The first regularly published magic magazine in the United States was Mahatma, which started in 1895 and continued for the next decade. It was a delightful magazine full of history, profiles, advertisements, and wonderful platform/stage effects. I’m not going to do a run-through, as I did previously with The Sphinx, because I’m really only here to tell you the good news that for a very limited time, you can get the full run of Mahatma for free from the Conjuring Arts Research Center. It’s a download of ten pdfs, one volume per file, and also included is an index that allows searches across all the volumes.
Be quick—it was there early this morning, I don’t know if it will still be there tomorrow.
As a small guide, here are some of the effects I enjoyed reading about in the first three volumes:
Volume 1:
Knight’s Tour p. 25
The False finger p. 26
Coffee cup Balanced on the Point of a Knife p. 35
The Mysterious Trunk p. 77
Hand Shadows of Famous People p. 92
Volume 2:
Spirit Cabinet p. 15
Light heavy chest p. 37
Magic Archery p. 111
The Electric Chair p. 122
The Modern William Tell p. 129
Volume 3
The Magic Water Bowl p. 11
The Spider Coin Catcher p. 14
Teaching a Dog Magic p.33
The Spelling Bee p.52, p.67
And of course, wonderful bios, ads, news, publicity shots and so on, a real treasure trove for the magic history buff. Thanks, CARC!
