Marvelous Marvelli

This is a post about a very special magician, the late Fredo Marvelli – what a wonderfully magical last name! His actual name was Friedrich Jäckel, and through the invaluable resources of the Conjuring Arts Research Center, I am once again able to tell you a fascinating story about a magical artist whose skill extended into the very cards he used in his act. Shown below is the full-color card in my collection and it features two cigarettes and four silk handkerchiefs with the conjuror’s name within a red ring. It is, in fact, not a scaling card, but rather one used in his act and I don’t particularly care.





What makes this card special is that for once, we know the artist who designed it and exactly what it publicizes – namely Marvelli’s cigarette act. Interestingly, it was also used by him in his production of fans of playing cards and then changing the backs of those cards to four different colors. It has subsequently been reprinted by the U.S. Playing Card Co. and decks of them were given away as souvenirs during the 5th annual European Magic History Conference. My example is one of his original cards.
Tony Stursa

It was designed by the Austrian painter Tony Stursa who was himself a magician and an early supporter of Magischer Klub Wein. Marvelli was a great admirer of Cardini who he saw at the Scala Theatre in Berlin in 1938. It was on that occasion that he saw Cardini’s production of fans of cards and decided to add that to his act. He did not pirate Cardini’s act like others, but took the effect and made it his own.

Marvelli had at least one other scaling card that featured his portrait, the globe and a coat-of-arms.



Getting back to Marvelli’s cigarette act, we can thank Howard Kayton of Germany for a complete description in an article from the Aug. 1946 Sphinx. Kayton wrote that Marvelli was originally interested in becoming a violinist but his parents were unable to afford the lessons and instrument and so, luckily for magic, his hobby became his lifelong profession. He started out in the usual manner with standard effects like billiard balls and handkerchief tricks, but eventually began to blend magic and music and dancing to his act. Here is a portion of what Kayton wrote:

"The most important thing for a real artist is to have his own style. Marvelli’s style can be called the rhythm of magic. Certainly, his manipulations are perfect, his talent and his training enable him to do all manipulations with an amazing ease, but his real success is founded in the rhythm of his movements.



It can be illustrated the best if we follow his performance of catching the lighted cigarettes. The music sets in, his hands and later his whole body begin to dance, and out of the music and the dance of his hands the cigarettes are produced. The music plays with him and he plays with the music. Finally, after all the cigarettes are produced and his magic cigarette-dance is finished, the music transmits to another theme and simultaneously to another experiment. Then perhaps after an hour of performing different tricks, we hear again the music of the cigarette-dance, the spirit of Marvelli pretends to listen to this music, and suddenly the lighted cigarettes appear again out of a cloud of smoke, out of a tune of music. The magic dance of cigarettes begins again—his dance, his music, his rhythm—that is his style. That is his success."

He was also among the first magicians to do the Floating Stick, which later went on to become the Floating Cane.” In 1930, Marvelli published a book titled, “Kunstlerische Magie” or “Artistic Magic.” He is featured on the full-color cover with his name boldly printed at the top with the words, “Europe’s Greatest Magician.” He is shown in three photographs performing the cups and balls from beneath a glass table top, certainly a unique way of teaching the trick.



Marvelli was born May 4, 1903, in Breslau, Germany, and was one of the favorite entertainers in the first-class hotels and best resorts of Europe. He began his professional career in 1920 and carried very little apparatus, no large illusions, only a record player and a stack of records used in his act. He traveled by car and his favorite place was Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps. He played there summer and winter for many years and was very interested in winter sports. In fact, he was closely involved in the Winter Olympiade when it was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936. He had a home there but eventually moved to Berlin where his wife attended to his bookings, correspondence and made all arrangements for his tours. He was awarded the “Ring of the Magic Circle” in 1937, presented by the Magic Circle of Germany.

In 1942, he was stripped of his professional qualification by the Nazi’s and fled the Gestapo before he could be arrested. He traveled to North Africa, Athens, back to Berlin, and then had to flee again, this time to Prague. He was arrested there by Russian troops at the end of the war and taken to a prison camp. Eventually we was freed and went on to start a second career and eventually became the president of the Magic Circle.

He was close and dear friends with Austrian magician Ottokar Fischer Marteau. Marvelli helped publish Fischer’s book, “J. N. Hofzinser Zauberkünste,” 1942, (“The Magic of J.N. Hofzinser”) which was translated into English by my good friend, magician and historian Richard Hatch.

Ottokar Fischer 

Through Marvelli’s friendship with Fischer, he was taught all the secrets and performance of a number of Hofzinser effects including a mind reading book test called “Das Wort” (“The Word”), released in 1942. Here is a description from an auction catalog:

“Set of four specially printed German language books, as issued, accompanied by four contemporary but ungimmicked volumes. In presentation, a spectator was instructed to choose one of the eight books, to turn to any page in that book, look at any line on the page, and concentrate on any word on that line. The performer then unerringly divined the thought-of word, as well as the rest of the line on which the spectator was concentrating.”



It was Fischer’s dream to see Hofzinser’s works performed publically and Marvelli set about doing that. When Marvelli appeared in Vienna to perform the effects, Fischer was too ill to attend the show and could only hear about how much the audience enjoyed them. Eventually, Marvelli inherited Fischer’s magic collection that included rarities belonging to Hofzinser. The collection was eventually split, part of it remaining with in Germany with Howard Kayton, and the rest acquired by John J. McManus in the U.S. This included a Light and Heavy Chest, Crystal Coin Casket, a mechanical drum that beats out answers to questions, a card rise box, and a thick manuscript of Hofzinser tricks.

According to a column by Bob Lund in the July 1940 Conjurors’ Magazine, Marvelli was just one magician who ran afoul of Kalanag. Although the details are not provided, Kalanag, whom Lund described as a former Nazi and “dictator of magic in Germany,” must have made slanderous comments about Marvelli.


Kalanag

The magician responded by taking Kalanag before the German Artist’s Union. As a result, Kalanag discontinued his slander for a while but then began again. Marvelli took him back to court and since Kalanag could not support his slanderous comments with any evidence, the judge ruled that he should stop all such behavior.

Marvelli inspired many young magicians who witnessed his artistry including Siegfried Fischbacher who recalled in the Dec. 1997 Genii magazine, seeing Marvelli. He was asked by the interviewer if he could recall a magician who, at a young age, affected him greatly with his artistry and ability to connect with audiences.


Siegfried

He mentioned Kalanag, of course, and the impact this illusions made to a poor German boy growing up in the aftermath of World War II. However, it was Marvelli that really affected him. Siegfried wrote:

“I remember the first time I was really, really…the wonderment and the magic that the magician…and that was old Marvelli. He was an old German magician who did everything, but it was not a distraction, with revues and girls, no, there was just the performer, and the performer was, you had no doubt, it was magic; this was a magician.”

Marvelli had a successor, Olof Becher, who acquired all of his magic apparatus in 1955, and thereafter appeared under the name Marvelli.




He was one of the more famous German magicians in the late 1960s through the 1980s. He made several tours through Africa under the sponsorship of the Goethe-Institute and had three 45-minute TV shows in prime time. He also toured through Germany performing his full evening show in a tent. He died in 2008.

Over the course of his career, the original Marvelli won many awards and prizes from the Magic Circle in Germany. One of his shows was seen by more than 30,000 people. He had 22 successful performances in the famous Wiener Konzerthaussall. And, keep in mind, he worked alone and almost without equipment. Perhaps a reader of this post might provide details on his death but we know it occurred in 1971, at the age of 68. With his death another magical artist parted the curtains between “here” and “there” and took his place with many who preceded him.

Tom