Pusey Magic Display Opens

Featuring advertisements for talking animals and disembodied heads, an exhibition depicting the imagery of 19th century magic and magicians opened yesterday in Pusey Library.

The exhibit--which displays playbills, advertisements and other magic memorabilia--was assembled by the Harvard Theatre Collection.

According to Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection, Fredric Woodbridge Wilson, the 19th century was the heyday of "exuberant representations of magicians."

It was also the pinnacle of fame for sleight-of-hand magicians, such as Robert Houdin.

The focal point of the exhibit is a section devoted to Alexander Herrmann, who was considered the premier magician of the 19th century.

Herrmann was the first magician to be portrayed in a modern style--as a skilled practitioner of magical illusions--and not as a Merlin style mystic, Wilson said.

The display features a large advance advertisement portraying Herrmann riding in a horse-drawn coach to his first American tour.

Some of the posters took on a more provocative advertising style.

"He will eat a live man," reads one poster, an advertisement for magician Signar Cavanenghi.

Cavanenghi would ask for a volunteer at his show, and if any audience member dared agree, Cavanenghi would proceed with the cannibalism until the audience member begged him to stop, Wilson said.

The exhibition also contains advance posters for variety of acts as varied as goats that could spell, animals that could count and canaries that could feign death.

The idea for the display, which is one of four exhibitions presented every year, was conceived about a year ago, Wilson said.

"I began to appreciate the parts of theater other than plays, such as circuses, fireworks, fairgrounds and magic," Wilson said, "[and then] it turned out we had some rare material about the history of magic."

The exhibit was guest curated by Ricky Jay, a magician and author of the books Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women and Cards as Weapons.

"He's at the top of his field," Wilson said. Jay's one man show, "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" sold out every show during its off-Broadway run last year.

In putting together this exhibit, Jay built on his experience as former curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, a large collection devoted to the history of magic.

Jay helped to select the pieces that are on display and wrote the identifying labels and explanations.

Running from December 10, 1998 until March 18, 1999, the show is free of admission, and can be seen from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.