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鈥淚t鈥檚 a de Kolta chair!鈥�
That鈥檚 the thought that sprang to my mind in 1989 as I was riveted on the finale of the Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. The Phantom had just sat down on the throne in his underground lair and covered himself with his cape so that only the outline of his form was visible. As Meg Giry ripped the cape away, the audience was stunned 鈥� the Phantom had vanished with only his mask left on the chair. A magical ending to a magical musical.
The vanish was a classical illusion invented by French magician Buatier de Kolta in the 1880s. The Victorian era (1837-1901) is regarded as the Golden Age of Magic, in which this ancient art form was transformed from street buskers baffling onlookers with sleight of hand tricks and performers dressed in wizard costumes pretending to possess supernatural powers, to artists attired in elegant evening clothes perplexing audiences in theatres with amazing illusions based on scientific principles.
The pivotal figure in this transformation was Jean-Eug猫ne Robert-Houdin, celebrated as the Father of Modern Magic. Originally trained as a precision clockmaker, he turned his mechanical genius to building illusions, entertaining audiences in a theatre he opened in Paris in 1845.聽
Here he performed such effects as the 鈥渓ight and heavy chest,鈥� in which a wooden box with a metal bottom, easily lifted by a young boy, was placed centre stage. A muscular volunteer from the audience was then invited to lift the box, but no matter how much he struggled, he could not. Robert-Houdin knew about electromagnets 鈥� activating one hidden below the stage made lifting the box impossible.聽
In his 鈥渁erial suspension,鈥� he floated his son horizontally in the air, resting only on a walking stick placed under his elbow. The pretense was that this was accomplished by the boy having inhaled ether, which had just been introduced as an anesthetic in Boston. The secret to the illusion was a metal brace worn by the boy that latched on to the 鈥渨alking stick,鈥� actually a metal rod anchored in a heavy weight at the bottom.
Joseph Buatier was born the same year that Robert-Houdin opened his theatre and as a youngster was inspired by the famous magician. He became adept at sleight of hand tricks and while performing at a local coffee shop, impressed show producer Vido de Kolta to such an extent that he took him under his wing and organized a European tour.聽
This was so successful that in 1875 Buatier was invited to perform in London鈥檚 famed Egyptian Hall, billed as England鈥檚 Home of Mystery. The advertisers mixed his name up with that of his manager and posters featured him as 鈥淏uatier de Kolta,鈥� a name that stuck for the rest of his career.聽
At the Egyptian Hall, he introduced audiences to his first major invention, The Vanishing Birdcage. De Kolta held a small birdcage with a live canary between his hands and in a flash the cage and canary vanished. The illusion required a collapsible cage and an elaborate spring system with the cage and bird literally flying up the performer鈥檚 sleeve. That effect has been reproduced by many magicians, most notably Harry Blackstone Sr. and Jr., both of whom invited children from the audience to place their hands on the cage and watch the vanish up close. They were delighted. The canary less so.
In 1886 in St. Petersburg, Russia, de Kolta debuted his most famous illusion, a breathtaking masterpiece known as The Vanishing Lady. It began with the magician placing a sheet of newspaper on the stage floor to imply that no trap door is used. A chair was then placed on top of the newspaper. A female assistant sat on the chair and was covered with a large silk, her shape still being clearly seen. De Kolta then whipped away the silk, which instantly vanished, revealing an empty chair.聽
The illusion was a feat of ingenious engineering. The 鈥渘ewspaper鈥� was made of rubber and covered a stage trap. As the assistant sat down in the chair and had the silk draped over her, a hidden lightweight wire frame sprung out from the chair to feign her contour under the silk. At the same time, the spring-loaded seat of the chair folded down to allow the assistant to slide through a hidden flap in the rubber newspaper and down the opened stage trap. As soon as she had passed through, the trap door swung shut and the rubber newspaper bounced back into its original form.
The silk veil was attached to a fine cord that ran through the centre of the wire frame and down through the seat and the space between the stage and the trap door. Below the stage it was attached to a heavy weight that was triggered to be dropped when the trap door opened, pulling the silk down in a flash. It seemed that the assistant and the fabric vanished into thin air in an instant. In the meantime, the 鈥渧anished lady鈥� hustled to the back of the theatre, where she magically reappeared to thunderous applause.
The gimmicked chair has come to be known as the 鈥渄e Kolta chair鈥� and many magicians have since performed some variation of The Vanishing Lady. Alexander Hermann introduced it to American audiences and Richiardi Jr. added a twist in which the vanished assistant reappeared in a trunk elsewhere on the stage. Doug Henning vanished himself and David Copperfield vanished his girlfriend. But none of these performers vanished the covering fabric together with the subject! Only de Kolta did that.
When I watched the disappearance of the Phantom, I was pretty sure that I was looking at a version of The Vanishing Lady and a de Kolta chair. Eventually information leaked out about the illusion, and it turns out that the chair used was a variation of de Kolta鈥檚. The shape under the cape was maintained by a wire form, just like in de Kolta鈥檚 original illusion, but in this case, no stage trap was used.聽
It was the back of the chair that was gimmicked, allowing the Phantom to slip backward through the spring-loaded backrest, hide behind the chair and escape as the stage lights dimmed with only a single spotlight focusing on the mask. Many actors have vanished from the Phantom鈥檚 throne over the musical鈥檚 record 35-year run on Broadway, but to me Michael Crawford will always be 鈥淭he Phantom.鈥� His performance was as magical as that of the (modified) de Kolta chair.
