A Woman to Know: Adelaide Herrmann
I received an immediate offer; but to accept it was to throw away all that we had so long worked for. — Adelaide Herrmann
I received an immediate offer; but to accept it was to throw away all that we had so long worked for. — Adelaide Herrmann
(image via Wikimedia Commons)
When she was 22, Adelaide had already failed at several jobs: she’d tried being a ballerina, dancing on Broadway and working in burlesque. She finally found work as a magician’s assistant in Herrmann the Great’s show, a Victorian New York sensation.
Adelaide eventually married Herrmann himself, helping develop his act and even inventing illusions of her own. Clumsy Herrmann had a hard time performing Adelaide’s delicate magic tricks, so she had to save many of them for hopes that one day she could do them on her own.
Her chance came 20 years later, when Herrmann suddenly passed away. Investors came to Adelaide with offers to buy the show, but she had ideas of her own. She took over the act herself — keeping the name “Herrmann the Great,” as she was now the great one — and finally debuting some of the illusions she’d conjured decades ago. She wowed audiences by escaping from coffins onstage, catching bullets seemingly in mid-air and even levitating off the ground, her long gowns trailing behind her.
Finally taking her place in the spotlight, Adelaide thrived. She packed out New York City’s largest venues and reveled in the attention. Her “Noah’s Ark” show drew thousands; Adelaide put 200 different animals on stage and performed vaudeville alongside her magic. Newspapers crowned her “The Queen of Magic.”
She continued performing well into her 70s, even surviving a warehouse fire in 1926 that wiped out many of her props and illusions (yes, even many of the Ark animals). She died in 1932, at the age of 79, having planned to perform large stage shows even in old age.
Add to your library list:
Adelaide Herrmann, Queen of Magic (Margaret Bungay Steele)
Anything but Ordinary Addie (Mara Rockliff)
Read more:
She caught bullets with her bare hands (Narratively)
Mme. Herrman Is Dead (The New York Times)
Why have women magicians vanished? (Pacific Standard)
LA’s female magicians making the glass ceiling disappear (LA Weekly)
Hear more:
See more:
Poster Art from the Golden Age of Magic (Smithsonian)
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