Classic Correspondence from Egyptian Hall Museum IV

Volume IV of Mike Caveney’s acclaimed Classic Correspondence series contains 24 more historic letters that Mike has annotated using the seemingly inexhaustible files in Egyptian Hall Museum. Over the course of four years these letters appeared in Genii magazine, but in book form they have been corrected and amended with additional photographs, posters and other pertinent ephemera. Like each of the previous volumes, the finished book, printed on the highest quality paper in full color, is a feast for the eyes. Enjoy letters to and from the likes of Alexander Herrmann, Stan Laurel, T. Nelson Downs, Julius Zancig, Frederick Eugene Powell, Houdini, Virgil, The Great Leon, Charles Carter, The Great Raymond, Dante, Howard Thurston, P.T. Selbit, Faucett Ross, and John Carney.

REVIEWS

I love the Classic Correspondence series. I’ve read every letter in the first three books at least twice. Volume 4 does not disappoint. The cast of characters are colorful and inspiring, as always, and once again Caveney astounds us with the depth of his historical knowledge. These books are a treasure.
—John Lovick

Genii magazine review

Common passion for art – plus time – can transform voyeuristic gossip into heartwarming education. At least, that’s one potential takeaway from Mike Caveney’s series Classic Correspondence from Egyptian Hall Museum. Now on his fourth hard-bound volume of annotated letters previously published here in Genii, this collection boasts more tales and corrected annotations, beautiful cull-color photographs that breathe life into stories and their subjects, and promises to sit on a bedside or coffee table as a perfect and attractive provider of quick and enthralling reads about the raw and gritty lives of magicians past.

The volume in question features two dozen letters spanning 1895 to 1977 and written between the likes of P.T. Selbit to Howard Thurston, Houdini to Ellis Stanyon, The Great Leon to Charles Carter, and Faucett Ross to John Carney, just for starters. Each of the letters is not only adorned with beautifully reprinted photos, illustrations, and posters, but are also bookended and footnoted with incredibly detailed annotations by the author. They are sometimes clarifying, sometimes speculating, but always carrying us on mini journeys through the lives and times of people who are otherwise lost to memories and usually two-dimensional, dry descriptions.

If one hadn’t had the pleasure of reading Caveney’s previous 72 letters in either MAGIC, Genii, or the preceding three volumes, this collection will not only pull the new reader into a wonderful world of magical trivia that they didn’t know they wanted, but whet their appetites to seek out the rest.

Some of the stories – one from Stan Laurel to Edna Jansen (Dante’s wife) – reveal curious bits of trivia that extend beyond our direct world of magic. The writing is warm and caring, but also reveals to us the lasting relationship that Laurel and Hardy had with Dante after a fallout with their manager.

A brief but friendly rejection letter from Alexander Herrmann to one not-so-well-known A.S.L. Hewes shows us the importance of communication and that one can never be too busy to honor a polite correspondence with someone offering their services or seeking work or guidance.

The letter from Houdini to Ellis Stanyon is very funny and brash, as one might expect from what we know of the master escape artist. The irony of his words bashing Goldin and Thurston for having giant egos is amusing, as is his lament of there being too many “front and back acts” – card manipulation/back palming – at the time. Just as unsurprising is how rambling and disingenuous it is at times, including his unflattering comments on Adelaide Herrmann – “She did not startle anyone except the rabbits and ducks that she uses.”

As interesting as the actual letters are, Caveney’s annotations and informative asides are the meat of these short essays. To read the letter from T. Nelson Downs to S. Leo Horowitz in enjoyable, but the anecdotes of Downs forgetting to load his coins for the “Miser’s Dream” and his bold out to recover are hilarious and wonderful, and learning that Downs tired of coins but loved card manipulation and adeptly learned the Center Deal from Vernon is just marvelous.

A particularly favorite nugget I found hilarious was in the lead-in to the letter from Selbit to Thurston. As Selbit was a reputable, accomplished illusion designer and builder, he would lease the successful ones out for other magicians to perform. When he sent “Crushing a Lady” off to his friend Oswald Rae, the latter was delayed in getting to the theater and he couldn’t learn the illusion, his assistants did and were able to pull it off immediately, without Rae even understanding how the trick worked. As if we needed more evidence that sometimes the assistants are the real magicians!

The book rounds out with the author remarking with strong evidence on the importance of mentorship, in this case between Faucett Ross and a young John Carney. The letters and accompanying sketches are touching and genuine, and to read through the correspondence between a not so distant past great and a living one is inspiring on a multitude of levels.

The beauty of these conversations is that they are raw, humbling, and real. They were between movers and shakers and unknowns alike. It would be a delightful fascination to see, one hundred years from now, the letters (emails, test messages, social media posts?) of magicians and magic enthusiasts of today. Who among the current working pros, who among our peers, will some prolific magic historian deem worthy and intriguing enough to recount the sometimes casual, sometimes formal typed-out interactions? And will they be as captivating, or as gossipy or sometimes snarky as Houdini talking about almost anyone? Or as tight-lipped on secrets, even among magicians as Virgil? Naturally, there is no way to know; but also, yes. Because people are just people, and we magicians don’t seem to change all that much.

Certainly, the letters are curated and annotated, but they shine a light, no always the most flattering but always true, on the world that every reader of this publication loves deeply. They are classics for a reason.

Review by Frances Menotti