Difference between revisions of "Frederick Bancroft"

Revision as of 11:52, 10 October 2008

Frederick Bancroft (January, 1867 - September 26, 1897), born Frederick Bronson in Rochester, New York, was a dentist and life insurance agent that tried to become a successful professional magician like his friend Alexander Herrmann.

Bibliography

Originally from central New York, moving to Chicago around 1878, Bancroft performed some magic on the stage as a boy under the name "De Castro, the boy magician", doing only a few small tricks. He eventually became a dentist and then a life insurance agent in the St. Paul and Minneapolis area. He was very successful and also made money in the real state boom. He took an interest in magic again and started performing at church societies, benefits and club entertainments.

He became a friend of Alexander Herrmann and decided he too would become a professional magician. Even though he had the money to purchase new and original tricks, he started with small, antiquated tricks and spent money instead on elaborate stage accessories. He imitated the performance of Herrmann, which did not go over well with the audiences, since he was much younger. His wonderful posters billed him as "prince of magicians".

After the first year, he decided to make a trip to Europe and the East Indies. Upon his return, Bancroft secured the former manager of the Herrmann, hoping to book the best theaters of the larger cities. Unfortunately, just at the beginning of this new tour, he got sick and died in Charleston, South Carolina of typhoid fever. At the young age of 31, he was never able to realize his success as a professional magician.

References

• Frederick Bancroft, Conjurer His Career By H.J. Burlingame published in Tricks in Magic, Illusions and Mental Phenomena (1898)
• Frederick Bancroft, (Conjurer) in Stanyon's Magic in February to June, 1902
• A Note From a Houdini Scrapbook By F. William Kuethe, Jr.