cars to haul his props around. It was the golden-age of magic in the 1920s and 30s. He was the king of hocus-pocus playing small theaters all across America.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1869, Thurston toured the U.S. as well as Europe for more than 30 years with his three-hour “Wonder Show of the Universe.” Large stage illusions like the “floating lady” were his forte.
In the illusion he floated a woman out over the audience, around the stage and made her disappear right before the crowd’s eyes.
Like all great magicians he learned to see the wider patterns in the underbelly of life. Things seen and unseen. He learned to look beyond the surface. By doing so he coaxed the universe to give up a few of its secrets and channeled that power through his magic.
On Sept. 12, Potter & Potter Auctions, in Chicago, Ill., featured a selection of Thurston posters and memorabilia in its Magic auction.
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