Summer Magic Auction

Thurston, Howard. Howard Thurston 1926-27 Tour Scrapbook. Green cloth bound book, small folio, approximately 100 leaves, filled both sides, and kept by Thurston or a member of his company and collecting the newspaper stories and scattered ephemera related to the magician’s America tours. Most clippings dated by two unknown hands in ink. Clipped pages, chips at page edges (some affecting text), binding worn and soiled, but intact. These two scrapbooks document some of the most prosperous years of Thurston’s career, spent touring the principal cities of America and smashing box office records in the process. “A National Necessity” is how the Thurston illusion show was billed from time to time, and the bombastic statement was almost true. After purchasing the route and illusions of Harry Kellar in 1908, Thurston became America’s best-known illusionist. The press stories, advertisements, and clippings collected in these scrapbooks explain part of that story. Thurston was a master of publicity, garnering newspaper headlines and coverage wherever he went. From performing in hospitals for sick children to capitalizing on the introduction of his daughter Jane to his show, to heralding new illusions in the act, and anything and everything in between, Thurston used it all to help beat the drum and sell tickets. These scrapbooks give readers a glimpse at how he did it.