Now you see!
A rare collection of tools and tricks used by legendary magician Harry Houdini in seemingly mysterious escapes – including handcuffs and neck and leg chains – is now on display a century after his death.
The strange display is part of a new exhibit of more than 300 rare and never-before-seen artifacts from the popularity of magic in the Big Apple that opened this month at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, called “Mystery & Wonder: A Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York City.”
The expansive display, designed to look like an early 20th century magic shop, includes a large collection of wands, magic show posters and century-old textbooks.
Curator of the show Annemarie van Roessel told The Post that the mystery retrospective is the first of its kind to examine how magical knowledge was transmitted in the city during the “magic age” of magic – whether behind the stage curtain, inside the magic shops of Midtown or the meetings of the Association of American Magicians.
“There are no professors of the history of magic: [Magicians] they are responsible for creating their own history,” van Roessel told The Post at the program’s opening ceremony on Wednesday.
Magicians — many of whom were immigrants from Europe, Van Roessel noted — flocked to New York City during the “Golden Age” from 1875 to the 1930s in an abundance of stages, magic shops and community centers, he said.
The performers also facilitated a great deal of cultural exchange between artists in New York and London, which was also a hot spot for magicians at the time.
Steve Cohen, a sponsor of the show and a veteran magician who runs the 25-year-old Chamber Magic show at the Lotte New York Palace, said it makes no sense why magicians still flock to the Big Apple like they did at the turn of the century.
“It’s an art center,” he said. “When you come to New York, you expect to see the best.”
The core of the collection comes from the Society of American Magicians who is the founder of the Society of American Magicians Dr. Saram Ellison’s 1,500-book arsenal of rare books on magic, which were donated to the library at the time of her death in 1918 – including the first book on magic published in the US.
Contemporary magicians are still drawn to the library of magic and ephemera — considered the largest public collection of its kind — to revisit old tricks and rediscover new ones, van Roessel said.
“Magicians come here to study their advisers, and their advisers,” he added. “They’re back again because … some of the best tricks are old tricks from 100 years ago.”
The library’s collection also includes one-of-a-kind posters from magic shows – stored in a large scrapbook and untouched for decades – that were well preserved during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and are being digitally displayed.
It was the great reception of the posters among New York’s magical community that served as the launch pad for the show — which is still a work in progress in many ways, the curator said.
Given the important topic, the faces of 20th-century magicians in archived photos are still unknown to the library – prompting a public call for contemporary actors to help identify faces and names lost to time.
“Just helping to identify some of the faces of these images was important,” van Roessel said. “We bring them back from the dead almost – we make these memories come alive.”
The curator noted that he hopes the exhibit will help fans of unknown names like the “Queen of Magic” vaudeville performer Adelaide Herrmann finally get the Houdini star treatment.
Cohen called the exhibition “crucial” for the public to not only discover the names of the legends, but also a new appreciation for a timeless art form that is finally finding its flower.
“I hope that what this show will do is make people realize that magic has a rich history – but it’s a living history,” said Cohen.
“This show gives magic the institutional recognition and respect it always deserves.”
