David Devant
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For the band, see David Devant & His Spirit Wife.
David Devant
Born 22 February 1868
Died 13 October 1941 (aged 73)
Occupation Magician
David Devant (22 February 1868 – 13 October 1941) was
an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David
Wighton in Holloway, London.[1] He is regarded by magicians as a consummate
exponent of suave and witty presentation of stage illusion. [2] According to magic
historian Jim Steinmeyer, Devant was “England’s greatest magician — arguably
the greatest magician of the 20th Century”. [3]
Contents
1Magic career
2Legacy
3Publications
4Selected filmography
5Notes
6External links
Magic career[edit]
Devant was a member of the famous Maskelyne & Cooke company and performed
regularly at the Egyptian Hall.[4]
Managed by Julian Wylie, [5] in 1905 Devant became a partner with John Nevil
Maskelyne, who was succeeded by Oswald Williams. Devant is revered by
magicians as an inventor and performer whose stature led to him being invited to
participate in Royal Command Performances.[2]
He was droll, engaging and a master of grand illusion and platform magic. The wit
of his patter marked a departure from the pseudo scientific style of earlier
conjurors. This humour can still delight, as evidenced by stage lines he includes in
the treatise he wrote with Nevil Maskelyne, Our Magic. It has been claimed
that Queen Alexandra laughed aloud during Devant's "A Boy, Girl and Eggs"
routine at the first of his Royal Command Performances, where an assistant from
the audience was given the (losing) task of keeping track of a bewildering number
of eggs plucked from an empty hat by the magician.
Among Devant's signature routines was his "Magic Kettle", which produced, on
demand, any alcoholic beverage called for by the audience, and "Mascot Moth", an
instantaneous vanish of a winged assistant. [6]
Critics of Devant claim many of the items in his repertoire were elaborated
sketches in which the magical element was insufficient to justify the staging. In its
day, however, Devant's magic was the talk of London. He was already a top-of-the-
bill music hall star when he began sharing the stage with John Neville Maskelyne
in 1893. In 1904, the two moved to St George's Hall, and their official business and
professional partnership was established soon afterwards. It was to prosper for ten
years.
Maskelyne and Devant's House of Magic became famous all over the world, and
was the showcase for the premier magicians of the day, including Paul
Valadon, Charles Bertram and Buatier de Kolta. In My Magic Life, Devant says that
their theatre was "the veritable headquarters of the conjurer's art".
Milbourne Christopher, in his book Magic: A Picture History, wrote that "most
British magicians agree, [Devant] was the master performer of his time". [2]
Devant was a fixture in British entertainment and it was he who was selected to
represent "the world of wizardry" at King George V's command performance at the
Palace Theatre in London on 1 July 1912. Devant made headlines not long after
when an escaped mental patient cornered him in London and insisted that the
conjurer pull coins from the air as he had been seen to do on stage. Devant did so
until attendants arrived from the hospital to take the disturbed spectator away. [7]
Elliott O'Donnell featured the pair in his 1912 occult novel The Sorcery Club. A
highlight is the exposure of all their tricks by a group of *real* sorcerers.
Devant was a pioneer of early cinema in London. On 19 March 1896 Devant
showed the first films ever seen in the UK. These Edison films were shown at
Maskelyne’s Egyptian Hall using a film projector (known as the Theatrograph)
made by R.W. Paul, two days before Paul himself demonstrated his new machine
in public at Olympia. Also that year Devant began his association with the pioneer
of cinematic special effects, Georges Méliès, to whom he sold a Theatrograph.
Devant then toured the country showing films, and for a time became Méliès’ sole
agent in Great Britain selling both his films and cameras. As well as being an early
exhibitor of film, Devant appeared in three films made by Paul and another by
Méliès (D. Devant, prestidigitation, 1897).[8][9][10] Méliès also used one of Devant’s
stage acts, which involved making a portrait of a woman come to life, to create his
1903 film, The Spiritualist Photographer (Le Portrait Spirite).[11][12]
Devant was still at the peak of his profession when his health began to fail during
the war years, until the consequences of "paralysis agitans", as he identifies it in
his autobiography, forced him to retire in 1920.
According to the magician John Booth, Devant managed to fool a number of
people into believing he had genuine psychic ability who did not realize that his
feats were magic tricks. At St. George's Hall, London, he performed a fake
"clairvoyant" act where he would read a message sealed inside an
envelope. Oliver Lodge who was present in the audience was duped by the trick
and claimed that Devant had used psychic powers. In 1936 Devant in h
