John Nevil Maskelyne
| John Nevil Maskelyne | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
22 December 1839 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England |
| Died | 18 May 1917 (aged 77) London, England |
| Occupation | Magician, escapologist, inventor, and paranormal investigator |
| Children | Nevil Maskelyne |
John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 1839 – 18 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with many other Victorian-era devices. Working with magicians George Alfred Cooke and David Devant, many of his illusions are still performed today. His book Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill is considered a classic overview of card sharp practices, and in 1914 he founded the Occult Committee, a group whose remit was to "investigate claims to supernatural power and to expose fraud".
Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. He trained as a watchmaker.
Maskelyne became interested in conjuring after watching a stage performance at his local Town Hall by the fraudulent spiritualists, the American Davenport brothers. He saw how the Davenports' spirit cabinet illusion worked, and stated to the audience in the theatre that he could recreate their act using no supernatural methods. With the help of a friend, cabinet maker George Alfred Cooke, he built a version of the gigantic cabinet. Together, they revealed the Davenport Brothers' trickery to the public at a show in Cheltenham in June 1865, sponsored by the 10th Cotswold Rifle Corps to which they belonged . In addition to the pseudo-spiritualist phenomena of the Davenports, they added comedy illusions which included the transformation of Maskelyne and Cooke into an ‘unprotected female’ and a gorilla. Inspired by the acclaim they received for their clever exposure of the deception, the two men repeated their show several times.
Following their local success, they branched out taking their show to nearby towns. Encouraged by their results, they decided to become professional magicians and organised tours, building on their initial routines and expanding their programme.
At first they struggled to make ends meet but they were saved by a young and relatively inexperienced theatrical agent named William Morton, who saw their show in Liverpool and offered to finance a tour. He engaged them at a weekly wage of £4 10s for Maskelyne and his wife, and 50 shillings for Cooke. Morton ran them round the country for two years, ending at The Crystal Palace for several weeks. He then secured for them the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, renovated it, put in a new stage and opened at the end of 1873. Morton ended up being their manager for a total of 20 years. He helped them to become firmly established on the national stage — including such marathon theatrical engagements as their famous tenancy at the Egyptian Hall from 1873 to 1905 when the Hall was demolished.
...
Wikipedia