Albert Marchinsky was a stage illusionist and magician. He was born in Russian Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 c.1876 and died at Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...

, England, 1930.

Marchinsky's stage name was "The Great Rameses", his bill matter described him as "The Eastern Mystic" and his costume and sets were intended to look Egyptian. He has been described as a follower of the magician William Ellsworth Robinson, whose stage persona was Chung Ling Soo.

He is said to have got his first inspiration in magic while watching a magician perform at the Royal Aquarium

Royal Aquarium

The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden was a Westminster, London place of amusement opened in 1876. The building was demolished in 1903. It was located immediately to the west of Westminster Abbey on Tothill Street. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in a highly ornamental style faced...

 theatre in London in about 1890 and to have started out at that time as a performer in the small halls of London. By 1910 Marchinsky was recognised as a leading stage illusionist.

His act was on a large scale. An article written after his death described it as follows: "When the curtain rose, the audience saw an Egyptian temple with flaming censers and turbaned assistants. Rameses presented an illusion called 'The Fire Goddess' which was the peak of his performance. It was a cremation

Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....

 illusion with additions that greatly enhanced the trick. A girl was apparently cremated in a standing position. Rameses took the ashes with him into a cabinet and almost instantaneously reappeared at the back of the auditorium. His place in the cabinet was taken by the 'cremated' girl completely restored." A programme listed three tricks: (1) A flower growth was made while flower pots were covered with pyramids. The fresh flowers thus grown were distributed to members of the audience. (2) 'Beauty', the cremation illusion. (3) 'The Goose' involved hypnotising a live bird with the assistance of two ladies and two gentlemen from the audience.

Verall Wass, in a reminiscence in The Magic Circular in 1954, described Marchinsky's five main tricks: (1) Production of his assistants from miniature pyramids. (2) An automaton

Automaton

An automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. An alternative spelling, now obsolete, is automation.-Etymology:...

 – in reality an assistant suitably dressed and with electric lights decorating his or her clothes, suggesting that the motive power was electricity. (3) Production of a duck from a "dove" pan

Dove pan

The dove pan is a classic magic effect in which a magician produces a dove from an empty pan. The illusion continues to be performed by professional and amateur magicians....

. (4) The cremation illusion. (5) Asrah, Queen of the Air. A girl floated upwards from a small stool, performing various evolutions in the air, including skipping, then descending to the stool where she was covered with a cloth and floated upright into the air, finally disappearing.

He was a popular performer and toured widely. He performed in Dublin in the spring of 1909 with his "Egyptian Temple Mysteries" and at the London Coliseum in 1910. There he was seen by the American theatrical agents Martin and Beck, who signed him for a tour of the Orpheum

Orpheum Circuit, Inc.

Orpheum Circuit, Inc., was a company started by Martin Beck who owned a series of vaudeville theaters and motion picture theaters.- The company :...

 theatre circuit that year. He opened at the Orpheum Theatre in Denver, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, on 31 July 1910. His performances in the US were all in the West and Midwest, Chicago, St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

 being the easternmost cities he visited. He terminated the tour in February 1911, apparently on the grounds of his father's death.

Back in England, he performed at the London Palladium

London Palladium

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

, The Hippodrome, the Stockport Empire, the Salford Regent and the Shepherd's Bush Theatre. In 1912 he went to South Africa for twenty weeks and returned before the end of the year to appear again at the London Coliseum. In June 1913, he commenced another tour of the United States, then made a continental tour, returning to London in early 1914, where he had many London bookings. He appeared before the King and Queen in 1917.

In 1917 Marchinsky invested the money he had made on his tours in the Empire Theatre

New Empire Theatre

The New Empire Theatre is a historic and current theater in Southend, Essex, England.-History:The New Empire Theatre was built in 1896 by theatre impresario Frederick Marlow. He had owned the public hall previously on the site, and converted it to The Empire Theatre in 1892. A fire on Boxing Day...

, Southend-on-Sea, where he presented, among other productions, Eugene Brieux

Eugène Brieux

Eugène Brieux , French dramatist, was born in Paris of poor parents.A one-act play, Bernard Palissy, written in collaboration with M...

's controversial play, Damaged Goods (Les Avariés). He was not successful in his theatre venture and by the end of that year was back in the music halls again.

In 1920 he made a headline tour of all the Stoll

Oswald Stoll

Sir Oswald Stoll was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company...

 theatres in London and in 1923 he was asked to join one of Maskelyne

John Nevil Maskelyne

John Nevil Maskelyne was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with many other Victorian-era devices. His door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".-Biography:Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham,...

's productions.

In the 1920s he worked at The Kursaal, Southend, alongside another successful magician, Maurice Fogel, who began as Marchinsky's assistant, helping him out at a time when he was said to be "worse for wear". Towards the end of his life he performed acts of small magic, nothing like the large acts of his heyday.

Marchinsky died following an operation in Southend's Victoria Hospital in July 1930, at the age of 54.