Preview: Harry Kellar Illusion Head, ca. 1900 | ANTIQUES ROADSHOW

[@jameswalsh2871]

Can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite jokes: So there is this magician that lands a gig on a cruise ship. Works the lounge a couple nights a week. Doesn’t need to learn new tricks, as the customers get off the ship and never come back. Sweet gig! However, the captain has a pet parrot that likes to hang out in the lounge. The parrot learns all of the tricks and starts to spoil them by telling the audience things like “it’s up his sleeve! Look under the table” And so on. The magician develops a hatred for the parrot! Then one day, the ship blows up!! And wouldn’t you know, the magician is clinging to a piece of wood floating in the water. And sitting on that piece of wood is the parrot! They stare at each other for quite a while, and finally, the parrot says “ ok, I give up. Where’s the ship”! I heard this many years ago on CarTalk

[@jayebear2760]

I would be putting that in a very secure safety deposit box. If people want to see it, show them a photo!

[@jayward9901]

As mentioned Harry Kellar lost his whole large illusion show when the ship sank. He managed to save one trick, the vanishing dove cage. With that trick, he mastered it and became renowned for it and was able to rebuild the act as a result of that success.

[@EddyWade]

The historical facts in this video are wrong. That head is Not Kellar. Harry Houdini did not take his name from Harry Kellar.

[@HoudiniWild]

There does indeed appear to be skepticism about this being Kellar. For starters, it has hair! You are also correct that Houdini did not take his first name from Kellar. He was Harry Weiss as a boy. BUT...he did later claim he had taken the name Harry from Kellar because he wanted to honor him, so he retconned his history. So it's an easy mistake to make.

[@chrissettles4127]

Great video

[@birdy1numnum]

*I'm jelly as I'd like to be the guy chatting with her.*