Howard Thurston

Howard Thurston
1914 promotional poster
Born	(1869-07-20)July 20, 1869 Columbus, Ohio, United States
Died	Miami, Florida, United States
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Nationality	American
Occupation	Magician

Howard Thurston (July 20, 1869 – April 13, 1936) was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio, United States. His childhood was unhappy and he ran away to join the circus, where his future partner Harry Kellar also performed. Thurston was deeply impressed after he attended magician Alexander Herrmann's magic show and was determined to equal his work. He eventually became the most famous magician of his time. Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.

Early life

Howard Thurston was born July 20, 1869, in Columbus, Ohio. He was the son of William Henry Thurston, a wheelwright and carriage maker who served briefly as a private during the Civil War in the Third Ohio Regiment. He attended Mount Hermon School for Boys in Northfield, Massachusetts, class of 1893. Among his fellow students were Lee DeForest, "The Father of American Radio," and musical humorist Charles Ross Taggart, "The Old Country Fiddler."

The King of Cards

He is still famous for his work with playing cards. According to legend, a Mexican magician appeared at a magic shop owned by Otto Maurer in New York City. The enigmatic magician demonstrated how he could make cards disappear, one by one, at his fingertips.

Maurer showed Thurston the move, which he would later feature in his act. He added the "Rising Cards" trick from Professor Hoffman’s Modern Magic, the book from which Thurston had learned the rudiments of magic. For this trick, he would walk into the audience and ask several people to choose cards from a deck of cards. The deck was shuffled and placed into a clear glass. Thurston would then call for the chosen cards. One by one the cards would rise up to the top of the deck. When audiences wanted the cards to rise higher, he developed a way of causing the cards to rise directly out of the pack.

Thurston arranged an impromptu audition with Leon Herrmann, nephew of Alexander Herrmann. His performance fooled Leon. From that point on he called himself "The man that fooled Herrmann" and used the publicity to get booked into top vaudeville houses in the U.S. and Europe, billing himself as the King of Cards.

Passing of the mantle

Thurston continued presenting the Thurston-Kellar Show following the retirement of Kellar. The Thurston show became an institution. He kept up the grind for about thirty years until, on March 30, 1936, Thurston suffered a stroke from a cerebral hemorrhage. He died on April 13 at his Oceanside apartment in Miami Beach, Florida. Death was attributed to pneumonia. He is entombed at Green Lawn Abbey, a mausoleum in Columbus, Ohio.

Legacy

Thurston is mentioned and appears briefly in Glen David Gold's novel Carter Beats the Devil (ISBN 0-7868-8632-3), concerning fellow stage magician Charles J. Carter and the Golden Age of magic in America. Thurston is also mentioned in two novels by Robert A. Heinlein: Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset and in the novel "The Best Team Ever" by Alan Alop and Doc Noel (ISBN 978-1935098027).

Thurston is quoted as a subject matter expert in Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People (ISBN 0-743272-773). He appears in Part Two, Chapter One ("Do This and You'll Be Welcome Anywhere").

External links

• "ThurstonMasterMagician.com - The #1 Source For Howard Thurston Information."
• Howard Thurston - Master Magician on YouTube
• Howard Thurston Encyclopædia Britannica
• "Digital Howard" Classic Schemes
• Howard Thurston, IMDb.com
• Howard Thurston posters, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts