John Henry Anderson - wikipedia John Henry Anderson John Henry Anderson, the Wizard of the North John Henry Anderson ( 1814 -- 1874 ) was a Scottish professional magician. Anderson is credited with helping bring the art of magic from street performances into theatres and presenting magic performances to entertain and delight the audience. Contents 1 Career 2 Spiritualism 3 Publications 4 References 5 External links Career Anderson was born in The Mearns, Scotland. Orphaned at the age of ten, he started his career appearing on the stage with a traveling dramatic company in 1830. At seventeen, he began performing magic and in 1837, at the age of twenty - three, he performed at the castle of Lord Panmure, whose endorsement of Anderson inspired him to put a touring show together which lasted for three years. In 1840, Anderson settled in London, opening the New Strand Theatre. Sir Walter Scott is said to have given him the stage name, The Great Wizard of the North. Anderson 's success came from his extensive use of advertising and popular shows which captivated his audience. The Wizard was committed to philanthropy and expert showmanship, making him one of the earliest magicians to attain a high level of world renown. Anderson declared : `` It is the duty of all magicians to give entertainment, '' and he was not content to perform an illusion to simply demonstrate that he could accomplish something that the audience could not explain. If the effect was not enthusiastically received, Anderson would remove it from his act. Anderson is famous for a lifetime of successful performances of the bullet catch illusion. Although he did not invent the trick, he made it widely popular and several of his rivals copied Anderson 's version in their own shows. Anderson is also credited to be the first magician to pull a rabbit out of a tophat. The trick had existed before in different forms, yet, Anderson was the first magician that performed this classic trick on stage. Aberdeen, Scotland : The Grave of John Henry Anderson a.k.a. The Wizard Of The North In 1842, Anderson married Hannah Longherst from Aberdeen, an assistant with his show. The following year their son John Henry Jr. was born. In 1845, Anderson 's mistress Miss Prentice gave birth to Philip Prentice Anderson, but died in childbirth. Anderson, however, supported the child for his entire life. Anderson would also have two daughters - Helen and Alice - who assisted in their father 's show and later became successful magicians, and a second illegitimate son with a member of his touring troupe. 1845 also saw the completion of Anderson 's second theatre, the City Theatre in Glasgow. In November, only four months after opening, the theatre burned and Anderson 's financial losses were considerable. Through the aid of his show business friends, Anderson was able to launch a new show at London 's Covent Garden Theatre in 1846 and then toured Europe the following year, traveling to Hamburg, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg, where he met Czar Nicholas I, who arranged a command performance for Anderson after an awkward chance meeting. In 1849, Anderson returned to London to perform for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The following year, Anderson toured America, Canada, Australia, and Hawaii. Upon returning to Britain, Anderson found that he had a rival in fellow magician Robert Houdin. Robert - Houdin 's inventions were pirated by his trusted mechanic Le Grand who was arrested for making and selling duplicate illusions. Many of those illusions fell into the hands of his competitors like The Great Wizard of the North, Robin, and Compars Herrmann. It is not known whether Anderson or the others bought the illusions directly from LeGrand or from another source. But, they willingly performed the illusions after knowing that those where invented by Robert - Houdin. Herrmann too was performing in London with Robert - Houdin 's pirated tricks. Anderson took Houdin 's tricks and returned to America in 1853 and performed in Boston. An illusion involving Anderson 's dispensing of various alcoholic beverages to the audience caused a legal controversy regarding temperance in that city. In 1859, after a brief period as an actor, Anderson began another world tour. In 1862, at the age of eighteen, John Henry Jr. left his father 's troupe and began his own independent career as a conjuror. This started a bitter feud between father and son and the two never spoke again. Greatly in debt, Anderson returned to England in 1864. He would tour once more in 1866. Anderson died in 1874. He was buried next to his mother in Aberdeen. Magician Harry Houdini, who was born in the same year as Anderson 's death, revered Anderson as one of his inspirations and in 1909 arranged for the upkeep of the gravesite, which had fallen into disrepair. Spiritualism In 1854, Anderson held a farewell performance in Aberdeen. The success of this show was enough to inspire Anderson not to retire. Rather, he began to concentrate his efforts on exposing the tricks of mediums and spiritualist fraud. In his shows, he used his daughters to duplicate spiritualist effects. Anderson was one of the magicians of his day who exposed the frauds of the Davenport brothers. The show played at the Lyceum in London and then moved to Covent Garden in 1855. The following year, after a gala performance, the theatre caught fire, destroying all of Anderson 's properties and bankrupting him for the second time in his professional career. Anderson stated that spiritualism was a `` delusion that has driven ten thousand persons mad in the United States. '' Publications Shilling 's Worth of Magic : Or Tricks to be Learnt in a Train ( 1853 ) The Fashionable Science of Parlour Magic : Being the Newest Tricks of Deception, Developed and Illustrated : With an Exposure of the Practices Made Use of by Professional Card Players, Blacklegs, and Gamblers : To which is Added, for the First Time, the Magic of Spirit Rapping, Writing Mediums, and Table Turning ( 1855 ) Capital Tricks and Deceptions with Cards ( 1894 ) References Jump up ^ Booth, John. ( 1986 ). Wonders of Magic : A Veteran Magician 's Book of Original Tricks, Concepts, Pictures, Memoirs, and Conjuring History. Ridgeway Press. p. 26 Jump up ^ `` The Beginning & Maybe The End of Rabbits From Hats ''. www.themagicdetective.com. Retrieved 2016 - 11 - 14. Jump up ^ C, Bayer ( December 1990 ). The Great Wizard of the North ( John Henry Anderson ). Magic Art Studio. ISBN 978 - 9992493328. Jump up ^ Lamont, Peter. ( 2013 ). Extraordinary Beliefs : A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem. Cambridge University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978 - 1 - 107 - 01933 - 1 Hay, Harry. Cyclopedia of Magic. ( 1949 ) ISBN 0 - 486 - 21808 - 2 Randi, James. Conjuring. ( 1992 ) ISBN 0 - 312 - 09771 - 9 Obituary, New York Times, 5 February 1874, p. 2 External links ( 1 ) -- Diane Duane 's Errantry Concordance entry, `` claiming '' he was actually a practicing wizard using stage magic as cover John Henry Anderson at Find a Grave John Henry Anderson at Encyclopædia Britannica Spiritualism and spiritism History and beliefs Apport Automatic writing Cross-correspondences Ectoplasm Materialization Mediumship Séance Spirit guides Spiritual healing Spirit obsession Spirit photography Spirit possession Spirit world Table - turning Theism Spiritualists Derek Acorah Rosemary Altea Charles Bailey Ada Besinnet Eddy Brothers Bangs Sisters Stephen E. Braude Rosemary Brown Sylvia Browne Eva Carrière Doris Collins Florence Cook Mina Crandon William Crookes Geraldine Cummins Pearl Curran Frank Decker Arthur Conan Doyle Helen Duncan Harry Edwards John Edward William Eglinton Colin Evans Fox sisters Leslie Flint Arthur Ford Colin Fry Eileen Garrett Kathleen Goligher Rita Goold Jan Guzyk Robert Hare Alec Harris Gordon Higginson Richard Hodgson Daniel Dunglas Home Elizabeth Hope William Hope Cecil Husk Swami Laura Horos James H. Hyslop Allan Kardec Franek Kluski Gladys Osborne Leonard Oliver Lodge Heinrich Melzer Carmine Mirabelli Francis Ward Monck William Usborne Moore William Stainton Moses Einer Nielsen Eusapia Palladino Leonora Piper Ethel Post-Parrish James Van Praagh Bert Reese Estelle Roberts Jane Roberts William Roy Rudi Schneider Maria Silbert Henry Slade Doris Stokes Emanuel Swedenborg Rosina Thompson Stanisława Tomczyk Ena Twigg George Valiantine Jack Webber Etta Wriedt Organizations List of Spiritualist organizations Spiritualist churches Spiritist centres London Spiritualist Alliance National Spiritualist Association of Churches Spiritualists ' National Union Spiritualist Association of Great Britain Spiritual Church Movement Arthur Findlay College International Spiritualist Federation Skeptics David Abbott John Henry Anderson George Miller Beard Ruth Brandon Lionel Branson Derren Brown William Carpenter Milbourne Christopher Edward Clodd Edmund Smith Conklin Millais Culpin Stuart Cumberland Eric Dingwall Joseph Dunninger Henry Evans Chris French Martin Gardner G. Stanley Hall Trevor H. Hall William A. Hammond C.E.M. Hansel Carlos María de Heredia Carl Hertz Terence Hines Harry Houdini Joseph Jastrow Stanley LeFevre Krebs Rose Mackenberg David Marks John Nevil Maskelyne Henry Maudsley Joseph McCabe Henry C. McComas Georgess McHargue Charles Arthur Mercier Albert Moll John Mulholland Fulton Oursler Joe Nickell E. Clephan Palmer Ronald Pearsall Frank Podmore Massimo Polidoro Harry Price Julien Proskauer James Randi Donovan Rawcliffe Joseph Rinn C.E. Bechhofer Roberts Chung Ling Soo Gordon Stein Amy Tanner Ivor Lloyd Tuckett Lyttelton Winslow Richard Wiseman VIAF : 43474172 LCCN : n91010777 IATH : w68k84fp Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Henry_Anderson&oldid=772053397 '' Categories : 1814 births 1874 deaths People from Kincardine and Mearns Professional magicians Scottish businesspeople Scottish male stage actors Scottish magicians 19th - century male actors Hidden categories : Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Italiano Русский Edit links This page was last edited on 25 March 2017, at 01 : 46. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: who is known as wizard of the north
Answer: John Henry Anderson