Diana Watts, age 13, of Dotham, Ala., for her question:
WHO WAS THE FIRST MAGICIAN?
A magician is a person involved in the art of entertaining with tricks that are in apparent violation of natural law. The magician is an entertainer who seems to be endowed with uncanny powers. We don't know exactly who was the first magician, but we know that he lived in ancient times many thousands of years ago.
One of the first was a magician named Dedi who lived in Egypt about 2600 B.C. Records show that he pretended to decapitate two birds and an ox. Then, as if by magic, he restored their heads.
Other Egyptian magicians were noted for their skill with the trick of the cups and balls In this trick small balls seem to pass invisibly from one inverted cup or bowl to another. Finally they were converted into larger spheres or such unexpected things as oranges or live baby chicks.
Cup and ball conjuring was popular also in ancient Greece and Rome.
Sleight of hand with coins, dice and, later, with playing cards added variety to the performances of medieval magicians. The tricks of the cut and restored string and of thrusting a dagger through the arm without injury were performed in taverns and marketplaces.
The first magician known to have performed in NoRth America was an anonymous member of the retinue of the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes.
A magician named Jacob Meyer, whose professional name was Philadelphia, was the first American to achieve an international reputation as a conjurer.
The Italian Giuseppe Pinetti was the most imitated magician of the 18th century. His repertory included automatons, which were machines that operated by themselves. He also pretended to have second sight.
In the mid 1800s French magician Jean Houdin revolutionized the art of magic with stage mechanisms.
There have been many famous magicians on American stages through the years. One of the best was Howard Thurston who performed for 28 years early in this century. His show included such spectacular features as the vanishing automobile, the Indian rope trick and levitation.
Harry August Jansen, who used the name Dante, and Harry Blackstone were also great magicians who followed the Thurston tradition.
Then came Harry Houdini, the American magician who won world renown by making sensational escapes from police handcuffs, straitjackets and prison cells. He frequently jumped in shackles from bridges and released himself under water.
Houdini's real name was Ehrich Weiss. He took his stage name from Jean Houdin, the great French magician, although later he made Houdini his legal name.
The last years of Houdini's life (he died in 1926) were devoted to a relentless campaign against fradulent mediums. His thorough knowledge of deceptive techniques enabled him to expose their methods.