Original Signed 8 x 10 Photo of Adelaide Herrmann, recomendation inscription
A unique item. An original photo of Adelaide Herrmann, wife of the Magician Herrmann the Great. It's an 8 x 10 photo in good condition, it has a small stain at the bottom of the picture. What makes this unusual is that on the back it is signed to Magician Richard Davis. It is a two paragraph recommendation for the talents of Mr. Davis. Fred Richard Davis know as Richard Davis was a very well know Magician from New Hampshire. He performed from about 1903 to around 1930. He appeared as "Mysterious Davis," "The Great Davis" and "Davis The Man Who Mystifies." He played throughout New England with a full evening show, appearing in Lcyeum and Chautauqua.
Mrs. Herrmann gave him a great review and agreeded with the many fans who also attended his shows.
ADELAIDE HERRMANN
Successful magicienne and the widow oi the tamed Alexander Herrmann.
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Madame Adelaide Herrmann (1853-1932) was a superstar of the Golden Age of Magic. With her husband, the brilliant magician Alexander Herrmann, the beautiful and fiery Adelaide developed the first Grand Illusion show, playing worldwide to sold-out crowds for over twenty years. The Herrmanns were colorful characters - fun-loving, energetic and multi-lingual entertainers who surrounded themselves with exotic pets, famous celebrities and an aura of glamour. Adelaide, a natural athlete, performed many strenuous illusions, a solo trick bicycle act and even allowed herself to be shot from a cannon. At the height of their success the Herrmanns toured in their private railcar, relaxing during the off season at their Long Island mansion and aboard their private steam yacht.
In 1896, Alexander Herrmann died suddenly aboard their railcar while in the middle of a tour, leaving Adelaide deeply in debt. Madame Herrmann stepped into the magician's role - unheard of for a woman in that time - and re-opened the show at New York's Metropolitan Opera house just six weeks after her husband's death. Taking the title, The Queen of Magic, Adelaide Herrmann starred as a magician in American Vaudeville and European theaters for another three decades, until her retirement in 1928 at the age of seventy-four.
After her death in 1932, the famous Madame Herrmann slipped into oblivion. While beloved among magic historians and collectors, who carefully preserved her rich legacy of photos, posters and a multitude of ephemera, few beyond this rarefied world knew of her. She was known to have written a memoir, but after her death it did not appear. Then, in 2010, the manuscript of Adelaide Herrmanns memoir, having been passed among her descendants for seventy-eight years, finally surfaced.
Now Madame Herrmanns story is told at last, and what a story it is! Entitled Sixty-Five Years of Magic, Madame takes us on an amazing adventure, from her beginnings as a dancer and bicyclist, to her marriage to Alexander Herrmann and their subsequent tours of the U.S., Mexico, South America and Europe. She peppers her memoir with hilarious anecdotes, misadventures, accidents and the continuous outrageous antics of the husband she adored. She describes their show in minute detail, including her husband's magic repertoire and their baffling illusions which drew standing-room only audiences wherever they went. In heartrending detail, she tells the story of her husband's death. She then reinvents herself into the first great female magician, and takes us through yet another thirty years of solo adventures.
Adelaide Herrmann's memoir is published verbatim and complete. This volume also includes all five of Madame Herrmanns known published magazine articles, as well as selected letters to the editor, biographical articles, reviews, news stories and fashion pages. With an introduction and chapter notes by Margaret Steele, and 145 photos and images from many pre-eminent magic collections, this first-ever book on Madame Herrmann is a loving homage to the Queen of Magic.
