FIRST WOMAN MAGICIAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIRST WOMAN MAGICIAN.

DAUGHTER OF MASKELYNE. " TRICKS OF THE STAGE " Miss Mary Maskclyne, grand-daughter of the famous illusionist, is the first girl to graduate as a magician, says a London paper. She is the only woman descendant of Mr. J. N. Maskclyne, founder of tho mystery shows at St. George's Hall, and last year, when she decided to take up a career as a magician, her brothers arranged for her to learn the technique of statecraft by making her an illusionist's assistant.

Sho has just completed an 18 months' provincial tour, and is now starting to learn the " magic" business in earnest at Langharn Place. " I am hoping to make magic a career," Mis Maskelvne told an interviewer lately. " Of course I am not yet eligible for the Magicians' Circle, but I know a tremendous lot of secrets about the tricks of the stage That is one thing a woman who wants to bo a magician must learn — how to keep a secret. " T have beer assisting my brother Olive in his illusions, so far without mishap. We had a near squeak at Devonport in a trick in which my brother had to have his hands tied behind his back. The sailors who did the tying made such clever knots that they nearly prevented the trick being concluded. " Although I am only a little over 20 I suppose I know more about how those magical things are done than any other girl, and when I have finished appearing in tho magical sketch ' The Khang Hsi Vase' with my brother Jasper, I shall learn to do tricks myself unaided.

"My father the late Mr. Neville Maslcelyne, onco found himself beaten. He was placed under the spell of a Fairy Queen! Ho went down to a provincial pantomime to work his magic there, and met a lady who was taking the part of the Fairy Queen She was very young: and beautiful, and the poor magician could not resist her potent charms. When dad told me that as a child I thoucht it was the most wonderful story in all the magical world."