Albert Marchinsky

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Albert Marchinsky in his Rameses costume at the height of his fame in 1914. From an autograph album in the collection of The Magic Circle.

Albert Marchinsky (born Alie Marczynski or Elias Marchinski; 1875

magician.[2]

Biography

Marchinsky was born into a Jewish family in 1875 in

British citizen at 18 years of age.[4]

Career

Marchinsky's stage name was "The Great Rameses", his

William Ellsworth Robinson
, whose stage persona was Chung Ling Soo.

He is said to have got his first inspiration in magic while watching a magician perform at the Royal Aquarium theatre in London in about 1890 and to have started out at that time as a performer in the small halls of London.[5] By 1910 Marchinsky was recognised as a leading stage illusionist.

His act was on a large scale. An article written after his death

pyramids
. The fresh flowers thus grown were distributed to members of the audience. (2) 'Beauty', the cremation illusion. (3) 'The Goose' involved hypnotising a live bird with the assistance of two ladies and two gentlemen from the audience.

Verall Wass, in a reminiscence in The Magic Circular Archived 16 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine in 1954, described Marchinsky's five main tricks: (1) Production of his assistants from miniature pyramids. (2) An automaton – in reality an assistant suitably dressed and with electric lights decorating his or her clothes, suggesting that the motive power was electricity. (3) Production of a duck from a "dove" pan. (4) The cremation illusion. (5) Asrah, Queen of the Air. A girl floated upwards from a small stool, performing various evolutions in the air, including skipping, then descending to the stool where she was covered with a cloth and floated upright into the air, finally disappearing.

He was a popular performer and toured widely. He performed in

St. Louis and Indianapolis being the easternmost cities he visited.[6]
He terminated the tour in February 1911, apparently on the grounds of his father's death.

Back in England, he performed at the London Palladium, The Hippodrome, the Stockport Empire, the Salford Regent and the Shepherd's Bush Theatre. In 1912 he went to South Africa for twenty weeks and returned before the end of the year to appear again at the London Coliseum. In June 1913, he commenced another tour of the United States, then made a continental tour, returning to London in early 1914, where he had many London bookings. He appeared before the King and Queen in 1917.

In 1917 Marchinsky invested the money he had made on his tours in the

Damaged Goods
(Les Avariés). He was not successful in his theatre venture and by the end of that year was back in the music halls again.

In 1920 he made a headline tour of all the Stoll theatres in London and in 1923 he was asked to join one of Maskelyne's productions.

In the 1920s he worked at The Kursaal, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, alongside another successful magician, Maurice Fogel, who began as Marchinsky's assistant, helping him out at a time when he was said to be "worse for wear".[7] Towards the end of his life he performed acts of small magic, nothing like the large acts of his heyday.[8]

Death

Marchinsky died following an operation in Southend's Victoria Hospital in July 1930, at the age of 54.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Births, 1550–1993
  2. ^ a b Obituary in The Performer, 7 August 1930, p. 5
  3. ^ 1891 England Census
  4. ^ UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916 for Albert Marchinski
  5. ^ "Rameses (Albert Marchinski Ramese)", The Sphinx: Official Organ of American Magicians, Vol.9, No.10, 15 December 1910
  6. ^ a b Photocopy of an article from an unidentified American publication in the library of The Magic Circle.
  7. ^ New Empire Theatre
  8. ^ Charles and Regina Reynolds, 100 Years of Magic Posters (Grosset & Dunlap, 1976)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Marchinsky&oldid=1219207865"