Who was Horace Goldin?

Horace Goldin (1873–1939) was born Hyman Goldstein in Vilnius and became a vaudeville star with a fast, silent act billed as “The Whirlwind Illusionist”. In 1921 he presented his own version of sawing through a woman, with the assistant’s head, hands and feet in view, and in 1923 he was granted a US patent for it. He spent years in court defending the illusion and died in London in August 1939, the night after a show.

Goldin’s name is tied to sawing through a woman almost as closely as P. T. Selbit’s. This post sticks to what at least two of our sources agree on, and says so where they differ.

Who was Horace Goldin?

He was born Hyman Elias Goldstein on 17 December 1873 in Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania. A childhood accident left him with a speech impediment, and two of our sources say he learned his first tricks as a boy from a Romani (“Gypsy”) performer.

At 16 he moved to the United States, joining his family in Nashville, Tennessee, where they ran a store. He worked as a salesman before magic took over.

How did he become “The Whirlwind Illusionist”?

Around 1894 he started performing part-time as “The Humorous Conjurer”, telling jokes between tricks. The newspaper reviews were poor. So he changed the act completely: he hired assistants and ran through trick after trick at high speed without saying a word. Billed as “The Whirlwind Illusionist”, the silent act brought him success in American vaudeville.

It also took him in front of royalty. Our sources agree that he performed for King Edward VII and for the American presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding.

What went wrong in Hawaii?

In 1915 Goldin set out on a long tour of the Far East. About three years later, a boat carrying his equipment and his tour earnings went down in a Hawaiian harbour. He lost both, and after returning home he filed for bankruptcy.

How did Goldin saw through a woman?

In 1921, soon after P. T. Selbit had presented his sawing illusion, Goldin presented his own version. The difference was what the audience could see. Selbit’s assistant was hidden inside a box. Goldin’s assistant kept her head, hands and feet in view the whole time she was being sawn through.

The Keith vaudeville circuit sent Goldin and six touring companies out with the illusion, and our sources say Goldin sometimes earned up to $2,000 a week from it. We won’t explain the method here: it is a stage illusion, and the point of this post is the man.

Why did Goldin spend so long in court?

He fought hard to keep the illusion his own. He and Selbit were in a legal dispute over their two versions, but our sources disagree on who brought it and who won, so we don’t state an outcome here.

In 1922 he sued the makers of a film that exposed the illusion. He lost at first, then won on appeal.

He also applied for a patent in September 1921. US Patent 1,458,575 was granted on 12 June 1923 and gave him 17 years of exclusive rights. The catch was that a patent has to describe how the apparatus works, so the patent itself made the secret public.

That came back to bite him. In 1933 the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company ran a Camel cigarettes advertisement showing how the sawing illusion worked. Goldin sued, and in 1938 a federal court dismissed his case.

What did Goldin do later?

He replaced the box with a large circular saw that appeared to cut through an assistant in full view. Two of our sources say he never patented this later version.

He also wrote two books: Mysterious Tricks (1930) and an autobiography, It’s Fun to Be Fooled. Two of our sources date the autobiography to 1937 and one to 1938.

When did Horace Goldin die?

Goldin died in his sleep in London in August 1939, aged 65, the night after performing at the Wood Green Empire. Wikipedia and Invention & Technology give the date as 21 August; the Lithuanian encyclopedia gives 22 August.

Why does Goldin matter today?

His career is a lesson in how hard it is to own a magic secret. Courts could protect a presentation for a while, and a patent could protect an apparatus, but the patent published the method for anyone to read.

What helps you take it further?

• Our Magic by Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant (1911) is a free 512-page PDF on the art, theory and practice of magic, written by two masters of the London stage in Goldin’s day.
• The Secrets of Stage Conjuring by Robert-Houdin, translated by Professor Hoffmann (1881), is a free 263-page PDF on the methods behind his stage illusions, including the talking-head illusion and the Protean cabinet.

Browse our stage and large audience collection, and read about P. T. Selbit, Chung Ling Soo and Harry Houdini.

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