Mildred and Rouclere – A Magical Couple

In the 1880s, while Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar were battling it out for the title of “America’s favorite magician,” a young performer was busting his back and paying his dues on the road to magical greatness – Harry Rouclere, a man of firsts.

Born on June 3, 1866, in Patterson, New Jersey, Rouclere first became interested in magic after seeing the performance of Francois Blitz, one of the many imitators of the well-known magician Signor Blitz. By January of 1879, Rouclere was appearing as “The Boy Magician.”

Here is their promotional card that may, or may not have been scaled into the audience, but regardless, it's a beauty. The front shows the Rouclere's in their prime.  Underneath their photo it reads "Compliments of Mildred and Rouclere - World's Cleverest Illusionists." The reverse shows an ad for Pluto Water, a natural laxative drink that was very popular around the turn of the last century, In 1919 it took 450 railroad cars to transport the bottler's output. 

This multi-talented performer started out with a trained dog act in the circus at the age of thirteen, performed on the trapeze, worked magic and mind-reading in sideshows, and even portrayed a spiritualist medium to great success. Along the way he learned the trade at the feet of legendary magicians like Charles Andress and E. Cooper Taylor.

His first brush with fame, however, came with his juggling. According to historian David Price, his only real rival was the famous juggler Nelsonia, and so he teamed up with him and they toured as “The Delmonico Waiters.” He was the first juggler to work in a dress suit; he was called the “Fashion Plate Juggler.”

While working the circus he met and befriended the Steens, a husband-and-wife team of “telepathists,” from whom he learned a mind-reading code act. In 1889, Rouclere married Mildred May Searing, a song-and-dance girl who was already well known as Millie May. He was twenty-three and she was twenty. From this point on, their star rose steadily.

Their first season was the most successful; they ended it playing Tony Pastor’s Theater in New York. During their second season, an opportunity arose for them to tour as spiritualist mediums; they changed their names to Ellington and Cook. A signature effect, presented as a spiritualistic feat, involved Harry being secured in handcuffs and placed in a large canvas bag bolted down to a platform; he then escaped from the bag and cuffs and reappeared inside a locked truck.

It was at this time that Harry became the first magician to have local committees from the town where he was appearing build their own box for the experiment, preceding Houdini’s practice by many years. It was their mind-reading act, however, for which they are best remembered. Building upon the code learned from the Steens, they called their act “Mildredism.” She came on stage and was hypnotized. Harry went down into the audience, where spectators whispered instructions into his ear indicating actions they wanted Mildred to do on stage. This might be reading a passage from a book, rearranging the chairs on stage, or coming into the audience to find a concealed hairpin. All these requests were accomplished perfectly without a single word being said by Harry.

While touring the southern states in 1897 doing magic, mind reading, and spirit phenomena, Rouclere also became the first person to ever use a condemned man to promote his show. In North Carolina, he learned that a public hanging was to take place; he got an audience with the condemned man. David Price writes: “The poor fellow was told that the show included spiritualistic effects. He reasoned that if the dead were truly contacted during the ‘séance,’ he might be one of those contacted. So, with the hangman’s noose around his neck, he was permitted to voice his last words. He told the crowd that after the hanging he might appear at the theater but he wasn’t sure. The convict’s statement assured a full house for Mildred and Rouclere.”

Rouclere invented a number of illusions, including the Moth and the Flame, the Automobile Mystery, the Clown and Bear, the Double Boxes, and the Flight of Princess Iris.

In 1900, the team decided to lead a more leisurely existence and retired from the road to operate a very successful hotel in Ridgewood, New Jersey. It served as a hub for all the famous and near-famous magicians in the country. As can be seen in the group photo taken on the steps of their hotel, it was a popular summer spot. The gentleman on the left with the can and goatee is the same E. Cooper Taylor whom Rouclere met in his younger years. Walter Floyd is also show (third person from the right). 

For several years they toured annually for ten weeks, but eventually gave that up as well. An avid and early pilot, Rouclere became the first magician to ever attend a magic convention by airplane. When he later became the official Santa Claus for Ridgewood, it was only natural that he should utilize his plane. Thus, he became the country’s first flying Santa Claus; he even parachuted presents to the children before he landed to officiate at the official Christmas tree ceremony.

He was an early member of the S.A.M., the first living magician to have an assembly named in his honor, and was also a member of the I.B.M. Mildred died January 7, 1938, and Harry followed on February 3, 1943. 

Their daughter, Mildred Yull, performed for a time as “Rouclere Junior.” I’ll close this piece with a quote from a writer for The Sphinx magazine who wrote beneath a photograph of the Roucleres, “Rather than a biography, this note is a slight tribute to a couple whose entire lives have been devoted to the art of magic, and who are beloved by magicians throughout America.”