A Celestial Celebration
MARIETTA POOLE
“The Mystifier”
According to the English magic historian Sidney Clarke, a juggler named Joan Pottage performed in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, as mentioned by a German author circa 1660. Bart Whaley lists her as the first recorded female magician. It is, of course, always risky to claim that any particular person was the first at anything, but for the moment I’m not aware of any earlier named contenders for the title. Not surprisingly for this period, there is no further information available: no one knows what sort of conjuring Joan Pottage did, where she came from, or what happened to her. Hers is the fate of countless magicians who survive merely as names in history books, having left no detailed record of their lives or performances.
Unfortunately, the subject of this installment rests in similar obscurity, and I wanted to feature her as a tribute to all the magicians—male and female—who appear briefly on the scene and disappear without a trace not long after. Some may not have been very gifted in the art, and dropping out of magic is often a natural decision. Others may have had talent yet received no encouragement. Since branching out into a man’s hobby is such a gutsy thing to do, I can’t help but feel a certain respect for the legions of forgotten women who gave magic a temporary try. While it is true that printing up business cards and investing in a set of linking rings does not make one a magician, there are certainly worse things in life than having a brief fling as a conjurer.
So that’s why I’m writing about Marietta Poole, who can represent all her sisters who never achieved great success in magic. She joined the IBM in January of 1927, giving her address as the New Liberty Hotel in Boston. As IBM #1088, her picture appeared with other female members in the 1927 convention program. Ms. Poole had advertising brochures printed up, and two different publicity photos show her with a table full of props. From the photos, I can see that her act consisted of billiard ball manipulations, flower productions, the Chinese sticks, a drumhead tube production, a crystal casket, a card tripod, and liquid magic. On both photos she has signed her name as “Marietta Poole, the Mystifier.” But by the time she got her start in magic, Marietta already had plenty of show business experience.
According to census records, Ms. Poole was born Marietta Polewazky in New York on August 16, 1883 to parents who were German immigrants. She seems to have started out her performing career as a singer and dancer in vaudeville, and all too soon she learned the dangers of being a woman in the business. An article in Variety in 1910 describes her testimony at a hearing for a booking agent who was applying for a license. At age 25, the “singer and toe-dancer” testified that this smarmy agent had made an improper proposal to her, the details of which were described in the paper as “revolting.” But Marietta didn’t quit theatrical life, and in 1911, her picture appeared in The New York Clipper—a weekly entertainment newspaper—where she was billed as a singer.
Just one year later, she seems to have gotten mixed up with another unsavory character, a hypnotist who called himself “J. Thurston.” In 1912 this charlatan was playing Syracuse with his assistant “Marietta Poole, Queen of Vaudeville,” when he apparently stole a coat belonging to one of his onstage volunteers and then proceeded to skip town, leaving an unpaid hotel bill. The year 1914 shows her having moved on from Mr. Thurston to the Telephone Girls, a burlesque group that played Boston singing songs like “Hello, boys, what number, please?”
Marietta’s luck with men continued to go up and down. She had been married since 1909 to a man named James Roy Williams, but she filed for divorce in 1915 on grounds of desertion. She had a son named Arthur in 1909 who died the following year. In November of 1916, Marietta married a comedian named Henry Myers. Sometimes billed as the “Black Face Nut,” he worked both as a single and a double act, and after their marriage the two appeared onstage together as “Myers and Poole.”
It’s not clear when Marietta decided to try out magic, but thanks to a tip from Chris Van Look, I now know why she did. Her brothers ran a magic shop in New York City! Her brothers Paul (15 Nov 1886—30 May 1938) and Frank (13 Oct 1887—Feb 1954) were both vaudeville magicians who opened a shop on Broadway around 1919. The shop specialized in effects for mentalists and also illusions. The brothers boasted of being the only magic shop run by active performers and members of the National Vaudeville Artists. Hence they claimed to understand the needs of the working pro. In 1921, the brothers expanded their business to focus on supplying illusions. Harry Rouclere was among their satisfied customers.
One major product in 1921 was “The Talking Sphinx Mystery,” where a sphinx head placed on a piece of glass held by two spectators could speak, answer questions, and foretell the future. Given the growing emphasis on wireless magic effects, the company was reorganized as the Electro-Magical Laboratories in 1922. At some point, Frank had bought out his brother Paul’s share of the business and presented it to Burling Hull, who became a silent partner owning 60% of the company. The whole outfit seems to have been dissolved before 1923, at which point Burling Hull operated a shop offering magic wholesale to dealers.
So, when their older sister Marietta, now in her 40s, decided to reinvent herself as a magician, Frank and Paul helped her put together an act by 1926. In the January 1, 1927 issue of Billboard, still keeping her stage name as Marietta Poole, she wrote in to highlight one key to her approach: “Believe me, magic is very much alive around Boston, and all magicians are kept busy. I am the only lady magician in New England. My gowns are sleeveless and I try to convince my audience that I have something up my sleeve, but it cries out, ‘You have no sleeves.’ Sleeveless apparel makes magic more intriguing.”
In the one review I’ve found, she is performing with a man named Collins in a one-hour show at the Odd Fellows lodge in Quincy, Massachusetts. Writing in the July 7, 1928 issue of Billboard, the reviewer noted that “the charming manner of Miss Poole in presenting her features has won for her many friends.” This tells us virtually nothing, as few women magicians were not described as “charming.”
Tragedy struck on July 4, 1929, as her husband Henry died from tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York, where he had been under the care of the National Vaudeville Association for some time. He was 59. That seems to have ended his wife’s career—at least in magic. By 1930, The Linking Ring reported her in a list of magicians whose mail had been returned, and there are no further mentions of her name in the literature after that. It’s possible she left the stage entirely. If anyone has more information about Marietta Poole, I’d love to hear from you.
The original version of this article first appeared in the September 2007 issue of The Linking Ring and appears here by permission. A special thanks to Gary Hunt for assistance with newspaper research for this article, and to Chris Van Look for pointing out the Poole Brothers connection.
Stargazing
Some women in magic for the letter “P” have been less obscure, while others are nearly as forgotten as Miss Poole. Here they are in alphabetical order, with dates when I know them. Paddy (Patricia Krisko, 1923-?) of Butler, PA, made quite a splash as a teenage magician in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, appearing in a “Magic on Broadway” program in 1943 and doing a USO tour in North Africa. Athena Pallas was from Australia and performed in the 1940s. Paula Panda flourished during the ‘70s and ‘80s in nightclubs, performing a mentalism and hypnotism act as “Sabrina” and a magic act as “Alexandra.” Princess Pat (Patricia Holton, 1924-1979) put in her time doing blindfold drives as a youngster in the northwest.
Taught by Charles Bertram, Felicien Trewey, and her husband C. Lang Neil, Mademoiselle Patrice (1863-1927) worked her magic in drawing rooms around the turn of the century. One of many women who have held prominent leadership in magical societies, Hazel Payne (1913-2008) served as President both of Magigals and the PCAM. Charlotte Pendragon certainly belongs on any list of talented women in magic, both as a partner to Jonathan for 25 years and as a performer in her own right. According to Thomas Frost, a Mrs. Pennington toured the English provinces in the 1840s billed as the “Only Female Illusionist in the World.” A Miss Eva Perry did magic with trained birds at the World’s Museum in Boston in 1885. Much more recently, Meadow Perry has made a name for herself with her Bubble Magic show, and among her many credits, Jessica Jane Peterson appeared in a Costa Cruise show titled Illusions. She grew up in magic as the god-daughter of Al Belmont.
Lesley Piddington (1924-2016) partnered with the famous Australian mentalist in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Along with her husband George, Madame Pinxy (Grace Larsen, ca. 1887-1948) was a prominent manufacturer of puppets based in Chicago and counted many magicians among her customers. England’s legendary Fay Presto has dazzled audiences for decades with her unique brand of hocus pocus. Mattie Lee Price (1869-1899) held her own against burly audience volunteers as one of several strength-resistance acts that imitated Lulu Hurst and Annie Abbott. The cover of the June 2016 Linking Ring featured Donna Purnell, a Boston-based escape artist who performs as Alexandria the Great. Goldie Puricelli has performed magic for the deaf in a London show called “Signed Magic.” I should also mention Kruti Parekh of India, Dahlia Pelled of Israel, and Maria Potente of Spain.