Customer Reviews

The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer"

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a recent inductee into the world of magic, and found Jim Steinmeyer's latest offering - about the strange life, and tragic death of turn-of-the-century magician William Robinson, better known as the 'Marvelous Chinese Conjurer' Chung Ling Soo - utterly fascinating.

Steinmeyer beautifully limns a portrait of the scrappy but sophisticated world of magic in the early days of vaudeville and music hall and brilliantly captures the personalities of the master magicians who commanded up to $5000 a week performing for rapt crowds who came to see miracles, and were rarely disappointed.

But more than that, Steinmeyer gives us an insider's look at the rivalries and deceptions that fueled the magic - the stealth and deception magicians practiced on each other in a desperate bid to become or remain a headliner on the vaudeville circuit.

His impeccably researched book details the strange dual life of Bill Robinson, who failed to captivate audiences as himself, but became one of the highest paid and most sought after mystifiers in the world as Chung Ling Soo - an elegant pastiche of a Chinese magician. Killed on stage while performing the infamous bullet catching trick, Harry Houdini (a friend and colleague who wisely refrained from ever attempting the trick) later theorized that Soo had been deliberately murdered, or committed a bizarre form of suicide. Steinmeyer's book not only illuminates what really happened during Soo's tragic final performance the night of March 23, 1918, he weaves a fascinating tale of deception, rivalry, and illusion in the dark world of magic 100 years ago.

Whether you're a historian, a magician, a theatre buff, or simply looking for a good summer read, "The Glorious Deception" delivers magic aplenty. Don't miss it!

I don't give out a lot of 5 star reviews. This book gets 5 stars from me because of 3 reasons:

1) It's a great story about a complicated and interestingly flawed person. Will Robinson was an ambitious showman, who recoginzed the flaws in his professional self and worked tirelessly to overcome them, but failed to overcome the flaws in his personal self, leaving an estranged wife and an abandoned son behind him. That he's a world-class illusionist and turn of the century entertainer makes him a lot more interesting.

2) The author is a great historical writer, and he brings turn of the 20th century vaudeville to life in a real page-turning way. He does a great job exploring not just the main character and his wives and children, but the giants of magic at the time. Will Robinson spent a lot of time going back and forth between the two greatest magicians of the day, who were also bitter rivals. You learn so much good stuff about Kellar and Herrmann that the book feels like it's two or three books in content, without being two or three books in length. The author must've worked really hard to keep the book this packed and this short and accessible.

3) And to me, this is what earned the 5th star in a big way: the author actually explains how the cutting edge (at the time) illusions worked. In detail. With no warnings about how "the brotherhood of magicians would kill me if they knew" or other such blather. He warns us at the beginning that illusionists don't protect the secrets from the audience, but the audience from the secrets. Once you know how it's done, you a) don't enjoy the trick anymore and b) feel foolish for not figuring it out yourself. So, knowing that ahead of time, when he reveals all the ingenious stuff the magicians build and skills they learn, he does it in a way that makes you feel like an insider, like a performer or production assistant. It makes you (well, it made me... your mileage may vary) feel like a part of the story somehow, since the discovery, invention, and espionage behind illusions is an important, sexy, and treacherous part of being a professional conjurer in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Anyway, that's why I love the book and give it a perfect score. Can't wait for his next one.

A great story. A Chinese vaudeville magician, shot on stage by one of his own tricks; his colleagues are fooled; his associates are bewildered; his wife insists it must have been an accident. And then the truth begins to unwind. He's not Chinese. He has another family. And his magic tricks are just the beginnings of his deceptions.

It sounds like an Agatha Christie mystery, or a Hitchcock film. But its actually a true story about one of the world's greatest magicians.

I was a fan of Steinmeyer's previous book, which was an examination of how magicians accomplished their tricks and the weird personalities behind the scenes. And Glorious Deception is even more exciting, a look at the world of magic, with colorful, amazing descriptions. The true tale of Chung Ling Soo will be a real surprise to many readers, and I recommend it highly. I loved this book.

Having been a magician for 35 years and having written the history of the bullet catching illusion, I can unequivocally recommend Jim Steinmeyer's newest book. It is well written, thoroughly researched and exciting, prodding the reader to fall back to times when vaudevillians were the biggest stars in the world, and the news of this vaudevillian's death was international news...and Steinmeyer proves that William Robinson's death and life still is!

I am a magic lecturer, author and performer. I am an internationally renowned entertainer, lecturer and author of five best selling books on the subject of Mental Magic. My interest and involvement in magic and mentalism spans 63 years. I am also the winner of the prestigious "Mentalist of the Year" award, the Psychic Entertainers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Milbourne Christopher Foundation Literary Award. I am a Gold Star member of England's prestigious Magic Circle, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and in February 2000 I was inducted into the Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame.

What does all this have to do with Jim Steinmeyer's brilliant book, "The Glorious Deception"- The Double Life of Willam Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer?" The above are my credentials for informing you that this book is a must read. Frankly, over the years I've read thousands of books related to the magicial arts and history, but without a doubt I've never read a book that I couldn't put down until I completely and most enjoyably devoured every one of it's 419 pages in one sitting. This is a classic history of stage magic and the colorful performers who made it magic's golden age. Even if you don't know the first thing about magic, you'll find this one of the most informative and entertaining reads you've ever encountered. Larry Becker

After reading most of this author's books, magazine articles, and columns in magic periodicals, I've concluded this is his best. Combining history, behind the scenes theater magic performance, and colorful character profiles of famous magicians that took part in this interesting and engaging story, Steinmeyer draws the reader into a compelling plot that is stranger than fiction. If you liked David Bamberg's (Fu Manchu) book "Illusion Show", you will love this book, as it surpasses that work by a mile. Would make a wonderful, powerful movie.

Really a wonderful book. As in "hiding the Elephant" Steinmeyer gives a vivid description of what was the magic business in the early years of the 20th century. The style is pleasant and quick to read. The hystorical details are all referenced. Really a must have if you are interested in the history of this wonderful art.

This is a wonderful book by a truly genius author. Also, if you haven't read Steinmeyer's "Hiding the Elephant" you are missing another great book.
Harry Monti
Society of American Magicians
National President 1999-2000

I enjoyed reading this book very much, and recommend it. Robinson was truly weird. Throughout the story I was both drawn to and repelled by him. It was not as well documented as some biographies I have read, but the writing style made it clear that this is not a "scholarly" book. So, with my expectations set for story-telling, I jumped aboard and had an enjoyable ride.

This is a quirky book - rather like having a conversation with an old-timer who can't tell a story without taking every opportunity to "chase rabbits" all over the place. So, although the book follows William Robinson's life from childhood until he died on the stage as Chung Ling Soo - the result of a magic trick gone horribly wrong, it is also the story of many of the characters (mostly famous magicians) with whom William Robinson was involved in his odd career. If you need a straight story line and dislike tracking the wild hare, reading this book will be torture. If you enjoy stories within stories, and would like to read a book that is easy to lay down between chapters and even easier to pick back up, you will appreciate this book.

Jim Steinmeyer, the author, did a great job with this "warts and all" biography. Steinmeyer could not help including a few explanations of tricks, but it is not a mechanic's tell-all book. Photos, though low quality, are scattered throughout and added flavor to the text. I thought even the footnotes were interesting.

I doubt people with no interest in magic would find this compelling. For them I would recommend "The Magician and the Cardsharp" by Karl Johnson. If you are interested in stories of magicians, this will quench your literary thirst.

When you go to a magic show, you are ready to be fooled. You know that it is impossible that a rabbit should materialize within a top hat except if someone secretly puts it there. You know that literally sawing a woman in half would quickly end the life of either half. It has to be some sort of trick! In the early twentieth century, Chung Ling Soo, "The Marvelous Chinese Conjurer", was splendidly adept at fooling audiences with tricks far more spectacular. The biggest trick, however, was that Chung Ling Soo was not Chinese; he was a New Yorker named William Ellsworth Robinson, and he kept this deception going until his final, fatal trick. He also was a bigamist who vanished from the life of his first wife and their child, married his assistant and business manager, and then found real family life with a mistress and the children they had together. He was an elusive, enigmatic fellow, and in _The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer"_ (Carroll & Graf) Jim Steinmeyer has given a full biography of one of the most amazing magicians who ever lived. Steinmeyer is himself a designer of stage illusions, and the author of various books about magic including the fascinating _Hiding the Elephant_. In that book, he gave a history of different tricks and explained how they were done; in this one, too, he reveals Soo's tricks because they are integral parts of Soo's life story (and his death). The explanations don't spoil anything; the descriptions of what the audience saw are far more tantalizing, not only giving a full idea of the magician as artist, but also making readers wish they could have been there for the shows.

Robinson began work in a magic manufacturing shop, making the sort of mechanical tricks that he would use throughout his career, and which would become more intricate as he became more famous. He was an assistant, rather than a working magician, for famous performers like Herrmann the Great and Harry Kellar. He had little stage presence, and was uncomfortable speaking in the theaters, or letting his personality show. He had discolored teeth so that he was reluctant to smile. These deficits would have doomed him to remain a mere assistant, but in 1899, the Chinese magician Ching Ling Foo came to New York, and Robinson studied the show carefully. Robinson went on to Europe with Chinese costumes and props, varied Foo's name a little to make himself Soo, and became a sensation. Soo kept in character when meeting with the press, using a "translator" who would relay answers to a reporter's questions. Soo pretended to know no English, and would spout oriental-sounding gibberish for the translator to work out. Steinmeyer spends many pages describing the history of the bullet-catching trick, which in 1918 was to take Soo's life. In 1906, Professor Blumenfeld botched some aspect of the trick and was killed, prompting Soo to say, "There is a danger in the trick, and I can tell you, as a matter of absolute fact, that every conjurer who has stuck to it has ended up being killed or seriously injured."

It proved to be too true in Soo's case. Steinmeyer explains the way Soo did the trick, and what went wrong; a legal investigation by a weapons expert revealed that the rifle, which Robinson had modified for the illusion years before, had malfunctioned. Magicians worldwide were shocked; Soo was probably the greatest to be brought down pretending to catch a bullet. Houdini, always interested in headlines, determined that he would do the trick immediately thereafter, but was talked out of it by Harry Kellar. Upon Soo's death, the public didn't learn the secret of the trick, but did learn about Soo's unusual marital arrangements and his distinctly non-Oriental origins. Usually, a magician leaves the stage and assumes a routine character in the real world. Steinmeyer's captivating biography shows, however, that it was Soo's distinction to bring illusion not just to his art but to his life.