WEIRD ILLUSIONS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4956, 16 February 1937, Page 6

WEIRD ILLUSIONS

MAGIC MIRROR. Look into a mirror. See in turn Mephis/topheles—blazing red—then a figure of blushing- beauty in bridal array slowly materialising from misty transparency, and finally an immaculate male figure in white tie and tails. A trick? Yes, but an ingenious one. David Devant, the famous magician, now divulges its secret. One of my illusions in which a member of 'thel audience played a prominent part was “The Magic Mirror,” a spectacular presentation with a particularly baffling climax. When the curtain went up the audience saw in the centre of stage a large, full-length mirror, some nine feet high, and beside it stood an attendant with two black cloaks over his arm. I invited a member of the audience to come up and assist me with the illusion and asked him to put on one of thel cloaks, whilst I donned the other. I explained that the magical rites he was about to witness necessitated some form ol : protection—a warning that was apt to alarm some of my less venturesome victims unlefes it was accompanied by a fairly obvious wink. When we were both cloaked I took my assistant round the mirror, allowing him to examine it and satisfy himself that it was an ordinary mirror. Then, as we stood in front of the mirror, the lights were lowered, and I warned the man to watch the mirror intently. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then a dull, red glow appeared, grew rapidly larger and brighter, until the glaring red figure of Mephistopheles could plainly be seen reflected in the mirror.

Strangely materialistic, yet so transparent that wei could see our faces reflected in the mirror through his body. Mjephistopheles beckoned my startled assistant towards him, then vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared.

Bewildering Change. Once more I took my assistant on a tour round the mirror, and once more we Stood before it. Now it was the figure of a charming girl in bridal array that materialised, and though this time my assistant was much less reluctant to respond to the figure’s beckoning invitation shei soon faded away and disappeared before his eyes. Next my assistant was invited to put on the hood which was attached to his cloak. Thei hood was fitted with goggles over the eye-holes, and similarly attired I then led him around the mirror for the third time. Again we stood in front of the mirror, but this time neither devil nor blushing bride appeared—instead I myself was slowly materialised in the mirror. And when I was clearly visible, in all the glory of full evening-dress, the figure the audience thought was me threw off his cloak and hood and stood revealed as Mephistopheles. The now hopelessly bewildered assistant was then gently led off the stage and the curtain descended in a glare of flaming red light. How It Wa* Done. The secret? Well, perhaps the back of the mirror was not quite as innocent as it looked. True, it appeared to be boarded over in the usual way, but, actually, it was divided down the middle! so that the back opened like two doors—but only if you happened to know the one particular spot The inside of these doors was covered with black velvet and the actual mirror glass itself was only very thinly coated with silver, so that a person standing behind it, and against the black velvet background, could oe clearly seen through the mirror, provided a strong enough light was thrown on to him. Without the light behind it the glass remained an ordinary mirror reflecting the image of whoever stood before it.

The problem now was to get the “apparitions” on to the stage and into position behind the mirror, with-

out their being seen. This was solved by placing a table up against the backcloth to form a tunnel towards the mirror. The table was fitted between the legs with mirror glass which reflected the black velvet backcloth and so gave the impression of a clear space beneath the table. Incidentally, this table was not quite such a crude deceit as it may sound, for it was an exact replica of a genuine table that had been used earlier in the evening and to whose genuineness I had been at pains to call the audience’s attention.

Through this useful tunnel, then, came from behind the scenes the performers who took the parts of Mephistopheles and the bride. Emerging from the tunnel-mouth directly behind the mirror, they pulled open its back door, and stepped inside, carrying with them a small velvet-covered stool, on which they stood during their materialisation.

All this time they were, of course, invisible to any one standing in front of the mirror, but as soon as a row of shaded lights, set inside the mirror and controlled by a resistance circuit, was switched on, they gradually “materialised” until when the lights were at full power, they were clearly visible not only to those standing in front of the mirror but to the entire audience in the theatre.

The cloaks which my assistant and I wore were by no means mere “trimmings,” but were chpsen as representing the least suspicious means of introducing the goggles which were essential to the climax of the trick. For while the goggles I wore were genuine enough, those of my victim, I regret to confess were far from innocent, in fact it was quite impossible for him to see through them! Reassuring him that I would put them right in a moment, I quickly led him round the back on his tour of inspection and, once behind the mirror* dodged through its “back door” while my “double,” waiting ready dressed in cloak and goggles, took charge of my blind victim and piloted him round to the front of the mirror again. Meanwhile I shed my cloak in the security of the mirror, and was then ready in my normal attire, to be “materialised” in the Magic Mirror when the lights were turned on.