Requested by Alicia, here is Pixar's 2008 animated short, Presto! Director Doug Sweetland's homage to vintage magic and magicians, this wonderful cartoon played in theaters with WALL-E. It's available on the WALL-E DVD as well, but why not just watch it below for free?
There are some great sight-gags in the credits; my favorite is an ad for The Civil War, re-enacted by poodles!
The film joins Dreamworks' "Voices of the Dead" and the Syfy Channel's "Among the Spirits" in exploiting the ubiquitous escape artist in the coming onslaught of Victoriana and steampunk set to assault screens in 2012.
P.T. Selbit was one of the most creative magicians of the Edwardian age. Born Percy Thomas Tibbles in Hampstead, London, Selbit invented many classic illusions still used by performers to day. Wrestling Cheese (1912), Walking through a Wall (1914), Sawing through a Woman (1921), Girl without a Middle (1924), Through the Eye of a Needle (1924) were all his creations, though some of contemporaries would claim otherwise, most loudly American Horace Goldin.
Goldin improved upon the trick by allowing a method for the subjects head, feet, and hands to remain in view for the duration of the trick, and registered many names for the illusion with Vaudeville Managers' Protective Agency which forced Selbit to call his trick The Divided Woman when he toured the states.
Mark Kalin and Jinger Lee perform a version of the original illusion.
Below, Howard Thurston performs the illusion, which he bought from Selbit for his own act. This illusion became so ubiquitous that it may well be the most recognizable stage magic trick ever.
Here's a little promotional video featuring Jim Steinmeyer talking about Howard Thurston, the subject of his latest book. I'm enjoying reading The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizard and will post a review in the next week or so. If you just can't wait to buy it, click below to find it on Amazon.com.
Voices From The Dead, writer J. Michael (Babylon 5, The Changeling) Straczynski's spec screenplay, has sold to Dreamworks. The script concerns Harry Houdini and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle as they team up with a psychic to solve some puzzling murders in 1920's New York.
Straczynski's last feature script was for The Changeling, bought and produced by Clint Eastwood's Malpaso company, and directed by Eastwood as well.
This could be a big budget thriller, and a lot of fun. My casting suggestions for Houdini are illustrated above: either Sean Penn or Mark Feurstein from the USA Network series Royal Pains. Who would make a good Doyle?
It turns out The Syfy Channel is developing a television series based on exactly the same premise, Houdini and Doyle solving mysteries together. I bet Straczynsky was thrilled to hear that...
T. Nelson Downs was a contemporary of Houdini, Thurston, Kellar, Herrmann, Maskelyne, and Devant, performing worldwide from around 1895 until his retirement in 1912 at the age of 42. He almost certainly devised illusions for Howard Thurston, and though he was billed as "The King of Koins" he was a pretty amazing card handler by all accounts. After his retirement, he opened a vaudeville theater, wrote several magic books, and spent time amusing his grandchildren. Amazingly, I've found some footage of Downs performing, below.
At the height of his career, he performed a trick which required him to palm sixty (!) coins at once. That's almost unbelievable. The King suffered a stroke in 1938 and passed away at the age of 71. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Marshalltown, Iowa. His gravestone reads "King of Koins".
as well, but why not just watch it below for free?
