GERMAIN, Karl (Charles Mattmueller, 1878–1959). IMPORTANT ARCHIVE OF KARL GERMAIN/PAUL FLEMING GEMMILL CORRESPONDENCE. Being a gathering of ALSs, TLSs, postcards, and other correspondence written by Karl Germain, the famed illusionist and stage magician, to his assistant, student, successor and friend, Paul Fleming and spanning the years 1908 to 1959.
Beginning on May 26, 1908 with a letter from Germain to Fleming regarding potential employment, the archive concludes with two telegrams from Cleveland magicians John Grdina and Stuart Cramer, informing Fleming about Germain’s death. However, in the fifty years chronicled by the correspondence between those dates, a professional and personal history is recorded in German’s eloquent style, in letters laden with humor, gossip, technical information, the secrets behind many of his best-kept inventions, and above all, his own clear voice.
Germain not only conducts the business of his touring magic show in letters to Germain during the formative years of their relationship, from approximately 1910–1917, when Fleming worked first as Germain’s on-stage and backstage assistant, but also as his successor. (For a time, Fleming toured the familiar Chautauqua and Lyceum routes of rural America billed as Karl Germain; later he performed under his own name.) Germain discusses the routes his company will take (and early on, includes a hand-written route sheet), the towns they will play (commenting on the good and bad aspects of many stops), and the effects the company will present. He also explains the working of sleight-of-hand tricks, occasionally illustrating them with sketches. In later years, Germain discusses Fleming’s performances as a conjurer, offering suggestions on presentation and patter, writing lines and partial scripts for his friend, and frequently offering suggestions for the presentation of various effects Germain devised and made famous, among them the Flowering Rose Bush, the Water Jars, Asrah Levitation, Dr. Faustus routine, and other signature feats. Fleming purchased many of Germain’s original props and used them in his own performances.
Germain also describes his second career as an attorney (hampered by his failing eyesight), all the while weaving gossip and information regarding magicians of the era into his missives. He writes regarding contemporaries including Edward Maro, Dana Walden, Richard Davis, and Edwin Brush, all compatriots who toured the same circuits on which Germain flourished. But he writes, too, of the big illusion shows of the era, including Thurston (in mostly unflattering terms, though occasionally with kind personal words); of the Houdini show and Houdini’s crusade against spirit mediums at length in the last years of Houdini’s life; and of his retired idols, Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar. Of the latter he was clearly enamored, calling him “Papa Kellar.”
The tone of the letters transforms as the years pass from employer-employee to one of deep and lasting personal friendship. (In 1910, Germain writes to “Mr. Gemmill”; only a few years later after they have spent several seasons touring together, he addresses him as “Paulus,” signs his letters “Germainius Rex I,” and later still Germain discusses all manner of personal information, from his health and his progressive blindness to the fact that has never been married, to the death of his mother and father, and even later his need for constant assistance in typing letters at all (Germain admits to having a cousin compose his letters on the typewriter while he dictated the contents, but later, without assistance, he writes the letters in an increasingly scratchy and hard-to-read hand, in pencil).
Comprised of all manner of postcards, lettergrams, TLSs, ALSs, telegrams, and handwritten notes, the archive is remarkably well-preserved, with occasional wear, staining, and old folds from mailing as expected, but with the letters and cards generally in good to very good condition. Very few original mailing covers have been retained. Germain frequently embellishes the letters and postcards with humorous comments, drawings and captions (sometimes humorous, sometimes decorative), includes poems he has composed, and occasionally sketches out rough impressions of magic props, stage illusions, and other relevant images that impart directions or suggestions to Fleming for his own show, or to explain the working of some of his own routines. Among the latter are several letters by Germain explaining the construction, packing, and details of his one-man Spirit Cabinet, a routine he developed after his Chautauqua and Lyceum heyday, the secret of which was not revealed in the books authored by Stuart Cramer that chronicle Germain’s life and magic.
Several handwritten missives from Fleming are also part of the archive, among them a holographic letter (marked “copy”) of an important letter in which Fleming writes to Germain in 1910, asking for a job as his assistant, and a salary to go along with it: “I must admit that a position with your company appeals to me. As to the salary, the following figures do not, to me, seem exorbitant: $25 per week and transportation, or, $10 per week, hotel expenses and transportation. As to my ability, doubtless Mr. Laurant will advise you, and his report compares favorably with what he has told me … no further recommendation will be necessary.” Also included with the archive are Mr. Jay’s holographic notations highlighting the contents of the first four years of correspondence, written on lined legal sheets.
A remarkable archive spanning over half a century, and certainly one of the most significant and sizeable records of a storied and historically important career of a stage magician from magic’s “golden age” extant.