Who was Servais Le Roy?

Servais Le Roy (1865–1953) was a Belgian magician and illusion designer, born in Spa, Belgium. With his partner Talma, a coin manipulator, and a comic sidekick called Bosco, he toured for years as Le Roy, Talma and Bosco. His name is tied to the Asrah, the levitation in which a covered woman floats and then vanishes. He died in Keansburg, New Jersey, in 1953.

This post looks at the man behind the act and the illusion. It sticks to what at least two of our sources agree on, and says so where they don’t.

Where did Servais Le Roy come from?

He was born on 4 May 1865 in Spa, Belgium. One of our sources gives his full name as Jean Henri Servais Leroy, and notes that his own memoirs give 2 May, which the writer puts down to faulty memory. He began performing in Belgium before building his career in Britain and the United States.

Who were Talma and Bosco?

Talma was born Mary Ann Ford. She was Le Roy’s partner on stage and in life, and far more than an assistant: all our sources describe her as a sleight-of-hand performer who specialised in coins. Houdini is reported to have called her the greatest sleight-of-hand performer he had ever seen.

Bosco was the comedy in the act, a heavy-set clown figure who played the fool beside the two magicians. The part outlived any one performer. Our sources agree that several men played Bosco over the years, but not on how many: one says about seven, one eight, one nine.

Together the three toured as Le Roy, Talma and Bosco, an act that mixed illusions, Talma’s coin work and comedy.

What is the Asrah levitation?

The Asrah is the illusion most linked to Le Roy. As our sources describe it, Talma lay on a couch and Le Roy covered her with a sheet. The covered shape rose into the air, and he passed a large hoop over it to show nothing was holding it up. Then he pulled the sheet away, and she had vanished.

Several of our sources credit the Asrah to Le Roy, though one notes he may have built on other people’s ideas. They don’t agree on when it was first shown. The Magic Circle says Le Roy and Talma performed it in South Africa in 1905, and a local history of Keansburg also places its first performance in Johannesburg. Another source gives London in 1914. Based on our research, the earliest performance we’ve found is South Africa in 1905.

Where did Le Roy spend his later years?

Le Roy spent his later years in Keansburg, New Jersey. Talma died in 1944.

His career ended sadly. Our sources agree that his last performance went badly, and that afterwards he had his props and equipment destroyed rather than pass them on. He died in Keansburg on 2 June 1953, aged 88.

Why does Servais Le Roy matter today?

Le Roy is a good example of the illusion designer as a performer in his own right. And Le Roy, Talma and Bosco is a reminder that the “assistant” in an old magic act could be the most skilled sleight-of-hand performer on the stage. A full biography, Servais Le Roy: Monarch of Mystery by Mike Caveney and William Rauscher, covers his life in detail.

What helps you take it further?

• Modern Coin Manipulation by T. Nelson Downs (1900) is a free 197-page PDF on palms, passes, vanishes and the Miser’s Dream, the kind of coin work Talma was known for.
• The Secrets of Stage Conjuring by Robert-Houdin, translated by Professor Hoffmann, is a free 263-page PDF on stage illusions from the generation before Le Roy.

Browse our levitation and animation and stage magic collections, and read about Adelaide Herrmann, David Devant and the Miser’s Dream.

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