This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/24/2024
[CHUNG Ling Soo]. ALS Regarding Soo’s Death from His Mistress. Dated April 19, 1918, less than one month after Soo’s tragic death on stage, and written on black-bordered mourning stationery entirely in the hand of Lou Robinson, the mistress of Chung Ling Soo and mother of three of his children, she writes to magician Stanley Collins regarding the death of her beloved. In part: “My poor darling was loved by everybody, he was a real white man. The cross is very heavy but I just feel that he is only waiting for me, and I hope that God will grant my wish and let me join him soon. We just lived for each other. … You are certainly correct in saying that no other magician can fill his place, he was a marvellous man in every way.” One folded 8vo sheet, with the original mailing cover addressed in her hand to Stanley Collins. Old mailing folds and chips. SIGNED “Lou Robinson.”
Robinson was married three times, but never to Lou, the mother of his children and the author of this letter. The details of this relationship and the many aspects of his double life (including his wife, Dot Robinson, who was known professionally as Suee Seen), are laid bare in The Glorious Deception by Jim Steinmeyer.