Description
- ✦ 85% acrylic, 15% wool
- ✦ Structured, 6-panel, high-profile
- ✦ Hypoallergenic
- ✦ Grey under visor
- ✦ Head circumference: 22″–24″ (55–60 cm)
- ✦ Blank product sourced from China
- ✦ This product is made on demand. No minimums.
The Blackstone Legacy: Chicago’s Master of Grand Illusion
From Chicago Street Kid to America’s Greatest Magician
Born Harry Bouton in Chicago on September 27, 1885—just fourteen years after the Great Fire—the man who would become Harry Blackstone Sr. embodied everything about Chicago’s spirit: reinvention, ambition, and the audacity to transform entertainment into art. From mesmerized twelve-year-old watching Harry Kellar at McVickers Theater in 1897 to becoming the greatest stage illusionist of his generation, Blackstone’s journey is pure Chicago grit.
The Floating Light Bulb & Other Miracles
Blackstone didn’t just perform tricks—he created theatrical impossibilities that stunned even fellow magicians. His legendary “Floating Light Bulb” would drift from stage to audience, glowing and dancing at his command, passing through hoops to prove no wires existed. So convincing was this illusion that the original mechanism now resides in the Smithsonian Institution. His “Vanishing Bird Cage” disappeared while children held it. His version of “Sawing a Woman in Half” used a screaming electric circular saw that added genuine terror to the familiar trick.
The Chicago Club Circuit That Built a Legend
Starting in 1899, Harry and his brother Pete worked Chicago’s vaudeville theaters and club circuit, developing the mix of comedy and grand illusion that would become Blackstone’s trademark. Working as a cabinet maker by day, he learned to build the elaborate props that stage magic demanded. His early act “Straight and Crooked Magic” played throughout the Midwest, but it was in Chicago’s variety shows and party circuit where he learned to command a room—skills that would serve him when he performed at 165 military bases during WWII.
The Greatest Trick: Saving 600 Lives
In September 1942, during a children’s matinee in Decatur, Illinois, Blackstone was informed the pharmacy next door was ablaze. Rather than risk panic among 600 young audience members, he announced a trick “so large we can’t do it inside the theater.” He then calmly evacuated the entire audience row by row, maintaining the illusion until everyone was safely outside. Many considered this crowd control—preventing a deadly stampede—his “greatest trick” of all.
The Lithographs That Made Him Famous
Blackstone’s theatrical posters became legendary in their own right—bold, colorful lithographs showing him commanding floating women, vanishing assistants, and mysterious Eastern princesses. These weren’t just advertisements; they were works of art that promised the impossible and delivered even more. Theater lobbies across America displayed these stunning visuals, each one a masterpiece of early 20th-century commercial art that captured the golden age of stage magic.
Chicago’s Eternal Magician
When Harry Kellar—the master who inspired young Harry at McVickers Theater—saw Blackstone perform in 1915, he declared him “the best all-around magician he’d ever seen” and passed on his signature illusions. Today, the Chicago Magic Lounge’s Harry Blackstone Cabaret Theater continues his legacy, bridging the gap between intimate close-up magic and grand theatrical illusion that Blackstone perfected.
Why This Collection Matters
Harry Blackstone represents the Chicago that built America’s entertainment industry: a working-class kid who spent his “few pennies” on a gallery seat at McVickers Theater and vowed to become a great magician. Through pure Chicago determination, he transformed from Harry Bouton the cabinet maker to Harry Blackstone the legend, elevating magic from carnival sideshow to legitimate theatrical art.
This collection celebrates not just a magician, but Chicago’s golden age of live entertainment—when theatrical posters were hand-lithographed works of art, when a single performer could evacuate 600 children with nothing but presence and authority, when magic meant more than YouTube tutorials and TV specials. Blackstone’s posters promised wonder, and for six decades, he delivered it nightly.
“He was the best all-around magician I’ve ever seen.”
— Harry Kellar, the master who inspired Blackstone, endorsing his successor
Wear the legacy of Chicago’s greatest showman.
From the South Side clubs where he learned his craft to the world’s greatest stages, Harry Blackstone proved that with enough Chicago brass, even the impossible becomes inevitable.
Heritage Tribute Collection: This design honors the historical legacy of Harry Blackstone Sr. (1885-1965) and is inspired by public domain theatrical posters and lithographs from the golden age of stage magic. Not affiliated with any current estates or organizations. Original artwork based on historical records and cultural heritage. Part of Old Chicago’s mission to preserve the stories of Chicago’s greatest entertainment legends.
