Max Auzinger was born on this day in 1839. An actor by trade, he accidentally discovered the principle of Black Art as he was working on a play, and he adapted the secret for his own highly imitated variety act—a mysterious “Oriental” wizard who summoned objects and people with a wave of his wand. Perhaps one of his first imitators was the French magician Buatier de Kolta. Auzinger claimed that de Kolta saw him present the act in Germany in the autumn of 1886, then took it, performed it, and patented the secret in London. De Kolta had died before Auzinger’s accusation; his friends insisted that the idea was independently invented.
