In the world of commercial magic one of the main challenges has always been selling the value of your services to the venue in which you hope to appear, and sometimes you just have to accept that what your audience really wants isn’t magic. In the March 1941 edition of The Sphinx, Wilfrid Johnson reflected on that very challenge at London’s exclusive clubs.
“I was reading the restaurant advertisements in the London Evening Standard recently,” he said, “and thinking of the days, not so long ago, when the Ritz always advertised Russell Swann, while the Trocadero had Cardini, and the Piccadilly Ade Duval. Now all the exclusive night spots vie with each other in advertising the depth of their Air Raid Shelters instead of the merits of their magicians.”