Daisy White's Final Resting Place Found

 

Daisy White, whose real name was Gertrude Nickerson, is buried in the St. Michaels Cemetery in East Elmhurst NY. She was an assistant to Servais LeRoy, Frank Ducrot, and possibly Houdini at some point. She was a demonstrator for Frank Ducrot and also worked as his secretary. Daisy is the model for the illusions in the Jarrett Book by Guy Jarrett. 

I wrote about her on my blog and spoke about her on my podcast. BTW, the podcast has the incorrect information about her grave. THIS is the correct info. It's been so difficult to track her down, but someone did independent of me. Thankfully we have the information. She died July 20th, 1957.

There is a gravestone which was dedicated in 2017 with her name Daisy White and also Gertrude Nickerson on it. It says 'Vaudeville Dancer' and mentions her associations with magicians. I do not have a photo of the grave, nor do I have the exact location. Prior to the gravestone she laid in an unmarked grave.

The cemeteries website is:  https://stmichaelscemetery.com/

Ira Davenport

Ira Erastus Davenport was one half of the Davenport Brothers. His brother William Henry being the other brother. In the mid 1800s they presented a Spirit Cabinet effect to great acclaim during the rise of Spiritualism. They performed it in the States and in Europe and South America. 

William Henry died in Australia and his brother essentially gave up the act at that point. He returned to Mayville NY, not far from the Spiritualism capital of Lily Dale. 

In later life he befriended Houdini and shared with him his technique that was used to produce the various spirit phenomenon. The brothers never claimed to have supernatural powers, nor did they claim they were fakes. They left that up to the audience to decide.

He died in 1911. Ira is bored in the Mayville Cemetery, in Mayville NY. plot 0132 B2

 

Olive Dot Robinson Gravesite

When it comes to one of the greatest magician's assistants in history, surely one of the early ones was also one of the best. Olive Robinson was the wife of William E. Robinson. For a time she worked as Harry Kellar's chief assistant in his show. Later, when the Robinson's were wooed away by Alexander Herrmann, she became an assistant in his show. And when her husband, William Ellsworth Robinson hired her to be his chief assistant as well.

Her husband, in the roll of Chung Ling, was tragically killed on stage while presenting the Bullet Catch mystery in 1918. In 1922, Olive packed her bags and left England to head back to America. Oddly, she didn't tell anyone she had returned.Word was she was embarrassed by the death of her husband and the varied rumors surrounding the death.

When she arrived in New York in 1922, she didn't tell anyone she was here. She lived until the ripe old age of 71 passing away on Nov 13, 1934. She is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In 2016 magic historian Diego Domingo raised money for a stone market to be placed on Dot's grave.

The grave of Magic Dealer Otto Maurer

Otto Maurer was a magician and magic dealer who ran his own magic shop in the basement of 321 Bowery in NY for 28 years. His shop was a popular hang out for professionals and amatuer magicians. Houdini and Thurston both learned the then underground move (no pun intended) called the Back Palm from Maurer. To read more about Otto Maurer, please visit TheMagicDetective.com
Otto Maurer died of cancer at the age of 53 on May 15th, 1900.

He is buried in The Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens. The actual location is Public Lot 3, Map 5, Row 25, Grave 25.

Fakir of Ava's Grave

photo courtesy of Dave Pape

The Fakir of Ava was really Isaiah Harris Hughes and was born in Essex England on December 25, 1810. He moved to America and took the name of a previous employer and became The Fakir of Ava. Hughes traveled across the US during the Civil War and did quite well. He developed a type of show called 'The Gift Show' where he would give out basically inexpensive door prizes to audience members. This scheme really helped his business and he was able to retire with a good deal of money.

He was also Harry Kellar's mentor. The story is that Hughes put an ad in the paper looking for an assistant. A young Harry Kellar saw the ad and applied for the job. Kellar was met at the door by Hughes dog and Hughes told him to come in. Harry got the job! The reason...Harry Kellar was the first person that applied for the job that the dog actually liked!

Harry Kellar stayed with the Fakir of Ava and worked as his assistant for a number of years. When The Fakir felt that Harry was ready to go out on his own as a magician, he gave his blessing and off Harry went.

The Fakir of Ava died on May 24th, 1891 and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo New York. Along with the Fakir of Ava, President Millard Filmore is also buried in Forest Lawn. Here is the New York Times Obituary for the Fakir of Ava. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0CEED6163AE533A25756C2A9639C94609ED7CF

The website for the cemetery is http://www.forest-lawn.com

Adelaide Herrmann - Grave

photo courtesy of Richie Magic & Barbara Nista

The Queen of Magic, Adelaide Herrmann was the wife/widow of Alexander Herrmann. After her husband died on a train in 1896, Adelaide decided to carry on the show. First, she sent for her nephew Leon Herrmann from Europe to fill in for Alexander. This partnership only lasted a short time and then Adelaide created a solo act of her own.

In 1926, a fire in a NYC Warehouse destroyed most of the props from the Herrmann show, but with the help of other professional magicians like Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone, Adelaide began to rebuild.

She passed away Feb 19, 1932. She had been writing her memoirs at the time but never finished them. An attempt was made to publish the memoirs after her death but the Great Depression prevented that from happening. Then in 2011, Margaret Steele had the good fortune to locate and acquire the manuscript and she later published a very wonderful version of Adelaide Herrmann's Memoirs.

Adelaide is buried next to her husband Alexander in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx NY in the Oak Hill section.

Alexander Herrmann Grave

photo courtesy of Richie Magic & Barbara Nista

Here lies Herrmann The Great! Alexander Herrmann, youngest brother to Compars Herrmann, son to Samuel Herrmann and wife to Adelaide Herrmann. He began his career assisting his brother Compars. Some say that he had been kidnapped by his older brother, but I'm not so sure. In any case, they worked together until Alexander was proficient enough to go out on his own. One of their more prestigious shows was for President and Mrs. Lincoln at the White House in Washington D.C..

Both Alexander and Compars were excellent magicians, but Alexander also added comedy into his routines. In addition, Alexander also played the part of magician off stage as well as on. When out at a restaurant or while shopping he would cause some magical event to happen that would surprise everyone around him. On a few occasions this impromptu magic show backfired and Herrmann had to scramble to 'fix' the situation. One example was when he produced a diamond ring while at dinner. He showed it to a waitress who said it belonged to her and took it. Herrmann had to plead with the restaurant manager to get the ring back.

Alexander Herrmann died on his own private train car on December 17th, 1896 while in route to a show in Pennsylvania. After he died, his wife Adelaide took over the show and brought in nephew Leon Herrmann to fill the spot left behind by Alexander.

Alexander Herrmann is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx NY in the Oak Hill section. Adelaide's grave is right next to his.

Washington Irving Bishop's Grave

Washington Irving Bishop was a Victorian Era Mentalist/Mind Reader, or what we might think of today as a Psychic Entertainer. One of his signature feats was driving a horse drawn carriage blind folded. He got his start working with Anna Eva Fay and later Jacob Randall Brown. He had an interesting life and an even more interesting death which you can read about here, http://www.themagicdetective.com/2011/03/strange-life-death-of-washington-irving.html

Bishop is buried in the Green-wood Cemetery 500 25th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11232
He is buried in Lot 5628 Section 117
Died May 13th, 1889

Harry Houdini - Grave

 This is by far the ultimate in magic graves. It's beyond grand and probably out of place in a Jewish Cemetery. But it's all Houdini. In 1916, Harry Houdini decided have a massive marble monument built for the family plot he purchased at the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, NY. He had his father and mother and older brother Herman moved to the family plot.

The entire Houdini family is here, with one exception, Bess, his wife. She is listed as being buried here but she is not. Because Bess was Catholic, she is in a different cemetery. There are two graves that have no tombstone, apparently the stones need to be repaired and have remained unrepaired for a long time. Those graves are of Leopold and Gladys.

Recently, the Houdini Museum in Scranton PA took it upon themselves to have the bust recreated and restored to the gravesite. The original has been destroyed by vandals and then a duplicate was later stolen. Suffice to say the Houdini grave has not been treated kindly over the years.

It should be noted that Houdini started the tradition of the 'Broken Wand' Ceremony. This is a ceremony conducted after the passing of a fellow magician. A magic wand is broken to signify that their earthly magic has passed on. As far as I know, the Broken Wand Ceremony is carried out every Halloween at the Houdini Gravesite by the Parent Assembly #1.

Carter The Great - Grave

Charles Joseph Carter, better known as Carter the Great was born in 1874 in New Castle Penn. Along with his credentials as a magician, Carter was also a lawyer, he ran an entertainment agency, he was a producer and a journalist running his own entertainment trade magazine for a period of time.

Instead of fighting over the same showbiz crumbs in America, Carter eventually decided to take his show on the road, well actually on the seas and perform around the world! He toured the globe 7 times, though I am not sure the seventh tour was officially completed as he died in while on tour.

The link above give a little more detailed account of his life than I am giving you here. If you'd like a fantastic account of the life of this world traveling performer then you'll want to locate a copy of Mike Caveney's Carter Book. It's simply fantastic. The information comes direct from Charles Carter's scrapbooks and notebooks. The stories are out of this world.

In fact, I'll share with you one quick story that I also mention over at my other blog. At the end of one of Carter's tours overseas, he tried to book passage on a new ocean liner. He was denied passage however because there was no available storage for his props. It seems some very wealthy people had booked passage on this ship as well and took up most of the available storage. It was a good thing too because that ship was the TITANIC!

Charles Carter died while on tour in Feb of 1936. He is buried in the family plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens NY. The photo below is provided by Richie Magic. I'll try and post another photo of the entire tombstone if/when one becomes available.

photo courtesy of Richie Magic

The Grave of Signor Blitz

Signor Blitz was born Antonio Van Zandt in Deal, England on June 21, 1810. He was the predecessor of Heller, Herrmann and Kellar. He was such a successful entertainer that many performers adopted his name and started to perform as Blitz. The Illustrated History of Magic states that there were as many as 13 performers using the name Signor Blitz, many of whom even copied his advertising and posters.

Hardeen -Theodore 'Dash' Weiss

Brother of Houdini and quite the performer in his own right. Theo, was born Feb 29th. For those unfamiliar that is leap year so he'd only have a birthday every 4 years. Today would be his birthday IF it were a leap year, but it's March 1st so no cake!