Colta & Colta - The Merry Magicians 

Many magicians have claimed to be descendants of great conjurors of the past, and the subject of this post is no exception. However, unlike most of those who capitalized on another’s name, Colta the magician had a long and varied career of his own.

Born Charles Joseph Jones in 1890, like many, his interest in trickery started at adolescence. He joined a church club in 1904, and one of the hobby courses included basic magic. He was hooked, and within a year, young Charlie was putting on shows in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as “Colta the Merry Magician” (a name drived from esteemed conjuror Buatier De Kolta, who was supposedly a distant relative). 

In 1908, he donned Asian makeup and created a new stage act to coincide with screenings of movies such as “Prince Ko-Ko, Oriental Conjuror”. Then, just one year later in 1909, Colta removed the makeup and entered vaudeville, touring on prominent circuits including the Ed Mozart Circuit, Gus Sun Time, Sullivan-Considine, Butterfield, and finally, Keith Family Time. 

In 1911, though ‘hanging up’ his vaudevillian ‘coat,’ he kept his wand and continued performing magic alongside a Philadelphia entertainer named of Christi, and presenting a mechanical doll called “La-Atta.” He returned home to Harrisburg a year later. Back home, he married Minnie “Mimi” Engle and worked as a projectionist, a passion that originated from his 1908 act. 

During World War I, Colta was employed at the Shell Mill of Bethlehem Steel by day, and continued his projection career at night, far too busy to do magic. After the war, he managed Harrisburg’s Colonial Theater for a short while, where he frequently booked other magicians to perform. He then decided to turn back to magic, this time joining vaudeville’s Artists Revels unit. Unlike his first stint on the circuit though, he was not alone. Colta now shared the stage with Mimi as “Colta and Colta the Merry Magicians.” 

                                    Bethlehem Shell Plant 

Together, they featured attractions such as Shooting Through a Woman and Rag Pictures. After traversing several more circuits with new and unique acts such as Mimi playing a “Living Marionette” and a linking ring routine that included rings being hurled 20 feet across the stage, the couple returned home to Harrisburg in 1930 and performed local bookings. 

Colonial Theater, Harrisburg 

I believe this card originates from around that time:

Longer than a typical pasteboard, one side advertises a few of the novel entertainments the Coltas could provide, and the other features Charlie pulling a fake rabbit out of a hat. He really appears to be a Merry Magician! In the 40s, during World War II, Charlie devoted over 500 hours to entertaining servicemen in camps and hospitals. 

Tom Ewing discovered two cards for the Colta's in his collection. They show that Colta's wife Mimi also performed magic and was adept at billiard ball manipulation. Her scaling or business card shows her with those billiard balls. The back of the card identifies her as one of the Magigals - an organization of female magicians who had members nationwide. 

Colta's card shows him with fez and dove and a double fan of cards with birds on them. The back of his card also identifies him as a Shriner from the Zembo Temple in Harrisburg. Both cards appear to be from later in their careers. 

He was also active in magic societies, becoming the first president of The Magicians Alliance of Eastern States (MAES), and was a co-founder and first president of both The Society of American Magicians Assembly 22 and The International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 20.

Charlie and Mimi appeared in an advertisement for Martin’s Magic Shop, featured in the August 1952 issue of Genii Magazine, with Charlie performing Dell O’Dell’s "Apple Tubes" trick. The couple moved to California in 1957, where Charlie was active in The Society of American Magicians assembly 22, and was awarded an honorary life membership from the Pasadena Magicians Guild. In 1971 the Coltas moved back to Harrisburg, where Charlie passed away in 1973 and Mimi in 1978.

Update 

Here are several additional images of the Colta's. One is s a nice image of the their suitcase that they carried parts of their show in for many years. 

The other image shows their marionette act with Mimi worked the Hula Girl figure and Charlie working a clown. Both images are provided thanks to Sal Perrotta. 

With the exception of this last photo above, most of the images of Colta thus far have been from later in his career. Through the kindness of Mike Caveney and his Egyptian Hall Museum, we offer these additional very nice images of him in younger years. 

Colta The "Gay Deceiver" on the Redpath Chautauqua Circuit circa 1908-09 

(Courtesy of Egyptian Hall Museum) 

Colta performing the floating ball in the Christi-Colta act 

on the Mozart Circuit 1910. 

(Courtesy of Egyptian Hall Museum) 

Colta with a Flag Vase Production circa 1920. 

(Courtesy of Egyptian Hall Museum) 

Colta with six precision dancer puppets used in his night club act 1930-31. 

(Courtesy of Egyptian Hall Museum) 

Ben Winn 

SIX YEARS OF FLYING CARDS!

  

Analyzing 150,000+ Hits on Propelled Pasteboards' 6th Anniversary

Our own promotional throwout card  
out of print and now a collectible!

This month, Propelled Pasteboards marked its six year anniversary, having racked up more than 150,000 visits in that time.  So, it's time for our version of the "People's Choice Awards," finding out which posts attracted the most interest.  Some magicians who made our "Top Ten" list prove quite predictable, while others might just surprise you.  And you'll never guess who ranked #1.

The four writers who regularly contribute to Propelled Pasteboards - Tom Ewing, Gary Frank, Jay Hunter and me - have offered an astonishingly broad array of posts - 250 listings which encompass some of history's best known magicians to performers so obscure that they nearly defy our investigative research efforts.  And these listing have drawn well over 150,000 hits (some of our early data was lost to a conversion from http:// to https://).  In this post, I'll be examining those posts that have attracted the most hits.

Perhaps most predictably, Gary Frank's feature on Harry Houdini made the top ten list, with well over 1,000 visits.  Shockingly, however, Houdini did not place first!  More on that in a moment.  Other superstars closely connected with card throwing - like Jeff McBride & Juliana Chen - predictably placed on our top ten list.  (Ricky Jay did not make the cut, though several posts dedicated to him made the top 20 list.)  David Kwong, also placed high on the list, perhaps we used the opportunity to highlight his then-popular show, The Enigmatist.  Our salute to women in magic also proved quite popular, with both the "Women in Magic Month" post and articles on Melinda and Ms. Chen taking three of the spots.  Visitors also showed interest in the production of throwout cards, with posts spotlighting Fox Lake Playing Cards also making the cut, while a post about DeLand made the top twenty.  (Relatedly, we have two static pages on throwing cards and throwing card backs that racked up similar numbers, but don't get ranked on the top ten list as they're not "posts.")

Other posts that proved popular are more puzzling, as they feature lesser known magicians.  Jay Hunter's feature on Ben Franklin IV ranked third (with more visitors than Houdini), while Tom Ewing's terrific feature on Colta & Colta came in seventh.   But perhaps the biggest surprise is our top contender.  The number one, most visited Propelled Pasteboards blog post, indeed, the only post with more than 2,000 visits is . . .  [drum roll] . . . Leslie Guest!  This unanticipated placement remains unchanged from our analysis of hits when the site marked 100,000 hits.  Please don't misunderstand, at Propelled Pasteboards we pride ourselves on featuring magicians of all kinds, often celebrating obscure, mysterious and even unsuccessful performers that you won't find anywhere else.  Furthermore, Gary Frank's feature on Mr. Guest is thorough and interesting.   But that Guest would best Houdini, Thurston, Kellar and some of the other historic greats we've featured is something no mentalist could have predicted!  

But for the record, at this writing, this is . . .

Propelled Pasteboard's Most Popular Posts

The Top Ten List with Official Hit Counts

 

When you have time, check out these posts and some of our less popular pieces.  You won't be disappointed.

Harry A. Weitzel – “America’s Leading Thimbleist”

This throw-out card is about a magician who was known for a particular specialty. I have always found it interesting because as a playing card, it is slightly smaller than average, but it has a great look to it with the image of the performer and the sewing thimbles on each side of it. The manipulation of sewing thimbles was what this magician was remembered for more than anything else.

Throw-Out Card of Harry A. Weitzel

When I started to look into the magic career of Harry A. Weitzel, I found many references to him in magic periodicals on the Ask Alexander database. He was mentioned frequently as a member of the Pittsburgh Association of Magicians during the late teens of the last century, and into the nineteen-twenties, acting for many years as their secretary.

From the Billboard for September 25, 1920

Two things about Weitzel really came through about his involvement with magic. He was very good when it came to the manipulation of thimbles, and he was incredibly shy when it came to showing it. In The Sphinx for June of 1918, the Pittsburgh Association held an annual show and they had this to say: “Next on the bill was without a question the biggest surprise that the association has ever had.  Our esteemed most bashful brother, Harry A. Weitzel, made his appearance and did several mechanical tricks, one of which was the production of a cake a la Hoover, then Harry made the hit of his life by some very clever thimble manipulation that was well worth the gracement (sic) of the Palace, New York.  Harry had them all guessing and made an appearance that would be hard to equal.”

From the Billboard for December 31, 1921

Weitzel was variously known as “Harry Thimbles”, “Baron Thimble”, and Weitzel of “Nimble Thimble” fame. Charles J. Colta referred to him as “America’s Leading Thimbleist”. The Sphinx even said about him that he “does thimbles so much that his head is getting shaped like one”. It also said that he used “the regular Woolworth Red Celluloid Thimbles”. Perhaps the oddest comment in The Sphinx stated: “Incidentally, Weitzel is still single and it looks as if he will be for some time as he spends more time practicing thimble manipulations than he does making love”. I thought that was an odd and maybe inappropriate comment for a magic magazine in 1922!

While Weitzel’s prowess with the thimbles was well documented, trying to find out anything about his personal life outside of magic has come up empty. The Harry A. Weitzels I have found in my available resources, I could not confirm for sure which one was really him. I guess Weitzel, as a magician, left us with one last mystery to ponder.

Keystone State Federation of I.B.M. Rings

The benefit of having a large, representative accumulation of magic memorabilia is that it provides you the opportunity to excavate your collection and uncover hidden gems. One such is the subject of this blog, a spread of lovely playing cards that chronicle an important organization that began small and spread across the eastern seaboard.

The spread of ten cards above are held together with