John Maskelyne: illusionist, escapologist and inventor

This month, by sleight of hand, I give you John Maskelyne (1839-1917), the Cheltenham-born illusionist and escapologist of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. This month’s ‘Great’ certainly made his mark in the Cotswolds, and elsewhere, not only as ‘The Chief’ among magicians of the time but also somewhat incongruously as the inventor of the pay toilet. Many of the illusions that Maskelyne conceived are still performed to this day; hardly surprising for the man has been described as the ‘Father of British Magic’.

John Nevil Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham on 22nd December 1839 at 20 White Hart Row (now White Hart Street) although my normally reliable and ever hefty biographical dictionary posits Wiltshire as his native county and ‘farming stock’ as his familial background. His parents were John Nevil Maskelyne (1800-75), actually a saddler/publican, and Harriet Brunsdon (1812-71). The man himself would claim to be a descendant of an Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811), although the veracity of this bold assertion is now disputed. Things were maybe not always as they seemed with our Mr. Maskelyne; the lot of the magician surely. By 1861 Maskelyne had completed an apprenticeship as a jeweller, watchmaker and silversmith, setting up his home and business at 12, Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier.

Cheltenham Town Hall in the spa town’s Imperial Square. It would be nice to be able to claim that this is the same Town Hall where John Maskelyne ‘outed’ fraudulent brothers, the Davenports, during the 1860s when he was still only in his mid-20s, however, this would be a fib just like Maskelyne himself claiming that he was descended from an Astronomer Royal. Today’s Town Hall dates from the early-20th century. Maskelyne’s tour-de-force occurred elsewhere (Image: Reading Tom) His interest in magic was sparked when he was still a young man only in his mid-20s by a stage show at the local Town Hall (an old town hall in Regent Street where today’s Everyman Theatre can be found) although the entertainers were actually fraudulent American spiritualists, the ‘Davenport Brothers’, Ira and William, who claimed their illusions were ‘supernatural’. Maskelyne, a mere spectator, then endeared himself to the Davenports (not) by informing their audience that he could do exactly what they’d just done and without resort to anything supernatural. With the assistance of a Mr. George Alfred Cooke, a cabinet maker of Burton Street in Cheltenham, Maskelyne was able to build his own version of the Davenports contraption (‘Maskelyne’s Box’) and show the Cheltenham public in June 1865 at Jessop’s Gardens (there’s a Waitrose there these days) that they’d been duped by smoke and mirrors. Apparently, this performance was sponsored by the 10th Cotswold Rifle Corps; Maskelyne and Cooke were both members of this volunteer Corp, the likes of which would eventually be incorporated into the Territorials. The show was repeated several times to popular acclaim. It was after this that the pair decided to join forces as professional magicians and embark on a UK tour, starting with those gigs in Cheltenham and ending at the Crystal Palace in 1867 after a couple of years on the road. There also appears to have been a performance for the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, at Berkeley Castle. Their act would develop to include automata, juggling and Maskelyne’s now famous ‘box trick’.

Maskelyne’s agent, William Morton, who did as much as anyone to bring John Maskelyne and his magical partners to the attention of the wider world. This picture is taken from his memoir’s frontispiece (Image: Petrosbizar) Meanwhile, Maskelyne had married, to the gloriously named Elizabeth Taylor (1840-1911), a Cheltenham girl, at Swindon Village Parish Church in 1862 (although some sources offer Pershore for the happy event), then became a father to rather confusingly another John Nevil Maskelyne (1863-1924), but thankfully known as Nevil, who was also born in Cheltenham and would follow his father in becoming a magician and inventor. Two other children would follow, Minnie (1866-1942) and Edwin (1879-1920). Cooke and Maskelyne’s agent, William Morton (1838-1938), who’d masterminded their tour, next got them a spell at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly which commenced at the tail-end of 1873. It was only supposed to be a short three month arrangement, however, the pair must have been doing something right as they remained there for no less than 31 years, the marathon extravaganza only ending when the venue was demolished in 1905, becoming along the way the longest running magic show in British history with the Egyptian Hall duly dubbed ‘England’s Home of Mystery’ as wizardry took on dramatic performance. Maskelyne would develop a routine where his magic became part of telling a story; it would go down well on BGT today. One of the first film projectors had been introduced into the show in March 1896 with even Maskelyne himself appearing in a film; ‘Maskelyne: Spinning Plates’ (1896). He’s also reputedly the illusionist who pioneered levitation. 1905 was a crucial hinge year for Maskelyne as not only was a change of venue required but also a new partner as Cooke had died in the February. Maskelyne would now work with another talent of the magical art, Londoner David Devant (1868-1941), who’d first worked with Maskelyne and co in 1893 and would prove good enough to appear at Royal Command Performances and was reputedly England’s most famous magician, although one wonders what Maskelyne might have thought of that.

The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, 1828. (Image: Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, source – image extracted from ‘Metropolitan Improvements) Maskelyne would then transfer his ‘Home of Magic’ to St George’s Hall in Langham Place in 1905 where his unique brand of spectacular conjuring continued to flourish under the management of his own son. Maskelyne liked to see things done properly and as a paranormal investigator he therefore devoted much time and energy to exposing spiritualistic frauds, going as far as founding the ‘Occult Committee’ (1914) for this purpose. In similar vein, he’d also published ‘Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill’ (1894) which is still considered a classic of its kind; card sharps beware. Another work of Maskelyne’s, ‘The Supernatural?’ (1891), offered rational explanations for supposed spiritualist and occult goings-on; the question mark in the title of course is loaded. Maskelyne had also been called as a witness in the case of Henry Slade, a medium who was convicted of being a fraud in 1876.

As the inventor of the pay toilet in the late-19th century I guess Maskelyne earned our enduring gratitude. The development involved a door lock for London loos that could be released with the insertion of a penny coin; it seems the phrase ‘off to spend a penny’ is assuredly down to him then. He didn’t content himself with that sole benefit to the UK’s bladders though as he was also busily inventing other ‘Victorian-era devices’ (as you do) including a typewriter that he introduced with the help of his son, John Nevil Maskelyne Jnr. in 1893. He also co-invented an automaton machine dubbed ‘Psycho’ that could apparently play Whist, a gas-burner for a hot air balloon, a machine for printing cash receipts and an automatic bus ticket dispenser. That inventiveness was also put to good use in the field of magic, his creations such as his own ‘box’ furthering the science, which was also fostered by his patronage of new, younger performers; he never regarded magic as a closed shop. With son Nevil he also attempted to develop a flicker-free projector which was patented in May 1896 and would appear at the Egyptian Hall as the ’Mutagraph’.

Plaque in the Everyman Theatre commemorating the part played by John Maskelyne in the exposure of the Davenport brothers' fraud (Image: sleepymyf, source – Flickr) John Nevil Maskelyne died in London of pneumonia on 17th May 1917 aged 77. Maskelyne’s grandson, Jasper (1902-73), first appeared in his grandpa’s show aged just eleven and continued as a conjuror in his own right. Jasper would also use his peculiar knowledge to confuse the enemy with large-scale ruses during WW2 and would also write an account of his remarkable family in ‘White Magic’ (1936). Back in Cheltenham meanwhile there’s a blue plaque at 12, Rotunda Terrace, recording that the ‘illusionist and watchmaker’ who’d been born in White Hart Street had gone on to have ‘lived and worked here’. There’s another plaque in the Everyman Theatre, Regent Street, recording that it was here where ‘he exposed the Davenport Brothers’, the plaque ‘erected as a tribute to his genius’.