From Vaudeville to Variety

The performances of Maledis the Great, Gloria Dea, and Edgar Bergen on Las Vegas stages in the first half of the 1900s were integral parts of a larger tapestry of multidisciplinary magic entertainment offered during this time. From the late 1800s through the early 1900s, magic was undergoing a period of experimentation, refinement, and popularity; this period of time is commonly referred to as the “First Golden Age of Magic.”

In the 1930s, escape artists such as The Great Nelson and George Marquis shocked audiences with high-stakes feats of physical discipline, with the former even suspending himself over downtown while attempting to safely escape from a straitjacket. Ventriloquists were also popular during this period, nearly a decade before the arrival of Edgar Bergen (and Charlie McCarthy) to the city in the early 1940s; Clark Philips, known as “Dunbar, the White Yogi,” is the first recorded ventriloquist to perform in Las Vegas, taking the stage in October 1931 at the Las Vegas Airdome, the city’s first movie theater. In addition to his talents as a ventriloquist, Philips also billed himself as a “sleight-of-hand performer, hypnotist, ventriloquist, and master magician.”

In the 1940s, mentalists and magicians began to gain prominence in Las Vegas. Following the precedent set by Gloria Dea at the El Rancho Las Vegas in 1941, performers such as Olgo and Dante the Magician transfixed audiences at the Thunderbird Hotel and Flamingo Hotel & Casino, respectively. Olgo, a “mathematical mentalist,” advertised himself as having been “born [a] calculator,” and was renowned in Europe as well as the United States for his uncanny memory and analytical prowess. Harry August Jansen, known as Dante the Magician, would have similarly earned a name for himself touring around the world, eventually establishing himself as one of the most influential magicians of all time. Dante’s signature illusion, in which he appears to saw a woman in half, has become integral to the imagery associated with magic performance in popular culture.

The 1950s saw magic performances fully arrive as a fixture of Las Vegas entertainment, with high-profile productions such as Lido de Paris and Folies Bergere prominently featuring magic as part of their ensembles, eventually launching the careers of Barclay Shaw, Lance Burton, and Siegfried & Roy. This period also saw magic demand headline-making payouts, such as Orson Welles’ short-lived stint at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in February 1956, which would have earned the filmmaker an estimated $45,000 for a show that not only featured a tuxedo-clad Welles perform feats of mentalism and illusion, but also dramatic soliloquies from Shakespeare.

These acts, along with countless others, laid the foundation for Las Vegas to fully take its place as the global epicenter for magic in the 1980s through the 2000s.