THE ORIGINAL FAKE

I want to introduce you to Ching Ling Foo (above), “The Original Chinese Conjurer” who was the most famous magician to ever come out of China -  according to his advertising.  In 1898, when he brought his show to America, he offered $1,000 to any magician who could duplicate his act.  And that offer may have been a mistake.

Because, shortly thereafter, another magician, under the name Ching Ling Soo, began doing just that: and also billing himself as the “Original Chinese Conjurer”, and the  "Marvellous Chinese Conjurer".  Suddenly there were two originals.

In January of 1905 Foo opened his show at London's Empire Theatre (above), in Leicester Square, only to discover that for the previous month,....

...and directly across the street, at the Hippodrome Theatre (above), Soo had been running his identical show -  advertised with near identical posters.  

The two began campaigns of trash talk, accusing each other of fraud and name calling that kept the theatre critics working their pencils to the nub, and the audiences jammed into their seats at both theatres.

Eventually Foo offered Soo $2,000 for a 'trick off' in front of the press. On the appointed day Foo was there but, alas, Soo was not. The London Weekly Dispatch asked, “Did Foo fool Soo? And can Soo sue Foo?” Alas, those questions were never answered.  But the publicity kept both men headlining for most of the next decade.

Then, in March of 1918, Soo was performing on the stage of the Wood Green Empire Club (above) Theatre in London. He was performing his most famous trick, a variation on “The Bullet Catch”, he called “Condemned to Death by the Boxers”. 

In this trick audience members loaded bullets into rifles, and then watched recruited soldiers or policemen fire the guns directly at Soo’s chest.  Soo always caught the bullet in his hand to thunderous applause.

The secret behind this trick is obvious. No human reflex, not a human hand or or a mouth,  can move fast enough to catch a bullet.  So the bullet has to be transferred by hand before the gun is fired. The method of disguising the transfer varies from magician to magician, and that is what requires the skill. The trick is to distract and entertain the audience.  It was  Chung Lee Soo's most famous gag. 

Or at least it was until 23 March 23, 1918, when after the guns fired, Soo collapsed.  Was it just another dramatic stunt?  Seconds passed.  But eventually,  as horrified cast members rushed to his aid, Soo was clearly heard announcing, “Oh, my God. Something has happened. Lower the curtain”, in perfect English. The Marverlos Chinese Conjurer died the next day.

At the inquest into his death Soo’s widow, Sue Seen, (who also appeared occasionally as his male Chinese assistant) testified sans her stage makeup as Miss Olive Path,  that the rifles were real and capable of firing a real bullet, but...

...with a special hidden chamber. Cocking the rifle forced the bullet loaded by an audience member to drop out of the way, clearing space for a second bullet made out of paraffin. It would dissolve with the force of the exploding gunpowder, allowing Soo to produce a bullet he had supposedly caught. It was and still is an amazing gag, when it works.

But over time there had been a buildup of black powder residue which fouled the gun's chambers. On that terrible night the real bullet remained jammed in the chamber and blocked the safe paraffin round from entering. And so when the bullet was fired, it was really fired. And Soo was killed.

The inquest had also determined that Soo, the other “Original Chinese Conjurer” , was not actually Chinese. His real name was William Robinson (above and below).

Robinson was from Brooklyn and he had worked as a magician under the name “The Amazing Robinson”....

...with Olive (above)  as his assistant, until he had hit upon the idea of grafting onto the success of Ching Ling Foo, the actual original "Original Chinese Conjurer" -

- who by the way actually was Chinese but was actually named Chee Ling Qua. (Confused yet?) The lesson here is that the only people who trust magicians are other magicians, and their rabbits. 

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