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Adelaide Herrmann
Adelaide Herrmann (1853–1932) was an English-American magician and vaudeville performer billed as "the Queen of Magic". She was married to Alexander Herrmann, another magician.
Adelaide Herrmann was born Adelaide Scarcez (also spelled Scarsia) in 1853 in London. Her father, who was born in Belgium, helped establish the Egyptian Hall.
As a young woman, she studied aerial acrobatics and dance. She learned to ride the velocipede, a 19th-century bicycle, and traveled as a trick-rider with Professor Brown's velocipede troupe. In 1874, she came to New York City as a dancer for Imre Kiralfy.
She began her magic career as assistant to her future husband, magician Alexander Herrmann. They married in 1875 at City Hall, where New York City Mayor William H. Wickham performed their ceremony. Together, Alexander ("Professor Herrmann" or "Herrmann the Great") and Adelaide entertained audiences with a variety of magic tricks, including escape tricks and the bullet catch trick. Adelaide was a key part of many illusions, performing as a levitating sleeper, a human cannonball, a bicycle rider who carried a girl on her shoulders, and a dancer who spectrally swirled in red silk like a pillar of fire. The Herrmanns toured the United States, Mexico, South America, and Europe.
In 1888, the Herrmanns put on a show wherein they revealed how the spiritualist Ann O'Delia Diss Debar was a fraudulent medium in front of journalists.
When Alexander died in 1896, Adelaide Herrmann decided to continue the show. She initially worked with her husband's nephew, Leon Herrmann, but a clash of personalities led them to part ways after only three seasons.
Afterwards, Adelaide Herrmann became extremely well known as a magician in her own right, earning the moniker "The Queen of Magic." She toured as a headliner for over 25 years and performed internationally, touring London and Paris. In 1903, she made her Broadway debut at the Circle Theater. She performed often with other vaudeville acts and was frequently mentioned in the New York Times. In a November 2, 1899 article for Broadway Magazine entitled "The World’s Only Woman Magician," Herrmann stated, "I shall not be content until I am recognized by the public as a leader in my profession, and entirely irrespective of the question of sex."
Herrmann was one of the few magicians to perform the "bullet catch" trick, and possibly the only woman magician to perform the trick at the time. Despite reports that she had disliked watching her husband perform the dangerous trick, on January 19, 1897, a month after his death, she stood in his place in front of a firing squad at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Surviving publicity material describes her as catching six bullets fired at her by local militiamen.
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Adelaide Herrmann
Adelaide Herrmann (1853–1932) was an English-American magician and vaudeville performer billed as "the Queen of Magic". She was married to Alexander Herrmann, another magician.
Adelaide Herrmann was born Adelaide Scarcez (also spelled Scarsia) in 1853 in London. Her father, who was born in Belgium, helped establish the Egyptian Hall.
As a young woman, she studied aerial acrobatics and dance. She learned to ride the velocipede, a 19th-century bicycle, and traveled as a trick-rider with Professor Brown's velocipede troupe. In 1874, she came to New York City as a dancer for Imre Kiralfy.
She began her magic career as assistant to her future husband, magician Alexander Herrmann. They married in 1875 at City Hall, where New York City Mayor William H. Wickham performed their ceremony. Together, Alexander ("Professor Herrmann" or "Herrmann the Great") and Adelaide entertained audiences with a variety of magic tricks, including escape tricks and the bullet catch trick. Adelaide was a key part of many illusions, performing as a levitating sleeper, a human cannonball, a bicycle rider who carried a girl on her shoulders, and a dancer who spectrally swirled in red silk like a pillar of fire. The Herrmanns toured the United States, Mexico, South America, and Europe.
In 1888, the Herrmanns put on a show wherein they revealed how the spiritualist Ann O'Delia Diss Debar was a fraudulent medium in front of journalists.
When Alexander died in 1896, Adelaide Herrmann decided to continue the show. She initially worked with her husband's nephew, Leon Herrmann, but a clash of personalities led them to part ways after only three seasons.
Afterwards, Adelaide Herrmann became extremely well known as a magician in her own right, earning the moniker "The Queen of Magic." She toured as a headliner for over 25 years and performed internationally, touring London and Paris. In 1903, she made her Broadway debut at the Circle Theater. She performed often with other vaudeville acts and was frequently mentioned in the New York Times. In a November 2, 1899 article for Broadway Magazine entitled "The World’s Only Woman Magician," Herrmann stated, "I shall not be content until I am recognized by the public as a leader in my profession, and entirely irrespective of the question of sex."
Herrmann was one of the few magicians to perform the "bullet catch" trick, and possibly the only woman magician to perform the trick at the time. Despite reports that she had disliked watching her husband perform the dangerous trick, on January 19, 1897, a month after his death, she stood in his place in front of a firing squad at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Surviving publicity material describes her as catching six bullets fired at her by local militiamen.
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