On 23 March 1918, a man in Chinese robes stood on stage at the Wood Green Empire in London. He was the world-famous Chinese illusionist Chung Ling Soo, and was to catch two real bullets between his teeth. That evening it all came out at once: the bullet killed him, and the audience heard for the first time he was not Chinese, but the American William Ellsworth Robinson.
The American who became Chinese
William Robinson was born in 1861 in New York. He worked for years as assistant to Herrmann the Great and Harry Kellar — invisible behind the scenes, technically brilliant, but never the star himself. He was talented, but lacked the charisma to break through as a Western magician.
In 1900 he made a radical decision: he shaved his head, wore a Mandarin vest, and stopped speaking English on stage. He became Chung Ling Soo — a fictional Chinese magician with a stolen identity, an impenetrable mystery. And it worked.
The Bullet Catch
His main trick was Defying the Bullets: two audience members shot real rifles at him, and he caught the bullets between his teeth. It worked via a specially prepared gun with a double chamber — the real bullet never exited, a fake bullet was placed in his mouth beforehand.
The secret was complex but reliable — for 17 years. Until that evening in 1918, when years of wear on the mechanism caused a real bullet to be fired. He cried out — in English, for the first time since 1900 — 'Oh my God, something's happened. Lower the curtain.'
- ✦Born: 2 April 1861, New York
- ✦Died: 24 March 1918, London
- ✦Famous for: Defying the Bullets, Birth of a Pearl, Vase of Aladdin
- ✦Subject of the book 'The Glorious Deception' (2005)
The lesson for the art
After his death everything came out: he was not Chinese, spoke fluent English, had a wife and children in an ordinary London neighbourhood. The press pounced on the story — it was the biggest magic fraud of the century, and ended with a real death on stage.
Since then the Bullet Catch is considered the most dangerous trick in magic. Twelve known magicians have died from it over the years. Penn & Teller do their own version in Las Vegas — with absolute security that costs them more than any other trick in their show.
Chung Ling Soo was deception, theatre and tragedy at once. His story remains a warning: in magic, secrets are powerful, but danger is always real.