The Eng Sung Enigma: Resolving a Riddle for the Chinese New Year!

 Last year, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, we were proud and pleased to bring you a post about Chen Ting Soo, showcasing a vintage throwing card and featuring a genuine Chinese-American magician.  This year, with the same holiday approaching, I turned to a card recently added to my collection featuring "Eng Sung - Chinese Magician."  The piece is a keepsake, featuring a handsome portrait of the performer and an absolutely wonderful graphic of a levitation illusion.  I started to wonder -- Who was Eng Sung?  Little did I know that my curiosity would ignite a fast and furious debate among significant members of the throwing card blogosphere, that quickly and conclusively resolved a mystery.

Deploying the powerful "Ask Alexander" tool, I could only find three articles containing a reference  to Eng Sung, all three of which described the very same performance at a 1934 convention of the Keystone State Federation of IBM Rings. So, whomever Eng Sung was, he didn't perform for very long.  Or, I posited, at least it was an assumed name that some magician only used for a short time.   The reporting contained little detail about his performance, other than to place him on a bill with a number of better-known performers, including Burling Hull, Max Holden and LuBrent.  And then there was the emcee....more on him in a moment.

Could this be the same fellow pictured
on the Eng Sung card?

In studying the card, I noticed was that "Eng Sung" did not appear to be Asian, but, more likely, was part of the then-popular, insensitive tradition of a Western magician playing the role of a Chinese magician.  (On these pages, you'll find references to several such performers, including Chung Ling Soo, Chang,and  Okito.)  This led to the suspicion that he likely performed under one or more other names.

Because the card provides no other information about him -- other than the photograph -- there wasn't much to work with.  But that picture, it seemed to me, was familiar.  It reminded me of a photo of another performer on a card for Namreh the magician, seen here.  Namreh was one stage name for Herman Weber (1900-1953).  "Namreh" is Herman spelled backwards.  And then I looked back at the performance reports .... Herman Weber was the emcee for the only show at which Eng Sung had been recorded as appearing.

"Rice, Rice, Rice" -just one of many Asian-themed
effects that Herman Weber published.  

Could the two be one and the same?  I was quickly able to convince myself of the viability of this theory.  Weber had written quite a bit about performing "Oriental" magic, and included some in certain of his programs.

He had assumed other characters -- like Namreh -- who performed in devils robes.   And the more I looked at the pictures of Namreh and Eng Sung, the more I grew convinced that they looked the same.

So I did what I often do when I need more material for magic research: I turned to our friend Jay Hunter.  I was hoping, most of all, that Jay could come up with another throw-out card featuring the same "Levitation" back, which, if it was for Herman Weber, could close the deal.

Jay dug into his extensive collection, producing a remarkable quantity of material in a very short period of time.   The materials he gathered about Herman included the wizard offering "Oriental Mysteries" and performing in different characters and costumes.

The levitation graphic in a book
authored by Herman Weber.

And then Jay found what I thought would be the silver bullet: he found the "Levitation" graphic, not on a throwout card, but in a booklet published by Weber!  And, Jay added, he had seen this graphic nowhere else.  While he expressed interest in my theory, he had his doubts as to whether the two men appeared to be one and the same, and raised some concerns about the ages of the performers pictured compared to certain biographical facts.

So we called in the rest of the Propelled Pasteboards team.  Tom Ewing -- our resident expert on Pennsylvania-based magicians -- advised that, unbeknownst to us,  he's currently working on a book about Herman Weber, having come across a trove of materials on the Allentown native.   While he had not come across anything about Eng Sung, Tom confirmed that Weber was an exponent of Chinese-themed magic, devoting half of his stage show to that style of performance.  Tom liked the theory, but thought we needed to do more work on the question.  He supplied a vintage ad for the sale of Namreh's show, reproduced here, which makes it clear that a large portion of the show was devoted to  "Oriental" magic.

Enter Gary Frank.  Using nothing but his keen powers of observation (which could perhaps characterized as superpowers) Gary provided a point by point facial analysis of the Namreh and Eng Sung cards -- too long to reproduce here -- that included details such as the "flow of contour" of facial characteristics, "cupids bows," hairline shape, etc.   Suffice it to say that Mr. Frank concluded they were different fellows.  An Internet based facial recognition program into which I fed the two photos reached the same conclusion.  Everyone was sold that my theory was wrong ... even though I continued to hope.

Based on the evidence we had assembled, Mr. Frank theorized that they were pals and knew each other, and he focused on a critical clue: the initial reports of Eng Sung's performance noted that one of his assistants was someone named "Miss Snyder."   Using this clue, I was able to formulate more Ask Alexander searches.  And this time, I hit pay dirt.  Herman Weber did indeed have a pal named Edgar Snyder, who had acted as Weber's assistant at one time.   Reports also noted that Edgar Snyder's wife was an accomplished magician's assistant.

Armed with this new fact, I found our man: Eng Sung was Edgar Snyder (d. 1970), who also hailed from Allentown.  He was specifically identified as such in several magic magazines, but never spelled correctly: writers listed him as "En Sing," "En Sung" and even "Yen Sen."  These misspellings explain why initial searches didn't turn up his identity.   Having completed the record, it turns out that Snyder has a fairly long career in magic, performing a s "Eng Sung" during the 1930s, and later moving to Florida and becoming an officer and important organizing force in the S.A.M.

Here's one description of his performance as "Eng Sung" from the Linking Ring in 1933:

"Then came Edgar Snyder (En Sing) of Allentown, doing Oriental Magic, using large Chinese Blocks, and a production silk act from large tube, finish- ing with a 30 foot silk banner. He also used a new idea in Chinese rice bowl. Mr. Snyder's apparatus has been decorated by a real expert in Chinese art."

Oh, and just as "Namreh" is Herman spelled backwards, Snyder left us a similar clue: Eng Sung and Ed Snyder both have the initials "E.S." 

Newmann’s European Novelties and Sensational Features!

C.A. Newmann (1880-1952), was one of America’s greatest hypnotists and mentalists. He humbly appeared as “Newmann the Great.” Here for the first, and probably last time, we feature a throwing card bearing his advertising.

 

Newmann first started performing hypnotism and mind-reading at age 13 billing himself as a “Boy Wonder.” He confined his work primarily to the mid- and upper-Midwest. Although he presented primarily mind-reading and related arts, he was not above offering magic illusions in his show. To publicize his show he frequently performed blindfold drives through the town where he was appearing. These were the days of horse and carriage, of course, and it must have been an amazing sight to see him racing through town while blindfolded.

As magic historians know, Newmann amassed a wonderful collection of magic and an extensive library. He boasted that it was the largest in America but the problem was that because of his touring and itinerant lifestyle, Newmann did not have anywhere to permanently display his entire library.

However he did once secure an empty store and for one brief period, had shelves built, and then filled them with books and rare manuscripts and adorned the walls and columns of the room with posters and broadsides. I have seen photographs of that temporary library and they are impressive.

His friend Howard Thurston acclaimed him one of the greatest of all mentalists. Magician, author, and magic columnist John Northern Hilliard was also amazed at Newmann's incredible feats, declaring him a true artist.

He even eventually ended up teaching classes in psychology at colleges in Minnesota and North Dakota. According to Magicpedia, as late as 1950, Newmann was still appearing in the major auditoriums in Montana and adjacent states. By that time he had been performing continuously before the public for over a half century.

Prior to his death, as well as afterward, Newmann’s library was scattered about. Some 1,000 volumes were given to the library at the University of Minnesota. Collector David Price acquired Newmann’s posters for his Egyptian Hall museum and several of Newmann's scrapbooks are in the Carl W. Jones collection at Princeton University. 

My friend, the late Frank Dailey and I spent considerable time looking over the two scrapbooks at Princeton’s Firestone Library and I was able to photograph a great number of pages. In fact, I lectured on the scrapbooks at a Magic Collectors’ Association weekend back in the 1980s. Newmann died in Minneapolis and his funeral services were conducted by Carl Waring Jones.

And so, why is this Newmann scaling card so rare? Is it one-of-a-kind? Well, yes – sort of. The card was acquired in a larger collection of scaling cards and the previous owner occasionally created scaling cards by pasting some image or advertising on a regular playing card. Such is the case with this card. Running a fingernail across the face of the card, it is clear that he glued on a piece of Newmann promotional material.

Still, it’s a fun card and image and I’ll not be tossing it out. So, fellow enthusiasts, did Newmann have a real throwing card? If so, post it on our site. Here are a sample of some images from Newmann’s scrapbooks at Princeton. You will see that for most performers Newmann wrote up a short item of interest. Every description was flattering to the performer. One scrapbook was devoted to magicians, the other to mentalists. Enjoy!

Tom Ewing 

 

 

--  Postscript by Judge Brown --

Tom, I too have a "sort of" Newmann throwing card.  Like you, I got this from an avid throwing card collector.  It's an odd piece -- about the size of a playing card, with two rounded corners and two square corners.  And it does seem to have been cut from something else-- and not too carefully.    But the typescript "With Compliments...." and address have clearly been added with a typewriter, to turn it into an effective business card.  So my presumption is that this piece was created by Newmann himself.

I had always assumed that the improvised nature of this piece showed Newmann -- who was once a major star -- having hit hard times.  He was, after all, hand typing his cards!  But at the last NEMCA conference in 2016, I met a collector-historian who specializes in studying Newmann.  He assured me, with a laugh, that I was wrong.   The card I own, he advised, does not show economic desperation.  Rather, he told me that the piece was typical for Newmann, whom he described as extraordinarily eccentric and parsimonious.

Charles Oswald Williams

       

        Charles Oswald Williams (1864 - 1924) was born in Llanelli, Wales, moved to Cardiff by 1891. He performed under the name Charles Oswald. Member of the Inner Magic Circle. In 1904, he appeared on the cover of The Sphinx magazine as "magician of the Month". His specialty in magic was vast and included 'The Fairy Thimbles', 'The Haunted Parasol', and 'The Invisible Hen and Eggs'. He was also known to be a very good ventriloquist. His 'partner' Sammy had the audiences rolling in the aisles. He was friends of Chung Ling Soo and Cardini. In his later life, he became a magic dealer and contributed ideas to magic magazines and books.

Postscript by Judge Brown:  In a lecture on the Rising Card, published in the Magic Circular in 1948, George Sylvestre, MIMC, discussed the use of reels fashioned from spring-operated tape measures.   "One must not overlook the many methods employing the spring-reel,” he noted.  “A miniature 
spring tape-measure affair with thread in place of the tape.  The late C. O. Williams, of Cardiff, was an expert at camouflaging these reels to represent wristlet watches, thereby allowing the most blatant operation of the cards without detection.” 

William Ellsworth Robinson a/k/a "Chung Ling Soo" and the Deadly Bullet Catch

William Ellsworth Robinson (1861-1918), will be remembered as not only a fine performer and inventor, but someone who kept his audiences and friends mystified. He worked for master magicians Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar. Under the guise of Chung Ling Soo, he performed in Europe and even ventured below the equator, receiving rave reviews. He cheated death during the first years he included his version of the bullet catching effect. During one of the first of numerous stage performances in England, he was set to “catch” the bullet, when he saw one of the assistant’s forgot to remove the ramrod after loading the power into the gun. He ran toward the assistant and pushed the musket so it would fire toward the ceiling of the theater. The startled assistant pulled the trigger and the ramrod left the barrel and was impaled in the ceiling.

On March 23, 1918, he wasn’t as fortunate. During the performance at the Wood Green Theatre, what was supposed to be the finale of the show, became the last time theater goers would see Chung Ling Soo perform his magical feats of illusion. When the muskets fired that evening, one of them discharged a live bullet and struck the performer. He collapsed onto the stage floor. He was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away the next day.


Here's a unique piece of Robinson's publicity as Chung Ling Soo:                                                                  

 

If you were lucky enough to be in the audience on a very special day, you might have fortunate enough to catch one of these 4 3/4" diameter (12.065 cm) cards. According to some accounts, Robinson would hurl these cards, modeled on the very china plate that Robinson would use to "catch" the bullet, into the audience like Frisbees. 

 

Robinson always had the perfect publicity.

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