Women in Magic

Mary Ann has to be one of the busiest women in magic. As a performer, she is, of course, a model for female magicians; but it is her creative use of magic as a financial teaching tool that can be an inspiration for any performer.

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 meet Marietta Poole, who can represent all her sisters who never achieved great success in magic.

One of the first female members of The Magic Circle, Paula Baird was a skilled manipulator, and consistently impressed both lay audiences and her peers with her flawless magic. Meet this two-time FISM award winner and find out how she charmed the crowd with card manipulation, despite following Cardini.

Okay, I admit, "X" was a tough letter, so I blended what I had on magicians filed under "X" for this series, and blended it with my entry for "Y." So consider this a two for one! Here, you will learn a few X magicians and also about an English magician, The Wizardette, who was also called England's leading magician in 1936.

Madam Zomah's real name was Adelaide Ellen Giddings, and she and her husband, Alfred James Giddings, performed a telepathy act as “The Marriotts” until 1910, when they changed the name to the Zomahs.

Learn more about Dell O’Dell, the glamorous, comedy magicienne and television pioneer, and discover how she became to be known as “The World’s Leading Lady Magician.”

Born into the life of fairground theatre in 1896, discover how Suzy Wandas—inspired by the elegant mastery of coin manipulation by Mercedes Talma—transformed from caravan act and into to The Lady with the Fairy Fingers.

Name rings a bell? Many magicians have been part of magical families, and this magician was daughter-in-law to Louis “Pop” Krieger, who famously charmed high-society audiences in New York. Norma’s husband, Willie Krieger, was also a magician and Punch puppeteer, and her brother-in-law was the legendary “Coney Island Fakir,” Al Flosso .

While Dell O’Dell would be an obvious choice for this installment, I’ve already written about her life and career, so come and meet a magician with Irish heritage and a lively onstage persona (several of them, in fact).