When researching figures in magic history, I often start with public newspaper archives. With millions of pages digitized online, they contain forgotten information not found elsewhere, including stories that no one has read since publication. Yet a big issue remains: How do we know if the printed stories within these archives are accurate? The answer is disappointing: unless we find more credible conflicting reports, we can’t ever be sure. Some stories, however, are so ludicrous that we can only assume they are false. Such is the case with Harry Blackstone Sr.
“Mr. B,” as he was affectionately called by his cast, is someone I wish I could have met. His career in magic spanned 60-plus years, and he was arguably the last great magician of magic’s Golden Age. Oh, the stories he must’ve had. Luckily, we have newspaper archives, and throughout Blackstone’s performing career, countless tales and anecdotes about the magician’s stage and private life were inked on newsprint for the general public’s curious consumption. And so, too, were exaggerations and blatant mistruths. They range from the innocuous, such as claims of being “fresh from his tour of the Far East” when, in fact, the magician never toured outside North America, to the more extreme.