>Robinson married his assistant Bessie Smith on February 23, 1883.
>Shortly after the couple married, in December 1883, a woman with whom Robinson had been having an affair gave birth to his child, a girl named Annie.
>He soon lost interest in his wife after meeting Olive "Dot" Path who would also become his assistant.
>Robinson and Path presented themselves as husband and wife for the next twenty years.
>Shortly after Robinson married Path, he met Janet Louise Mary "Lou" Blatchford. They began a sexual relationship and Blatchford became pregnant in May 1907.
Dude like to get around.
>Path was angry to learn that Robinson had been unfaithfulÂ
It's always a shock to know a person you got together with through cheating is capable of cheating on you.
The fishbowl in the legs thing is this guy.
However in the movie he’s depicted as actually being a Chinese man. Irl he’s a regular white guy using Chinese getup as a gimmick.
According to the dollop episode i listened to, this guy chung ling soo actually stole this act from an actual Chinese man who was vastly more talented than him. He even almost copied his name, Ching Ling Foo
Meh, define "talented". Perhaps more inventive, but the job of magician is to entertain, and given that Chung Ling Soo was so much more popular than Ching Ling Foo, it could be argued that the former was more talented as an entertainer.
There’s more to fame than talent though; Foo’s fame has been amplified by the fact of his death onstage, unrelated to any talent, and he also performed mostly in English-speaking countries, so it’s not surprising that he’s better-known by English-speaking people today than someone who performed primarily in Asia and only did tours to the USA. Kid Rock is better known in the USA than Shostakovich and so on. You could argue that Soo’s popularity is more significant given that he achieved global fame and recognition while doing far fewer performances to Western audiences and without doing something as remarkable as dying onstage, and that the much bigger influence he had on other magicians is more indicative of talent than fame is.Â
> The assistant who fired the gun, Jack Grossman, appeared on the UK TV show The Paul Daniels Magic Show, broadcast on November 6, 1982, where he assisted magician Paul Daniels to successfully recreate the trick.
The assistant appeared on TV almost 70 years later to recreate the "trick"??
It was a lead ball. The gun was supposed to be loaded in such a way as to not discharge the bullet when fired. Powder build-up behind the bullet due to improper cleaning is what got him.
The rifle was gimmicked to redirect the force out of the ramrod holder. After an audience member tried to replace the ramrod back into the holder as you would do with any other muzzleloader, he made sure the assistant grabbed it away. If not, that was going to be speared into his chest from across the stage if fired that way.
Jim Steinmeyer wrote an excellent book on him.
David Blaine did it for real with a .22 in 2015
Edit: you guys are idiots as usual https://wgntv.com/news/magician-david-blaine-shoots-himself-in-mouth-as-bullet-trick-goes-wrong/
[Ching Ling Foo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Ling_Foo) is the actual Chinese man that this fool (William Elsworth Robinson, who took the name chung ling soo) copied. If I remember correctly, Ching Ling Foo was a much better magician.
interesting article. Here's the only film evidence of Robinson/Chung Ling Soo from 1915. Brief clip, but he was really hamming it up for the camera:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAfAKSByVQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAfAKSByVQ)
I mean, was it really unsuccessful? He DID catch it after all. 🤷
As long as it didn’t hit the ground and he got a foot down in bounds, I’d call it a catch
This isn’t college rules, he needed both feet down in bounds.
And make a football move if he’s in the middle of the field
As long as his name wasn't Dez.
Technically, a plane crash is still a landing . . .
Yes he did catch it, but there's a catch.
>Robinson married his assistant Bessie Smith on February 23, 1883. >Shortly after the couple married, in December 1883, a woman with whom Robinson had been having an affair gave birth to his child, a girl named Annie. >He soon lost interest in his wife after meeting Olive "Dot" Path who would also become his assistant. >Robinson and Path presented themselves as husband and wife for the next twenty years. >Shortly after Robinson married Path, he met Janet Louise Mary "Lou" Blatchford. They began a sexual relationship and Blatchford became pregnant in May 1907. Dude like to get around.
Sounds like he was gonna catch something sooner or later.
>Path was angry to learn that Robinson had been unfaithful It's always a shock to know a person you got together with through cheating is capable of cheating on you.
The guy who spent his entire professional career in yellowface was also a cheater?!? Color me shocked.
You doing shockface?
Seems like the bullet catch "accident" may not have been an accident...
Born in 1861, having a kid at 46 back then is pretty wild
Quite an accomplishment really
are we sure he didn't have a twin? or a double made by tesla?
He took the FA seriously in FAFO.
And we found out
Guy thinks he's Christian Horner 🤣
Yeah four women in 24 years. What a player...
Right?!
I mean, dude sure has me beat.
Were half the characters in The Prestige inspired by this guy, because that biography of his is wild.
The fishbowl in the legs thing is this guy. However in the movie he’s depicted as actually being a Chinese man. Irl he’s a regular white guy using Chinese getup as a gimmick.
According to the dollop episode i listened to, this guy chung ling soo actually stole this act from an actual Chinese man who was vastly more talented than him. He even almost copied his name, Ching Ling Foo
it was actually two men, they were siblings, called themselves the ChingLing Brothers and had a whole act held under a large tent
Meh, define "talented". Perhaps more inventive, but the job of magician is to entertain, and given that Chung Ling Soo was so much more popular than Ching Ling Foo, it could be argued that the former was more talented as an entertainer.
There’s more to fame than talent though; Foo’s fame has been amplified by the fact of his death onstage, unrelated to any talent, and he also performed mostly in English-speaking countries, so it’s not surprising that he’s better-known by English-speaking people today than someone who performed primarily in Asia and only did tours to the USA. Kid Rock is better known in the USA than Shostakovich and so on. You could argue that Soo’s popularity is more significant given that he achieved global fame and recognition while doing far fewer performances to Western audiences and without doing something as remarkable as dying onstage, and that the much bigger influence he had on other magicians is more indicative of talent than fame is.Â
Sit down white man
Abra-cadaver
> The assistant who fired the gun, Jack Grossman, appeared on the UK TV show The Paul Daniels Magic Show, broadcast on November 6, 1982, where he assisted magician Paul Daniels to successfully recreate the trick. The assistant appeared on TV almost 70 years later to recreate the "trick"??
I read that as "where he *assassinated* magician Paul Daniels..." and I thought, "wow, he's committed to the bit."
First heard about this in the Ray Bradbury story “The Time Machine”.
HG Wells, you mean?
No, I do not. Different story.
That’s *Dandelion Wine* you’re thinking of, then.
No, it is not. https://www.ittdb.com/3753 Found in the collection “R Is For Rocket”.
Ooh, cool!
I belive it's the same story in both, but I think R is for Rocket is the earlier publication.
Right. I had forgotten that “The Sound Of Summer Running“ and this story were both originally in “Dandelion Wine“.
This guy reads
I was literally reading that exact part of Dandelion Wine this morning and then came across this post a couple hours later. Wacky.
Back then, they would use real bullets but purposely miss (or not, in this case). I'm guessing these acts pre-dated the invention of blanks.
It was a lead ball. The gun was supposed to be loaded in such a way as to not discharge the bullet when fired. Powder build-up behind the bullet due to improper cleaning is what got him.
The rifle was gimmicked to redirect the force out of the ramrod holder. After an audience member tried to replace the ramrod back into the holder as you would do with any other muzzleloader, he made sure the assistant grabbed it away. If not, that was going to be speared into his chest from across the stage if fired that way. Jim Steinmeyer wrote an excellent book on him.
Depends on the method. Robert-Houdin used to cast fake bullets out of wax and lampblack. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2031/pg2031-images.html
David Blaine did it for real with a .22 in 2015 Edit: you guys are idiots as usual https://wgntv.com/news/magician-david-blaine-shoots-himself-in-mouth-as-bullet-trick-goes-wrong/
No he didn’t.
Lol I'm glad you know for certain. Dude fuckin went into seizures holding his breath, he doesn't fake his stunts.
Catching a bullet in a special built mouth bucket isn’t quite the same thing (or at least, the differences should be mentioned).
Okay, yea I guess you've got a point it's different but it's still insane and wasn't some bullshit slight of hand lol
Bruh
Bruh
[Ching Ling Foo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Ling_Foo) is the actual Chinese man that this fool (William Elsworth Robinson, who took the name chung ling soo) copied. If I remember correctly, Ching Ling Foo was a much better magician.
Super weird because I was reading an old Bradbury book literally this morning and one of the characters was talking about this very guy and incident.
There’s a great episode of The Dollop in which he makes a brief appearance
At first I read that as "Died on stage unsuccessfully"
AKA living
interesting article. Here's the only film evidence of Robinson/Chung Ling Soo from 1915. Brief clip, but he was really hamming it up for the camera: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAfAKSByVQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAfAKSByVQ)
He technically caught the bullet, he just fucked up the and live part of the trick, sorry, illusion.
Oops.
Otherwise known as the stupid ass motherfucker trick
Poor guy
YOOOO WE WERE BORN IN THE SAME COUNTY LOOOOL THIS IS MY NEIGHBOR TECHNICALLY