In the late 1850s, a young Harry Keller played dangerous games on the streets and train tracks of Pennsylvania.
This was a boy unafraid of taking risks.
At only 10 years of age he took an apprenticeship with a druggist, where at times he had unsupervised access to a range of chemicals. On one such occasion he reportedly blew a hole in the floor of his employer's drugstore, and fearing the wrath of his parents, stowed away on a train and became a vagabond.
A British-born minister befriended the 10 year old homeless boy, adopted him and paid for his education on condition that Keller would study to also become a minister. The deal didn’t last. One evening Kellar saw the performance of a traveling magician, "The Fakir of Ava" and immediately got the urge to go on the stage. He bought books on magic and finally left the minister behind.
After working as a magician’s assistant for a year, at the age of sixteen he gave his first solo performance. It was a disaster, and Kellar went back to assisting and learning the craft with a number of travelling showmen.
In 1873, now 23 years old, Keller was confident enough in his skills to embark on a tour of Central and South America. He and his partner made the equivalent of $212,000 in Mexico and performed for the Emperor in Brazil. Flush with cash and a burgeoning reputation, they set sail for a tour of England.
The boat sank, along with a cargo of gold, silver and an entire cache of stage-magic equipment.
Keller was far from home with nothing to his name other than the wet clothes on his back and the ring on his finger. With the ring pawned he had enough to buy some simple props and earn his way into a boarding house before seeking a little entertainment.
That entertainment was the “Egyptian Hall”, a permanent playhouse in London to a troupe of magicians managed by John Nevil Maskelyne and George Alfred Cooke.
Keller became entranced by the Egyptian Hall and the idea that a magician could have a permanent home rather than have the need to continually tour. He also became fascinated with one of their acts. It involved the story of an Indian mystic somehow being able to float a young princess.
He could not discern the secret.
He returned.
He managed to obtain funds from a bank transfer delayed from his performances in South America.
He offered to purchase the secret of the floating princess from Maskelyne but was rejected.
So he saw the show again.
And again.
Having witnessed the performance from multiple vantage points and still clueless, during one performance he simply stormed on to the stage, saw what he needed to see, and left, boarding the next boat back to the US.
There, in Philadelphia in 1884 he opened a theatre. In a stroke of enlightenment, he named it “The Egyptian Hall”. With the assistance of the Otis Elevator Company, he produced the mechanisms required to perform a routine he named “The Levitation of Princess Karnac”.
His return and new show weren’t met with instant acclaim. While he had been in England, Heller had died and the press decried Kellar’s return to the US scene as a shamelessly profiteering from Heller's reputation and violating his personality rights, saying that "Heller is scarcely dead before we read of 'Kellar the Wizard'. Of course 'Kellar' aims to profit by the reputation that Heller left, by adopting a close imitation of Heller's name.” Kellar’s protestations that he had changed the spelling of his name so as to specifically NOT be confused with Heller fell on a deaf audience.
Within seven months Kellar closed the theatre and it soon after burned to the ground. He returned to touring Brazil.
