WOMEN OF MAGIC
For International Women's Day, we are celebrating the important role women have played in the art of magic.
First, enjoy this segment from The History Channel:
We most often think of the women of magic in the role as assistant to their more famous husbands or bosses.
Performers such as Nani Darnell (wife of Mark Wilson), Gay Blackstone (wife of Harry Blackstone Jr.), Carol Roy (wife of Marvyn Roy), Pam Thompson (wife of Johnny Thompson), and Moi-Yo Miller (assistant to Dante) were actually the true magicians in the act, operating the illusions internally, tripping the trap on props, loading and releasing the animals and flowers, and basically making sure everything on stage ran smoothly and "magically". Going to the extreme, Debbie Henning served as husband Doug Henning's body double for many of his illusions.
Without the help and talents of the ladies onstage, there would be no magic!
There were, of course, women who performed their own act as a part of the show.
Especially in the early part of the 20th century, with spiritualism all the rage, famous magicians included a female mentalist in the program.
Alexander had Della Martell, the Magnetic Wonder.
Black Herman had Madame Debora Sapphhira.
And some women took it one step further and had their OWN show!
Talented performers such as
Annie Abbott
Georgiana Eagle
Minerva
Myrnella Montague
Princess Tomahontas
Annie Vernone
Princess Yvonne
Ellen Armstrong
Mme. Zirka Queen of Cigarettes
and the very colorful Sonia Zaranoff.
We would also like to pay tribute to two groundbreaking female magicians in particular.
DOROTHY DIETRICH
As mentioned on her website:
Dorothy Dietrich, often called the "Female Houdini"™ and World's #1 Female magician, is an innovator in the field. She was the first woman to gain prominence as an escape artist since the days of Houdini, breaking the glass ceiling in that field. Columbia University Press and Encyclopedia called her "one of the most noted magicians of the late 20th century. She is the first and only woman to accomplish the Jinxed Bullet Catch. She also does the Houdini Seances first done by Bess Houdini, then Walter B. Gibson and passed to her by him, which she does each year to honor Houdini at The Houdini Museum in Scranton often with members of the Houdini Family. https://DorothyDietrich.com or check out her page on wikipedia. She was recently responsible for secreetly restoring the missing bust at Houdini grave site with her Houdini Commandos.
We are also proud to call Dorothy our friend!
Of course, no list of Women Of Magic would be complete without including the most successful of all.
Adelaide Herrmann, known as the Queen of Magic, worked for many years as the chief assistant to her husband, the legendary Alexander Herrmann.
But his death in 1896 pushed her into a magic career of her own.
Enjoy the short film below, as well as this fascinating article:
She Caught Bullets With Her Bare Hands and Made Magic's Glass Ceiling Disappear
This list is FAR from complete!
As an ongoing project at MagicTricks.com, we are compiling a list of Women Of Magic, along with as many photos and biographies that we can find.
To prevent hard feelings, we are including only women of the past at this time. :-)
For now, you can view the existing list so far.
Please feel free to comment, let us know what you think of our project, and share with us information about Women Of Magic.