Interrogating the Blue Room: Reflections on a Turn-of the-Century Magic Show and the Veracity of the Senses
Loading...
Date
2013-11-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The illusion was first created and presented by John Henry Pepper and John Walker at the Royal Polytechnic Institute in London where it premiered under the title "Metempsychosis" in 1879. Shortly thereafter, Harry Kellar, renowned stage magician began using the technique in his "Blue Room", a stage illusion wherein audiences watched as Kellar slowly transformed himself into a skeleton or made a rose bush grow instantaneously from a seed right before their eyes. Kellar performed his Blue Room illusion throughout the last two decades of the nineteenth century, a time in which visual evidence's relationship to reality was being called into question.
Description
Keywords
magic, magician, special effects, stage effects, stage technology, Harry Kellar, illusion, Blue Room, optical illusion, John Henry Pepper, Pepper's ghost, Metempsychosis, Victorian entertainment, optics
Citation
Kattelman, Beth. "Interrogating the Blue Room: Reflections on a Turn-of the-Century Magic Show and the Veracity of the Senses." American Society for Theatre Research National Conference. Dallas, TX. November 9, 2013. Unpublished Conference Paper.