James Hagy on Fair Tricks: Magicians at the Columbian Exposition

January Luncheon

The 1893 Columbian Exposition drew governments, businesses, and entrepreneurs from across the United States and around the world to exhibit. The Exposition was also a magnet for performers, established and budding, to appear on the Midway Plaisance and offer entertainments cast in replicas of world cities and cultures. Recent scholarship has confirmed the long-assumed presence of a young Howard Thurston and an even younger Harry Houdini, both then unknown but who would soon become the two most recognized magicians of the vaudeville era. But how extensive were conjurors’ contribu-tions to the Magic of the White City? Caxtonian’s Fair Tricks pulls back the curtain of the Midway to reveal the remarkable range of world magicians who appeared in, and around, Chicago at this extraordinary moment.

There will be special, limited edition books for purchase!

January 10 Luncheon: Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Boulevard. Buffet opens at 11:30 am; program 12:30-1:30. Luncheon is $35. Program free but please let us know you’re coming. Re-serve or cancel for lunch by noon Wednesday the week of the luncheon. Reserve and pay at caxtonclub.org, call 312-255-3710, or e-mail caxtonclub@newberry.org.