Today’s audiences know that the rabbit did not “magically” appear inside the top hat; that it was concealed before the performer produced it. Similarly, we know that the illusionist is not actually sawing his assistant into two pieces.
However, there was a time when people believed that what they were witnessing was an apparition from the supernatural world and not some sort of clever deception.
Davenport Brothers Started Young
Ira and William Davenport were born in 1839 and 1841 respectively in Buffalo, New York just before the spiritualism movement was reached its peak of popularity.
The Davenport boy’s father, a policeman, was interested in spiritualism and held some sittings in the family home. They claimed some remarkable effects in contacting the spirit world including the levitation of their daughter Elizabeth.
According to the American Ghost Society, a spirit guide named John King urged the family to start “giving public performances of the Davenport brother’s reputed powers. The boys were only 16 and 14 when they went on stage for the first time in 1855.”
The early shows were tame stuff such as table tappings, “But soon the Davenport brothers began to introduce other phenomena into the act, like musical instruments which floated in the air, playing under their own power, and spirit hands that touched and pulled at sitters and audience members.”
At each show the Davenport Brothers were given the stamp of approval by the Reverend J. B. Ferguson, a believer in spiritualism. The Victorianist records that he “assured the audience that the brothers worked by spirit power rather than deceptive trickery. Ferguson was apparently sincere in his belief that the Davenports possessed spiritual powers.”
Invention of the Spirit Cabinet
The brothers soon became famous for their Spirit Cabinet. This was a wooden structure into which they were both placed and then tied up by members of the audience. When the doors of the box were closed the show began.
Disembodied hands poked through holes in the structure, “spirit” music would be played on instruments, and objects would come flying out of the top of the cabinet. But, when the doors were flung open the Davenport brothers would be there, tied up just as before.
The show toured the United States to great acclaim and then went to Britain.
Mistake Unmasks Davenport Brothers
In March 1865 the performers pulled into the English town of Cheltenham. Cabinet Magazine reports that the illusion was proceeding as usual during a midday performance but it ran into a hitch “when a tiny square of drapery fell from one of the room’s high windows, the unrestrained figure of Ira Davenport was momentarily seen throwing ‘spirit-animated’ musical instruments by hand from the cabinet’s interior.”
A local amateur magician John Nevil Maskelyne witnessed the slip up and figured out how the illusion was created.
Writing for Cotswold Life Steve Knibbs says that Maskelyn “later performed the effect, as a magic trick…to great fanfare in front of the press and hundreds of spectators. The Davenports were discredited.”
Numerous sources say the members of Britain’s Ghost Club, an organization that investigates paranormal events, examined the cabinet but the results of their analysis were never released. Since then, numerous magicians, such as Britain’s Paul Daniels, have performed the illusion.
Sources:
- “ ‘I Regard Spiritualism as One of the Greatest Curses that the World Has Ever Known.’ Or: The Fox Sisters & The Davenport Brothers.” The Victorianist, March 31, 2011.
- Jonathan Allen. “Sleight of Light,” Cabinet Magazine, Winter 2006-07.
- Steve Knibbs. "Now, That’s Magic,” Cotswold Life, undated.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
Join the Conversation