A Celestial Celebration
SUZETTE YETTMAH
“The Wizardette”
Call it cheating if you will, but I am aware of only two entries for the “X” installment of my series—the Chinese magicienne Xu, who competed at FISM in 2003—and Mrs. Al Flosso, who briefly appeared as Madame Xenia when the newly married couple worked a circus mind-reading act in the 1920s. (The code they used, incidentally, was a wedding gift from Houdini.) But with so little material, I’m afraid that I’ll have to combine X and Y for now. If anyone knows of another woman in magic whose name starts with “X,” I would be happy to broaden my horizons. Surely there must have been a “Madame X” or two during the vaudeville crystal-gazing craze.
Skipping ahead to the letter “Y,” I’d like to pay tribute to Suzette Yettmah, an English magician whose husband was the well-known performer and inventor Cyril Yettmah (1883-1949). Born Cyril Ashton Rowcroft in Cheshire, England, Yettmah played St. George’s Hall with his “mysterious act of Japanese magic” in 1918 and again in 1926. He is noted for inventing the pigeon-catching effect in 1909, as well as the Shadow Pagoda.
As an illusion builder for Howard Thurston from 1928 to 1930, Cyril Yettmah contributed several iconic effects to the show, most notably “Iasia,” in which a woman vanished “at the dome of the theater,” and the “Million Dollar Mystery,” in which a small box produced more than it could possibly hold. Yettmah adapted Thurston’s “Million Dollar Mystery” (without credit) from the original illusion by Walter C. Jeans. After working with Thurston, Yettmah also built a few illusions for Charles Carter. During the 1930s, Yettmah and his wife were performing regularly around London.
Suzette Yettmah was born Sarah Ann Mabel Fenbow on April 16, 1888. She presumably learned the art of conjuring from her husband and sometimes billed herself as “Layettmah, the Gay Wizardette.” In 1930 she was presenting an act of all-Indian magic at the Polytechnic. According to The Billboard, this was Suzette’s 10th year in magic, and she had played all over the world, but perhaps this claim should be taken with a grain of salt. She was one of the performers at the Magicians’ Club Ladies’ Night show on March 22, 1931, where the guest of honor was Sophie Tucker, who even performed a trick herself on the show. Booked at Maskelyne’s in 1932, Suzette presented an Oriental act that, according to Amy Dawes in Those Beautiful Dames, “included the empty-handed production of multi-colored silks. She also performed a routine in which water was poured into a cylinder, and from it cages, dolls, and flags were produced, after which the liquid reappeared.”
Suzette sometimes produced a long string of lighted lanterns at the finish of that routine. Writing in The Magic Circular in 1974, Tom Kemp recalled her performance: “Suzette, wife of Yettmah, did a nice act, finishing with the production of a huge Chinese lantern from the heap of paper coils. She used to pile the whirling paper on a waste paper basket. In this was hidden the lantern which she picked up with the paper.” Suzette was at St. George’s Hall a second time in 1934, where, among other effects, she caused coins to pass into a hat from under a handkerchief.
In 1936, Will Goldston called Suzette “England’s leading lady magician” and said that her act “caused many a laugh.” She featured a smooth performance of the linking rings, and her husband claimed that his wife “is so quiet with the rings that the audience could almost hear a pin drop.” Brunel White described part of her repertoire in his World’s Fair column, reporting on a 1936 appearance at the Archway Central Hall. Suzette had played that venue so often, White pointed out, that she changed her usual act. She “presented the torn-and-restored paper to bouquet, production of single handkerchiefs, cling clang, black-and-white tissue paper to hat, sun and moon, torn and restored tissue paper with mock exposure, and paper in mouth to streamer, from the middle of which a doll was produced. Her gag ‘Nobody in it’ got a good laugh each time.” White reported in 1938 that Suzette was having a “busy season,” and mentioned in 1940 that Cyril and Suzette’s son was taking up magic as “Rowmah.”
Cyril Yettmah died in 1949, and Suzette outlived him for 25 years. She passed away in December of 1974, at the age of 86.
A version of this article first appeared in the May 2008 issue of The Linking Ring and appears here by permission.
Stargazing
The Y-list of women in magic could include several Asian performers, past and present. Yan Yow was billed as the daughter of Tuck Quay when his troupe of Chinese Magicians toured the US in 1853. A surviving playbill credits her with such feats as multiplication of eggs, fire-eating, ribbon-making, and something ominously called “The Impalement.” Yang Lu Lu is a performer from China, as is Zhao Yuying, who performed at FISM in 2006. Yumi Nakajima from Japan works as an engineer at Toshiba but also presents an elegant act. She was featured in a cover story for Genii in April 2012. Ding Yang, a talented acrobat and magician from China, has earned several top awards, and earned FISM’s Most Original Act prize, and second in FISM’s General Magic at the 2022 FISM in Québec.
I have eleven more names: Margaret Yates (1934-2020) was a semi-pro magician in Australia, specializing for a while in children’s magic. She was also a collector of magic books, with a library that at one point numbered over 2500 volumes. Ybur (Ruby spelled in reverse) and Yolande were two escape artists who performed during the first decade of the twentieth century. Orlando-based Rebekah Yen incorporates her skills in dance, music, magic, and origami in a high-energy act that has made her popular with corporate clients, magic conventions, and on television. Lady Yoko did magic in Paris in the 1990s. Yona is a successful close-up performer in Columbia, while Doreen Younger, daughter of English magician Edmund Younger, entertained the troops with a USO show circa 1944.
Finally, there are the four Yvonnes. Yvonne Arthurs is from Falmouth, England, and won the Craig Trophy—given by the IBM British Ring for the Best Female Performer—in 1971 and 1982. Yvonne Knell (d. 1964) won the Craig Trophy in 1956. Princess Yvonne (1902-1989) was one of the great second-sight acts with her husband Doc Irving (1901-1978). In the 1930s, their four-year-old daughter surprised her parents by correcting a mistake in their performance code after a show. Almost immediately, Baby Yvonne (1929-1995) was part of the show as the “World’s Youngest Mental Marvel.”