ABOUT
Carl Hertz
(May 14, 1859 – March 20, 1924)
He was born Louis or Leib Morgenstein in San Francisco.
Famous acts
The vanishing bird act
Was this cruel or not? It was debated in the House of Commons as part of the Performing Animals Bill on Friday 23 March 1923, where it was reported "A man like Carl Hertz would never do a crude thing like that. He brought two birds along to show his expertness in this matter, they were parakeets."
The Aerolithe
Another controversial illusion, involving a girl dancing on air - a court case was brought that accused him of stealing it from a German magician.
His role in Cinema
The theatrographe was first demonstrated by R.W. Paul at Finsbury Technical College on February 20, 1896. Hertz bought the Theatrograph on 27 March 1896, and, embarked on a voyage to South Africa the next day, was showing films on the ship, the SS Norman, within days
of his purchase. During an extensive tour, Hertz presented the first film shows in Johannesburg, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Colombo, Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore, Manila, Java, Borneo, Saigon, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Kyoto, Osaka, Yokohama, Tokyo, Fiji and Honolulu.
The Indian rope trick
Coming soon
GALLERY
Links to images coming soon
