Word: thurstons
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Married. Jane, daughter of Prestidigitator Howard Thurston; to one Harry Harris; six weeks ago under assumed names, again in a civil ceremony at Newport, Ky., again last week by a Catholic Priest in Cincinnati...
...hair, a broad brow and wide-set eyes. He was raised with a Negro "mammy" and a Negro playmate from whom he gained much of his extraordinary knowledge of racial peculiarities. Aged 10, he dove into Annette Kellerman's tank. Aged 12, he held eggs for the magician Thurston. For a year he went to military school in Atlanta. During the War he served in the Navy, then became a traveling tobacco salesman. Returning to Richmond he did a clog dance in a home talent show directed by Chicago professionals. They offered him a job coaching similar productions...
...spark of stage wit, the faculty of knowing when and how to break away from the regular routine speech with an immediate answer for every question, is that which distinguishes a Houdini, a Thurston, from the magician Blackstone, the feature of this week's Keith-Albee bill. Mr. Blackstone exhibits a complete performance of the accepted sleight-of-hand tricks with the ease of Keller, but he lacks the vital touch of spontaneity...
...Thurston is now Houdini. He describes his tricks, but never explains them. His most sensational "illusion" was chopping off a friend's head. Because women fainted he never repeated it. He is contemptuous of Oriental "magic." Out of three thousand fakirs he examined in India, not one had even heard of the rope trick. (A rope is thrown into the air, is mysteriously suspended while a boy climbs up it, disappears.) The easiest people to fool, says Thurston, are scientists, men-of-letters, psychologists. The hardest are lawyers and preachers because "they do not lose their poise" when invited...
...Thurston was a great success in China. He likes the Chinese. Once he gave a performance at the White House, borrowed Calvin Coolidge's watch, seemingly smashed it to bits. Mr. Coolidge was imperturable, said nothing. Thurston returned the watch unharmed, congratulated the President on "setting the standard of discretion for the world...