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The sawing illusion has had a prominent role in the history of such battles and has thus contributed to case law. In September 1921, motivated by concerns about preventing competition from other magicians who might copy him, Horace Goldin forwent secrecy and applied for a patent for Sawing a woman in half. He was awarded U.S. patent number ...
Goldin's sawing a woman in half illusion. Goldin is often credited with inventing the sawing a woman in half illusion, however it was first popularised by British magician P. T. Selbit in 1921. [8]: 102 Goldin presented his own version of the trick a matter of months later. There remains a debate about the origin of the idea, with some sources ...
The Zig-Zag Girl illusion is a stage illusion akin to the more famous sawing a woman in half illusion. In the Zig-Zag illusion, a magician divides an assistant into thirds, only to have them emerge from the illusion at the end of the performance completely unharmed. It was invented in 1965 by magician Robert Harbin. [1] [2]
Magician Dorothy Dietrich sawing celebrity assistant and comedian Robert Klein in half on TV. One female magician Dorothy Dietrich has turned the tables and used men as assistants, sawing them in half. Changes in fashion and great social upheavals during the first decades of the 20th century made Selbit's choice of "victim" both practical and ...
His "Sawing a woman in half" involved an electric circular saw some three to four feet in diameter mounted in an open frame. Blackstone's version differed from others in that the lady lay on a table that was pulled by a motor through the saw blade. Blackstone demonstrated the efficacy of the device by sawing noisily through a piece of lumber.
Box of Pain (Magician sticks a sword and daggers through an assistant's head in a box) Water Torture Escape; Episode Three May 5, 1998 (US) October 3, 2010 (HK) Bed of Spikes (Death of Cora) The Stretch (Magician stretches an assistant's arms & legs to the breaking point) Daggers of Death (Knife-throwing at an assistant while strapped to a wheel)
The illusion is very similar in principle and performance to the older "Thin Model" versions of sawing a woman in half, with the exception that the boxes used to cover the assistant being divided are clear, rather than opaque. In basic concept, it is very similar to the transparent sawing developed by Les Arnold in the late 1970s.
In his performances, Blackstone used several of his father's tricks and illusions, including the "floating light bulb", "sawing a woman in half", and the "dancing handkerchief". [4]: 149 His wife, Gay Blackstone, was his magician's assistant, keeping his performances running smoothly onstage and offstage. [4]: 149