John Henry Anderson

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John Henry Anderson, the Wizard of the North

John Henry Anderson , actually John Anderson (born July 16, 1814 in Craigmyle , Aberdeenshire , Scotland , † February 3, 1874 in Darlington , England ) was a Scottish magician , inventor and author.

Life

He was the oldest of a total of seven children. Influenced by the idiosyncratic Scottish landscape, the young Anderson grew up as a small boy with a penchant for the mystical. At the age of ten he became an orphan and had to look after his siblings. At 16 he joined an acting troupe, which he left a year later to perform as a magician. In 1837 he was a guest at the castle of Lord Panmure , who was so enthusiastic about him that he wrote him a letter of reference, which was decisive for the subsequent career of Anderson. He embarked on a three year tour of Scotland and England. In 1840 he went to London and performed at the New Strand Theater . During this time he received his nickname: The Great Wizard of The North . One of Anderson's best-known numbers was the bullet trap : a marked rifle bullet is fired at him, but he apparently catches it with his mouth. In 1849 he made guest appearances in front of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He then toured America, Canada, Australia and Hawaii. In 1854 Anderson gave a farewell performance in Aberdeen, but it was so successful that he decided to continue performing. He was a committed educator of spiritualistic phenomena and exposed a number of fraudsters.

Merit

It is thanks to Anderson's appearances in theaters that magic was able to develop from street art to stage art. This merit is often attributed to the French Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin , who, however, verifiably only began to play in theaters in 1845.

publication

  • The Fashionable Science of Parlor Magic. around 1800 (several editions, editions from 1841 and 1843 are proven)

proof

  1. ^ Constanze Pole Bayer: The Great Wizard of The North. 1990, chapter 1.
  2. ^ Constanze Pole Bayer: The Great Wizard of The North. 1990, chapter 3.
  3. ↑ Milbourne Christopher : The Illustrated History of Magic. 1973, ISBN 0-690-43165-1 .
  4. ^ Edwin A. Dawes : The Great Illusionists. 1979, ISBN 0-7153-7773-6 .
  5. ↑ Milbourne Christopher: Panorama of Magic. 1962.
personal data
SURNAME Anderson, John Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anderson, John (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish magician, inventor and author
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Craigmyle , Aberdeenshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1874
Place of death Darlington , England