Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

[Carter/Thayer] Important Archive of Charles Carter and Floyd Thayer Correspondence. Forty-two documents spanning 1922 – 1933, including letters, invoices, and telegrams between Carter the Great, the illusionist, and Floyd Thayer, owner and operator of his own famous Los Angeles-based magic factory. The letters discuss many of the feature illusions of the Carter show, including the Kellar Levitation he wishes to purchase (making an offer of $500 to Kellar’s family via Thayer to “take it off the market”), the Disembodied Princess (which Carter repeatedly offers $100 for, yet is rebuffed), and apropos of the era, the Sawing illusion constructed for Carter by Thayer. Regarding the latter, Thayer writes about reports of Carter’s show praising the trick: “…the Sawing a Woman illusion always being mentioned. This is where I shine in reflected glory.” Other matters include the shows of rivals and contemporary performers (Nicola, Kara, Jack Gwynne, and Cunning), as well as the methods for various tricks Thayer proposes to construct for Carter, the death of Carter’s lion, his Temple of Mystery at the Chicago World’s Fair, and general news of the time. Both typewritten and handwritten on a variety of Thayer letterheads and invoices, hotel stationery and telegrams, with Carter’s lengthy carbon responses present in many cases. The signatures of Carter, Thayer, and their employees in pencil and ink scattered throughout. A singular and revealing archive from the career of a successful and famous globe-trotting conjurer with the owner of the largest magic factory in the world, who constructed many of Carter’s greatest illusions. These letters portray a friendly business relationship between the principals, and several of Carter’s replies are filled with humor and evocative language, including one passage regarding the asking price for the Disembodied Princess: “I shall have to talk to myself very earnestly to induce that fellow known as “Carter the Great” to part with one hundred and fifty for the “Disembodied Princess,” as there are so many princesses with full bodies who can be had for considerably less!”