The Australian Variety Theatre Archive proudly presents…
a new biography of Austrian magician
Louis Haslemayer
(1839-1885) Austrian-born magician, musician, necromancer, composer, animal and bird trainer, businessman, author.
Louis Haslemayer may not be remembered today as one of the great magicians of the nineteenth century, but audiences who saw him during his extensive international travels between 1865 and 1885 were left with no doubt that he was a prestidigitator of unparalleled inventiveness. As one Australian critic records in 1880: “Professor Haselmayer’s… entertainment throughout is really an illustration of science in so pleasant a garb that, under the idea of amusement, we are insensibly beguiled into obtaining knowledge.” Haselmeyer mounted his own tours through Australasia (1872-1875 and 1880-1882) and, unusually, spent much time in regional areas. He died in Vienna aged only 46 from complications that arose after having contracted malaria while in India in 1884.
Image: Courtesy of the W.G. Alma Collection, State Library of Victoria.
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Click below to go to the AVTA page containing the Professor’s biography.
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