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Z Biographies

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Magicians' Biographies - Letter Z

Read about the Queen of Cigarettes,
the Scott Joplin ragtime expert,
the Talking Teakettle, and more!
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Zancic Poster
 
Zaharik, Ed
(?-?) American magician, popular in the Midwest circa 1930's. He was best known for his E-Z Hatchery act, in which he produced a number of roosters and chickens.
 
Zama
(?-?) French female magician who performed a spiritualist act as medium "Zama, the Black Princess" in the early 1920s in Paris.
 
Zamloch, Anton
Austrian-born magician whose career touring America spanned more than 50 years. Father of Carl Zamloch.
Read the biography of Anton Zamloch - see image!
 
Zamloch, Carl
American magician who was also a Major League baseball pitcher. Son of Anton Zamloch.
Read the biography of Carl Zamloch - see image!
 
Zancic, Julius
(1867-?) (Birthday July 28) New Orleans-born magician (real name Harry Roberstein) who started his career in 1886. Fluent in Spanish, French, German, Hebrew and Creole, he was a popular attraction in many areas of the country. Shot off a finger onstage in Colorado, and lost an eye when he mishandled a trick onstage in New York. During the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, he and William Robinson (later to become famous as Chung Ling Soo) set up an elaborate fake psychic operation, partly for the money and partly for the challenge. The caper went very wrong, however, when one of the customers dropped dead of a heart attack in the middle of a séance. A few years later, with the help of Robinson, Zancic had put together a legitimate and rather lavish stage show. No information about him after 1903 can be found. Except for a pair of wonderful posters, he vanished without a trace.
 
Zancig, Ada
(?-?) American-born mentalist, second wife of Julius Zancig. In public, she was referred to as "Agnes", to create the impression that she was the original woman in the Zancig's act.
 
Zancig, Agnes
(1857-1916) Danish-born mentalist, first wife of Julius Zancig. Maiden name Agnes Claussen.
 
Zancig, Julius
(1857-1929) Danish-born magician and mentalist. Real name Julius Jörgensen. He and his wife, Agnes, performed a sensational two-person mindreading act, becoming the most celebrated and successful psychic partners in show business history. Their act was called "Two Minds With But a Single Thought", a phrase that became part of the popular culture of the early 20th century. Their secret was in their complicated code called the Zancig Code, a clever and complex set of verbal cues that were nearly impossible to detect or decipher. When Agnes died in 1916, Julius quickly remarried and taught his new wife, Ada, the code. She was not as quick as Agnes was, and soon tired of the starin of performing. Julius hired Paul Vucic (a.k.a. Paul Rosini) to take her place, under the stage-name "Henry." In 1917, Vucic was drafted into World War I and was replaced by David Theodore Bamberg (1904-1974), the teenaged son of the stage magician Theo "Okito" Bamberg. David Bamberg performed the Zancigs' mind-reading act with Julius under the stage name "Syko the Psychic". In 1919, the Bamberg family left for Europe and Ada rejoined the act. In 1921 a small (but by itself essentially useless) portion of the Zancigs' methodology was published by their friend and fellow mentalist-magician, Alexander the Crystal Seer. Writing in 1929, the year of Julius Zancig's death, the British magician Will Goldston also attempted to describe the code in some depth, but he did not reveal its entirety. In the 1940s Robert Nelson published a simple stage code which superficially resembled that of the Zancigs, but it did not permit the diversity of expression they had achieved. To this day, the Zancig Code, also known as "Two Minds With But a Single Thought," is considered by most professional mentalists to be the most ingenious but complex two-person communication system of its type ever devised.
 
Zaranoff, Sonia
Female mentalist billed as "Sonia Zaranoff and Her Talking Tea Kettle"
Read the biography of Sonia Zaranoff - see image!
 
Zarrow, Herb
(1925-2008)(birthday November 4) American amateur magician best known for his invention of the Zarrow Shuffle (which he called the "Full Deck False Shuffle"), widely recognized as the ultimate false shuffle. Involved in magic since the age of 12, he was a prolific author of articles for the magic magazines for several decades as well as a contributor to magic books by Dai Vernon, Karl Fulves and others, including "Switch Change" in Volume Seven of the Tarbell Course In Magic.
 
Zeella, Princess
Female nightclub mentalist and partner of Dr. Chanda
Read the biography of Princess Zeella!
 
Zelka, Wilfred
Co-founder of London's City Magical Company
Read the biography of Wilfred Zelka - see image!
 
Zens, Mike
Co-founder of Wisconsin Houdini Club
Read the biography of Mike Zens - see image!
 
Zimmerman, Diana
Performer, entrepreneur, writer, and businesswoman
Read the biography of Diana Zimmerman - see image!
 
Zimmerman, Dick
(b. 1937)(birthday August 11) American magician, prolific author of magic magazine articles and active professional performer. Also a world-class ragtime piano player and expert on Scott Joplin and ragtime music. In fact, he is the only pianist who has recorded the entire works of Scott Joplin.
 
Zingone, Louis
Society card expert who put out a successful 78rpm record set
Read the biography of Louis Zingone - see images!
 
Zirka, Mme.
Female magician billed as the "Queen of Cigarettes" who was part of a scientific study on the effect of illusion
Read the biography of Mme. Zirka - see image!
 
Zola
Wife and onstage assistant to Arno, she performed some wonderful sleight-of-hand herself
Read the biography of Zola - see images!
 
Zolezzi, Lizz
Argentine wife and stage partner to mentalist Odronoff in his second sight act.
Read the biography of Lizz Zolezzi!
 
Zomahs, The
Alfred and Adelaide Giddings with their two-person mindreading act
Read the biography of Alfred and Adelaide Giddings!
 
Zorita
Female mindreader with Harry King in their second-sight act
Read the biography of Zorita!
 
Zovello
Marketed Zovelloscopes in the late 1930's, then became The Bonomo Magic Clown with his own TV program in the early 1950's
Read the biography of Zovello - see images and video!
 
Zufall, Bernard
Mnemonics and memory expert
Read the biography of Bernard Zufall - see images!
 
 
 
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