Jeans’ New Era of Magic
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Walter Cerretta Jeans (Leeds: Jeans Ltd., 193-)
This curious ‘prospectus for a new illusion’ sees a magic inventor embracing the early atomic age. William Cerratta Jeans started out life as a brass moulder before moving into showbusiness in a number of different fields, including magic. He patented a number of innovative magical inventions, including the mirror tunnel principle, which formed the basis of many production illusions, and Will Goldston dedicated a chapter to Jeans in Further Exclusive Magical Secrets. Blown to Atoms (1927) was never performed. The prospectus promises an effect of great novelty and originality, involving locking the performer in a box and cabinet to which a live bomb is then attached, the fuse lit… of course, Jeans did not give away the result!