P. T. Selbit
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P. T. Selbit (1881 - 1938) was an English magician and inventor who is credited with being the first person to perform the illusion of sawing a woman in half.
His birth name was Percy Thomas Tibbles and he was born in Hampstead, London. He learned magic at an early age and became a professional illusionist in the early 1900s. He has been reported as working a "pseudo-Egyptian" act under the name Joad Heteb between 1902 and 1908. Later he created the stage name P. T. Selbit by spelling his last name backwards and dropping one of the "B"s.[1]
He appears to have been a prolific inventor of illusions. In addition to his famous sawing illusion he is credited with devising Walking through a Wall (1914), Girl/Man without a Middle (1924), Through the Eye of a Needle (1924), The Million Dollar Mystery, Stretching a Girl, and Avoiding the Crush, The Mighty Cheese, Selbit's Blocks and possibly also the Siberian Chain Escape.[2][3]
[edit] Sawing through a woman
There are many versions of the illusion of sawing through a woman or sawing a woman in half as well as other illusions that are based around that theme. There is also a debate as to the exact origins of the idea, with some suggesting there is a record of it from 1809 or that the idea can be traced back to ancient Egypt.[4] However Selbit is generally recognised as the first magician to perform such a trick on a public stage, which he did in London in 1921.
In his version a female assistant got into a wooden box that was similar in proportion to a coffin but slightly larger. She was secured there by ropes around her wrists, ankles and neck. The box was then closed, obscuring her from view. After the box was placed in a horizontal position, Selbit sawed through the middle of it with a large hand saw. The impression given to the audience was that, because of the restraints and limited room in the box, the assistant's waist must have been in the path of the saw and she would surely have been cut through. Finally the box was opened and the assistant, still with ropes attached, was revealed as unharmed.
The impact of the illusion was immense and Selbit became a box office hit. Other magicians rapidly attempted to emulate and improve upon it. Within months, Horace Goldin presented a version in which the assistant's head, hands and feet were seen in full view throughout the trick. Goldin later produced sawing illusions that dispensed with a covering box and ultimatey used a large buzzsaw.[5][4] Another variant, which owed something to Selbit's original, was created by Alan Wakeling. However Selbit retains his place in history as the first to present a sawing trick, and thus as a figure who shaped popular perceptions of stage illusions for decades.
[edit] Published work
- Selbit is credited as writing The Magician's Handbook (1901)
- Also, from 1905 to 1910, he edited a magic magazine called The Wizard, which, under another editor, later became The Magic Wand.[6][7][8]
[edit] References
- ^ Brief Biographies of Magican Inventors. MagicNook.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Dusty Tomes: A Guide to the History of Magic. Magical Past Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Brief Biographies of Magican Inventors. MagicNook.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ a b Brown, Gary R.. Sawing a Woman in Half. AmericanHeritage.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
- ^ Magic or Conjuring. The History Channel website. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
- ^ Publications old and new. MagicTricks.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
- ^ Kalush, William & Sloman, Larry, “Footnotes to Chapter 12: Death Visits the Stage”, The Secret Life of Houdini, The Conjuring Arts Research Center, <http://www.conjuringarts.org/houdini/Houdini%20footnotes%20Chapter%2012%20v.%201.1.pdf>. Retrieved on 29 March 2007
- ^ Digital Magic Wand Magazine on CD-ROM. Misdirections. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
[edit] Further reading
- Eric C. Lewis & Peter Warlock, P.T. Selbit: Magical Innovator, Magical Publications (1989), ISBN 0915181193
- Jim Steinmeyer, Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear, Carroll & Graf, (reprint August 2004), ISBN 0786714018
- Jim Steinmeyer, Art and Artifice: And Other Essays of Illusion, Carroll & Graf, (September 2006), ISBN 0786718064
- P. T. Selbit, The Magician's Handbook: a Complete Encyclopedia of the Magic Art, (various editions, including: Marshall & Brookes, 1902; 3rd edition Dawbarn & Ward, 1904)
