Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) was a French clockmaker turned magician who is widely called the father of modern conjuring. He took magic out of fairground booths and into an elegant theatre, performed in ordinary evening dress, and gave Harry Houdini his stage name.

The clockmaker

He was born Jean-Eugène Robert in Blois, in the Loire valley, on 7 December 1805, the son of a watchmaker. He trained in the family trade and, after marrying Josèphe Cécile Houdin, joined her surname to his own.

His skill with mechanisms led him to build automata: figures that wrote, drew and performed. One of his automata was shown at the Paris Exposition of 1844. That mechanical talent ran through everything he later did on stage.

The Soirées Fantastiques

On 3 July 1845 he opened a small theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris and called his shows Soirées Fantastiques. The early nights were thinly attended, but within a few years the theatre was fashionable.

His stage was set like a drawing room, with plain tables in place of draped altars, and he dressed as his audience did. The message was that the wonders came from the performer, not from a costume. Audiences saw:

• a small orange tree that blossomed and grew real fruit in front of them
• his son, apparently in a trance, naming objects that spectators held up while blindfolded, which he billed as second sight
• the same son resting horizontally in the air, supported only at one elbow, presented as an effect of ether, then a new and fashionable anaesthetic
• a light box that a strong volunteer suddenly could not lift

Algeria, 1856

In 1856 the French government asked him to perform in Algeria, then under French rule, where holy men called marabouts were said to be using wonder-working to win influence. His shows, which by his own account included a version of the bullet catch, were meant to show that a French entertainer could outdo them. Our main source for the trip is his own memoir, so the details should be read with that in mind.

Retirement and writing

He retired to Saint-Gervais near Blois, filling his house with electrical gadgets of his own design. His memoirs appeared in 1858 and were soon translated into English. He also wrote books on conjuring and on cheating at cards, intended to protect the public. He died on 13 June 1871.

Legacy

His Paris theatre lived on after him; from 1888 it was owned by Georges Méliès, the film pioneer, who began as a magician. Blois now has a museum of magic, the Maison de la Magie, in his honour.

The young Houdini idolised him, then in 1908 published a book attacking his originality. Most historians think that book was unfair. Robert-Houdin's idea that a conjuror should look like a gentleman and let the effects speak still shapes stage magic. See the history of magic for the period around him.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Robert-Houdin called the father of modern magic?

He moved magic into a proper theatre, dropped the wizard's robe for evening dress and presented magic as refined entertainment, the model most stage magicians have followed since.

Was Houdini named after Robert-Houdin?

Yes. Ehrich Weiss read Robert-Houdin's memoirs as a teenager and took the name Houdini from him.

What was Robert-Houdin's orange tree?

One of his most famous effects: a small orange tree that blossomed and bore real oranges on stage. It later appeared in the 2006 film The Illusionist.

What is the Robert-Houdin House of Magic?

The Maison de la Magie, a museum of magic in Blois, his home town, named in his honour.