Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Grave of FuManchu-David Bamberg

David Bamberg was the last of the long line of the Bamberg Dynasty of Magicians. He was born in England on February 19th, 1904 to Theodore and Lily Bamberg. Theo performed under the stage name OKITO. As a youth David worked in Howard Thurston's show playing the part of a child volunteer during the Eggs in the Hat routine. Later David performed under the name Syko and worked with the mind reading team The Zancigs. He also toured with the Great Raymond. Years later he followed more in his fathers footsteps and became Fu-Manchu and took his own show on the road.

David toured extensively through Mexico and the South American countries. He made several movies while in Mexico. And later he settled in Buenos Aires. After he retired in the 1960s he opened a magic shop and ran that until he died on August 19, 1974. An old issue of Genii Magazine states that David has no grave as his ashes were scattered at sea. However, thanks to Magic Historian Martin Pacheco, I am now aware of the full story. According to Martin, David Bamberg was buried in the Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, his wife Lolo did not take care of the upkeep of the grave and in fact no one did. Twenty years after David Bamberg had died, a magic society went to the cemetery to pay tribute to FuManchu and this is when they discovered the grave was gone. Sometime in the twenty years after he died, his remains had been moved to a common grave which is unknown. To see a photo of the grave, watch the latest episode of The Magic Detective on Youtube (ep5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp3qbUx8pH8

David Bamerg's life story is contained in the book ILLUSION SHOW by David Bamberg and put out by Meyerbooks. Get a copy of the book if you can find it, it's an amazing life story!

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