Casey at the Pump

There have been a lot of Casey’s through the years including the one at the bat in Muddville.  The subject of this post is not that baseball player, but rather an early magic supporter and fireman in the Rochester, NY area – hence the title of my post - “Casey at the Pump.”

James P. Casey was born about 1887 in Syracuse and while no information exists on when he became interested in magic, a number of references to him appear in early Sphinx magazines beginning in the teens of the last century. According to the 1920 census, he was married to Nettie Casey and had three children, Geraldine (9), Jack (5), and Irene (1).

The year 1918 was particularly busy for our subject. Under the heading “A New Magical Society,” it was reported that on August 24, local magician voted to organize a local society, “devoted to the interests of magic and its kindred branches. 

That was the founding of the Society of American Amateur Magicians (S-AA-M) which was started by George Lamphere who performed under the name “Omar Yama.” At that first meeting, Casey was appointed as the organization’s “Local Representative.”

Logo of the S-AA-M 

The society would later be renamed the Secret Association of American Magicians. Lamphere was the editor of the organization’s magazine ORESTO, and then later edited the National Conjurors Association magazine, N.C.A. Digest. Ads for the organization could be found in The Eagle Magician in 1915. A branch of the S-AA-M opened in Princeton, NJ in 1917.

In September 1918, Casey and fellow club members were preparing for a visit of Houdini who was performing in one of the local theaters in Rochester the following October. The club planned a gala in his honor including an auto tour of the city.

When Casey wasn’t performing on Lyceum and Chautauqua programs as part of the team of Wills & Casey “Society Entertainers,” he was a full-time fireman in the city. A Feb. 1920 Sphinx article carried this interesting bit of news.

“James P. Casey, the Syracuse fireman magician, has been in the limelight continuously lately. One of the dailies gave him a big write up in its Sunday edition including his photo. He figured in an accident when his fire engine collided with another one and ran through the front window of a hotel. Casey was on the front seat (he is a lieut.) but miraculously escaped injury although the driver was laid up for several days from the shock. After such publicity Casey’s reputation went up several notches and the next week he was book as the headliner in the Crescent Theater, one of our local Vaudeville houses, for the first half of the week. Since this he has been more in demand than ever.”

Not much remains of Casey publicity-wise except for his good luck scaling card in my collection. Printed on good quality card stock, it features his photo on one side and advertisements for the Clark Music Co., at 416-420 South Salina St. Rochester. It also advertises the Mason & Hamlin line of pianos.  
While Casey battled to extinguish fires on a regular basis, let’s hope that magically he set the world on fire – at least for the citizens of Rochester. 

An Update:

Thanks to collector, historian and our first guest blogger Bill Mullins, we now know more about how the subject of this post died. Mullins sent us a scan of a page from the Syracuse Journal dated April 17, 1930. The page featured a headline spanning the eight columns of copy that read, “Captain James P. Casey Drops Dead in Engine House No. 7.”

A subhead on the accompanying article read, “Heart Fails Amateur Magician.”  According to the article Casey was in the process of instructing new fire fighters in care and maintenance of the hoses and equipment when, feeling the heart attack coming on, cried out and collapsed to the floor before anyone could reach him. Fellow firemen rushed him to the hospital but he was declared dead at the age of 44.

He was appointed to the fire department July 1, 1910, and eventually became a lieutenant. On Sept. 9, 1924, he was cited for bravery in rescuing an elderly woman who was trapped in the upper floor of a burning house. Always a magician at heart, just a few minutes before his death he had been speaking with the principal of the Edward Smith School about coming to do a magic show for the youngsters.