Three women float at different heights above the stage, and three audience members below the stage steps look up with their mouths open.
Howard Thurston succeeded Harry Kellar in a formal ceremony at Ford's Theatre, Baltimore, in May 1908. His travelling show needed eight railway cars and toured for decades. The levitation illusion, in which a woman rose from the stage, floated through a large hoop, drifted over the orchestra pit and vanished, was the centrepiece of his programme. The Otis Lithograph Company of Cleveland, Ohio, printed this design; the Library of Congress dates its copy to about 1935.
On the poster
Three women in white gowns float above the stage, each guided by a magician in a black tailcoat and white tie. A hoop passes around the highest figure. Below the stage steps, three audience members look up open-mouthed. The footer reads: "She floats all over the stage and into the audience, then vanishes like a fading cloud." The background shifts from teal through amber to red in loose, atmospheric brushwork.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
