1. David Devant was an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor.
21 Facts About David Devant
1. 2.
David Devant is regarded by magicians as a consummate exponent of suave and witty presentation of stage illusion.
3.
David Devant is revered by magicians as an inventor and performer whose stature led to him being invited to participate in Royal Command Performances.
4.
David Devant was droll, engaging and a master of grand illusion and platform magic.
5.
David Devant was already a top-of-the-bill music hall star when he began sharing the stage with John Neville Maskelyne in 1893.
6.
In My Magic Life, David Devant says that their theatre was "the veritable headquarters of the conjurer's art".
7.
Milbourne Christopher, in his book Magic: A Picture History, wrote that "most British magicians agree, [David Devant] was the master performer of his time".
8.
David Devant was a fixture in British entertainment and it was he who was selected to represent "the world of wizardry" at King George V's command performance at the Palace Theatre in London on 1 July 1912.
9.
David Devant made headlines not long after when an escaped mental patient cornered him in London and insisted that the conjurer pull coins from the air as he had been seen to do on stage.
10.
David Devant did so until attendants arrived from the hospital to take the disturbed spectator away.
11.
On 19 March 1896 David Devant showed the first films ever seen in the UK.
12.
Also that year David Devant began his association with the pioneer of cinematic special effects, Georges Melies, to whom he sold a Theatrograph.
13.
David Devant then toured the country showing films, and for a time became Melies' sole agent in Great Britain selling both his films and cameras.
14.
David Devant was still at the peak of his profession when his health began to fail during the war years, until the consequences of "paralysis agitans", as he identifies it in his autobiography, forced him to retire in 1920.
15.
Oliver Lodge who was present in the audience was duped by the trick and claimed that David Devant had used psychic powers.
16.
David Devant is remembered as the consummate exponent of entertaining magical theatre.
17.
David Devant was the first President of both The British Magical Society and The Magic Circle.
18.
The Magic Circle celebrates David Devant by using his name for their function room in the Headquarters in London.
19.
David Devant was the author of several manuals on conjuring, including Our Magic: The Art in Magic, the Theory of Magic, the Practice of Magic with Nevil Maskelyne.
20.
David Devant lived in Hampstead, London, where a blue plaque commemorating his residence was affixed to the house, Ornan Court on Ornan Road at the junction with Haverstock Hill, in 2005.
21.
David Devant died on 13 October 1941 and is buried in the west side of Highgate Cemetery.