The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, July 14, 1921, Page 2, Image 2
WAS ONCE GREATEST
TRICKSTER
HARRY KELLER HELD THAT
THAT DISTINCTION.Alway
Popular.
Spiritualism and Like Only Tricks.
Easily Understood By Those Who
Have Capacity to Understand.
Although it was an American showman
in the last century who enunciated
the celebrated dictum,"The public
likes to be humbugged," that princinlo
has hppn tnnxcn anri artPfl linnn
'
since the dawn of history. Under
such various names as magic, black
art, necromacy, illusion, medicinemaking,
faking, sleight-of-hand, wizardry
and spiritualism, the art of the
trickster has been practiced in every
age and in every clime. The ancient
priests used it- as an aid to religion,
primitive people of all lands have had
their superstitious instincts quickened
by their medicine men and even in
these modern times we find clever
fakirs taking advantage of our awe of
the unknown world through what is
known as spiritualism.
-Truly an ancient art compounded
one-half of natural quickness of wit,
manual dexterity and inventive ingenuity,
and the other half pure nerve
and assurance. The magician pits his
wits ^gainst the public and wins invariably
for several reasons. His audience
is prepared to be fooled and he
is prepared to fool them. He is in the
advantageous position of a salesman
whose customers want his goods. He
knows perfectly every move that he is
going to make while his audience is
placed at the disadvantage of the unexpected.
In addition to the native
quickness of wit which he must possess
to be a success in his profession,
he is constantly making it sharper
and keener by daily brushes with the
! public. Like a trained athlete he attacks
and defends b yinstinct and he
has the same advantage that a trained
athlete has over a man of equal
. strength who is not in condition. A
fourth advantage is in the fact that
he seldom has to fool the same audience
many times in succession. The
most clever magician could not hope
? > to face the same audience day after
day with the same tricks and not be
detected by some one.
Keller Now in the Seventies.
The art of magic or illusion is one
that is constantly growing in possibilities.
Compare the paraphernalia
that the old-time performers had to
work with and that of the modern illusionist.
It is like comparing the
stage of Shakespeare's time with the
spectacular productions of today.
With all the devices of electricity and
other inventions of modern science at
hand it is. small wonder that the illusionist
can baffle his audience. But
in the old days it took something .
more than ingenious appliances.
There is a man who has bridged
the gap between the days when a
magician was but a sort of sublimate
juggler, depending entirely upon his
sleight-of-hand and his quick wit and
the illusionist of today with his elaborate
apparatus and mechanical paraphernalia.
Harry Keller, or Keller as he was
known on the stage, is now in his seventies.
Ten years ago he retired from
the stage and purchased the beauti
* ? 1 "U /N
ful iiome in l,os Angeies '.vnere uo
resides. He had well earned his retirement
after forty-seven years of
active service as a magician and illusionist,
during which time he had appeared
In every country on the globe.
But the old master three years ago
proved that he had lost none of the
cleverness which entitled him to be
called "Kellar the Great" when ?he
appeared at a benefit performance
for the Antilles sufferers at the Hippodrome
in New York. The ovation
he received on that occasion is still
the talk of the theatrical circles.
Although retired, Mr. Keller is far
from being a recluse. He still retains
that quickness of intellect and vigorous
energy that kept him for years in
the forefront of entertainers. Los Angles
is second onlv to Xew York as aj
theatrical center and few are the stars
of stage and screen who fail to renew
their acquaintance with this well-beloved
comrade.
Best Illusionists Are Americans.
Not only has Mr. Keller known every
prominent member of the theatrical
world but his acquaintanceship
embraces statesmen, diplomats, financiers,
sportsmen, authors, editors, musicians
and ministers. It is difficult to
mention a great man of the past sixty
years whom Keller has not met. The
walls of his home are lined with autographed
photographs of celebrities
ranging from Theodore Roosevelt,
Queen Victoria, Mark Twain, Lillian
Russell to Billy Sunday and Raymond
Hitchcock. His library is filled with
scrapbooks containing clippings from
nearly every city and town in both the
civilized and uncivilized world. Hand*
bills in every tongue, some printed on
silk, testify to Hie wanderings of this
American magician. And speaking of
Americans, Mr. Keller was asked who
were the best exponents of his art.
He answered, "Americans."
Further questioning elicited the fact
that practically all the present topnotch
illusionists are American born
and bred. The foreign-sounding
names of most of them are assumed
for advertising purposes. Even the
Hindoos, famed as fakirs, he says, are
children compared with an American
nrncipian thoir trirVc hairier sn simtlle
V4.V..W ^ w *r - that
they are regarded as only in the
primary stage of the art.
Keller was born in Erie, Pennsylvania,
shortly before the stirring days
of the War Between the States. He
attended school and during vacations
worked in a drug store as a sort of
general roustabout. When he was in
his tenth year he heard that the Fakir
Ava, a noted magician of that day,
whose real name was Henry Hughes,
wanted a boy to assist him in his performances.
The boy Keller walked to
Hughes's farm just outside of Buffalo
to apply for the job.
"As I walked up to the house a
black and tan dog ran out and escorted
me to the front porch,"Keller said.
"Hughes met me at the door. He noticed
the dog jumping up on me and
licking my hands. 'That is a good
omen,' he said, 'that pup has chased
off about two dozen kids who came
here for that job. I guess he has
elected oyu.' "
Thus Keller started on the career
that was to take him a dozen times or
nwfwmil fViQ Tcnrlrl Tin ftpr
HiUi U ai uuau iu& ?? v |
Hughes he learned all the tricks of
the trade and he proved to he an apt
pupil. Keller was always blessed
with a remarkable memory. One
glance at a number, no matter if it
runs into the millions, and he can
repeat it to you?20 years after.
Fools His Partner.
He gave an instance of this power
in an incident concerning Bill Fray, a
former partner of his years before.
He had left Fay in London and had
not seen him for thirty-five years.
Fay, who had quit the stage and settled
in Australia, while on a tour of
the United States was a guest of the
Kellers in Los Angeles.
One evening Keller, who is full of
sly humor, said to him:
"Bill, do you know my wife is a
clairyvoyant?"
Fay, who had been in the game too
long to have any illusions about such
things, laughed.
"What's the joke, Harry?" he asked.
"I'm not joking. I'll prove it to
you. What is your watch number?"
Fay confessed he did not know and
started to pull the timepiece from his
pocket. Keller stopped him.
"No, this is clairvoyance, not mind
reading. What is the number of your
wife's watch?"
Fay did not know that either.
Turning to 'his wife Keller sajd,
"Tell them the numbers, my dear."
Mrs. Keller promptly gave the correct
numbers. Fay was dumbfounded.
Experienced as he was in the game
this was something new to him.
"But how did you do it?" Keller
was asked.
"Simple enough," he replied. "I
remembered the numbers and had
given them to Mrs. Keller."
"Suppose Fay had bought a new
watch since you last saw him," I objected.
"I would have been stuck," Keller
confessed. "But then you see I knew
Bill Fay."
Keller had a system of remembering
numbers. It is based on the phonetic
system each figure having a certain
sound. The sounds are associated
in a sentence like the key sentences
that medical students have for
remembering the names of nerves or
bones.
Keller also knows all the arithmetical
shortcuts and tricks. He can cube
any number that you give him under
100 just as fast as he can write the
number down. His mind works like
chain lightning and after spending a
few hours with him you little wonder
that he can fool some of the most intelligent
men of the world.
"How is it," he was asked, "that
spiritualists can deceive smart men
onr? cnionfiRts like Sir Conan Doyle
and Sir Oliver Lodge?"
"The more intelligent the man and
especially the more imagination he
has the easier he is to trick," he told
me. "Such men are always trying to
figure out our tricks on a scientific
basis.and when they cannot do it they
are stumped. Their egotism leads
them then to believe that it must be
supernatural. The hardest people to
deceive are unimaginative clods or
children, especially the street sarain
or newsboy. These sharp-witted kids
are the bane of every magician."
The story of Keller's adventures
would fill the pages of a large book.
He has been stranded, in a dozen
countries.
He can sit for hours and tell tales
of his adventures in different sections
of the globe. And he can tell these
stories with every name and date. His
mind is like a page in which every
I
event of his life is recorded verbatim.
Branded Agent of Devil. I
He told how he was stranded in In- c
diana in the early seventies; hiw he *
walked to Chicago, tried to steal a
ride on a train and was put off in a J
cemetery, how he walked to Wauke- |
gan, Illinois, and was staked to a bed 8
by a good-hearted bartender who also c
I went good for the town 'hall the next g
I evening, where Keller gave a show ?
without a single prop except what he
himself was able to make during the c
day. He packed the hall for three j
nights in succession and was able to
make enough to start him out again *
on the road. He told of another time
when he was broke in Brazil and by
enlisting the aid of the king, Don
Pedro, he was able to fill the largest
theater in Rio and took away more
than $5,000 for the engagement.
Another time when he was landed
in a city without any props he had to
substitute a kitten for a pig in one of
his tricks. The kitten began to mew
before it was tim'e for the denoument
and to drown out its wails Keller was
compelled to mew with it.
He played in Mexico City in IS74
when Mexico was even a wilder country
than it is today. The church issued
a warning to its members that
Keller was an agent of the devil sent
on earth to trick men. The result
was that the superstitious natives
packed the theater at every performance
and although every stagecoach
that left the city was regularly robbed
Keller never had to elevate his
hands once while he was in the coun
u ?\. ,
He took more than five thousand
dollars in gold doubloons out of the
country packed in asphaltum and after
nerve-racking experiences succeeded
in evading both the robbers
and the government officials.
Keller has played before* Queen
Victoria, Czar Nicholas of Russia,
nearly all the principal rulers of Europe,
the rajahs of India, the nobles
of China and Japan as well as the big
men of South Africa, Australia and
South America. He has been staked
when financially embarrassed by some
of the greatest financiers of the world
including the grandfatner of the present
Pierpon* "Morgan.
Successor Works With Inventions.
Keller was never especially clever
with his hands. His hands are large
and his fingers thick like a coal
heaver's as he described them to me.
Because of this physical handicap he
was driven to invent mechanical devices
for most of his illusions. And
as a result Keller is today the inventor
of the greater part of the modern
.nagician's paraphernalia.
f x At. -. ? a .'w v? ? V? A cnl ^
.\10St or lliest; .XXVCiiliuua lie Liaj ouiu
xor bequeathed to his successor. Keller
was the inventor of the famous levita|
tion trick where a body is apparently
suspended in the air. The trick while
widely imitated has never been done
j the way Keller does it but by one person
to whom the old master told the
secret.
Although retired, Keller, true to
the ethics of his profession, refuses to '
explain the thousand and one stunts
of the illusionist. He makes one exception.
He will expose any person
who claims to do his tricks through
supernatural aid. He has no use for
anyone who uses his art to play upon
superstition.
For years he exposed the tricks of
so-called spiritualists and other noted
fakirs.
"There is nothing a spiritualist can
do," he says, "that I cannot do and
show how it is done. It is all tricks.
Like puzzles they are difficult until
you understand them and then you
wonder how you. could have been so
dense. Even an amateur magician can
fool me with a new trick for a little
while but I will eventually solve it by
the process of elimination or figuring
out the ways it couldn't have been
done."?Dearborn Independent.
Wow!
"I want you to put up some wall
I paper I have bought," said the clergyman
to the local decorator. "When
can you do it?"
"Well I'm rather busy just now,"
said the paperhanger. "Hung Mr.
Smith yesterday, hanging your deacon
tomorrow, but if it's convenient
I'll run around and hang you on Wednesday."
J. WESLEY CRTTM, JR7
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW
Bamberg, S. C.
Offices in Herald Building
Practice in State and Federal Courts.
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