Legend has it that John Wesley Simmons used to walk the streets of Tokyo in the 1860s with a loaded pistol under one arm and his head under the other.
People left him almost alone.
Simmons, also known as Washington Blythe, Washington Simmons and, most famously, Dr. Lynn, was the first Western magician to perform in Japan after the country opened to foreigners in the mid-19th century.
More than 50 years before seeing an attendee halfway become the measure of an illusionist’s skill, Simmons dismembered a man every night and reunited him for a paying audience.
As Dr. Lynn, Simmons was one of the most famous and successful illusionists of his time, but his contribution to the world of magic is largely forgotten outside by enthusiasts and historians.
John Wesley Simmons, playing the role of Dr. Lynn, was the first Western magician to perform in Japan. (Provided by: National Portrait Gallery (UK))
He was a pioneer in some techniques of stage magic, a gifted performer and was said to be the man whose magic inspired the great Harry Houdini to become an illusionist.
And his big opportunity came because he decided to make a point and travel from England to Australia; unknown and unproven, but not unambitious.
Magic historian and researcher Dean Arnold believes that Simmons has been overlooked by those who amassed the achievements of illusionists in the golden age of art.
“I think he’s one of the most fascinating characters in magic, in terms of his show, inventive, who he met, what he did, where he traveled,” he said.
“He has been considered a B player by several historians, they said he stole people’s tricks. My research indicates no.
“It’s been a little tough for the story.”
A magician better than a sailor
It was a thirst for adventure that led John Wesley Simmons to join the British Navy in the mid-19th century, but he soon discovered that he suffered from a debilitating seasickness and that he seldom strayed far from land. .
He may have failed as a sailor, but he had an ability to entertain them with his amateur magic tricks and he decided it was time for a pretty major career change.
In 1861, Simmons packed his things and boarded a ship bound for Australia determined to make a name for himself as a magician.
Simmons began performing in Melbourne under the name Washington Blythe, and later more successfully as Washington Simmons, touring regional cities in Victoria and South Australia.
Simmons came to Australia as a stranger, but quickly established himself as a successful performer. (Sydney Daily Telegraph)
But it wasn’t until Simmons teamed up with theater director Robert Sparrow Smythe that his career really took off.
Sparrow was gathering a group of performers to travel to China and Japan and wanted Simmons to be part of what was to be a pioneering trip to the Far East.
The opportunity to perform in Japan was rare, and so far no Western magician had made the trip, which was not without risks.
One of Simmons’ fellow performers died of cholera in China and the group was caught in a typhoon while crossing from Shanghai to Tokyo, but other than that, the trip was a success, especially for Simmons.
From Japan, Simmons traveled to the United States before returning to England in 1865 with a new stage name — Dr. Lynn — and a catalog of tricks that would take him to the top of his career.
“Another man cut tonight”
The trick to Dr. Lynn’s signature was to dismember a man on stage and then reunite him. (Supplied)
In 1873, Dr. Lynn was one of the most successful illusionists in the world, performing every night at London’s famous Egyptian Hall.
His characteristic trick was an illusion he called Palingenesia, in which he dismembered his assistant on stage before reuniting him.
The illusion used what was known as Black Art, which involved intelligent lighting and black material strategically placed to deceive the audience into believing that the simulated limbs that had been cut were the real thing.
John Wesley Simmons wrote a book about his travels as Dr. Lynn, and included details of how some of his tricks were performed. (Provided by: Senate House Library, University of London)
Flyers would announce Dr. Lynn’s show with the promise of “another cut man tonight” and people loved it.
Apparently, the trick was so compelling that if he left a lasting impression on a young Harry Houdini, he would buy the rights to the illusion after Simmons’ death.
Simmons was wise enough not to reveal the secret of his greatest illusion while he was alive, although he “explained” the method of the trick in his own book The Adventures of the Strange Man.
“You cut off one of his arms, then that of his legs, then you take out his head, which goes through the audience to examine him,” he wrote.
“After that (as long as life isn’t completely extinct) take out another leg and an arm, throw the remains in a basket and ask the victim to reunite, and that’s how it’s done.” .
The real Dr. Lynn, please, get up?
Simmons had achieved as much fame as Dr. Lynn that suitors would appear around the world using not only his name but also his illusions.
In Australia, a magician named “Dr Lynn” was found in court for failing to pay for a suit he had made for an upcoming performance.
This was not the world-famous illusionist who filled the Egyptian salon every night, but the son of a Brisbane merchant who had tried to take advantage of Dr. Lynn’s fame.
Dean Arnold has been working on a book about the life of Dr. Lynn. (Supplied)
When the real Dr. Lynn returned to Australia to perform in the 1880s, he took out advertisements in the newspapers condemning the “impostor” who had acted under his name.
It is also likely that the “Dr. Lynn” that Harry Houdini saw as a child in the United States was also an impostor.
As part of his research, Dean Arnold had access to Houdini’s diary in which the famous illusionist named Dr. Lynn as the magician who inspired him to pursue art.
“I found in his diary a very strong clue that he thought he saw Dr. Lynn,” Arnold said.
“He saw someone who said Lynn or, what I think is most likely he saw Palingenesis and this trick is related to Lynn.
“The only time Houdini could see Dr. Lynn, the real Dr. Lynn, was when he was eight, but when he was eight he wasn’t close to Lynn.”
Simmons pulled out ads claiming that an impersonator of Dr Lynn had been performing in Australia. (Victoria State Library)
One last trip Down Under
Simmons made one last tour of Australia in 1886, when his career was in decline, but he had one last trick up his sleeve (sorry pun).
He had invented an illusion he called Thauma, in which a woman seemed to disappear from the waist down, and had authorized him in Australia long before his arrival, leaving him without any central trick to interpret.
Dr. Lynn’s “Thauma” illusion featured a woman who seemed to be missing the lower half of her body. (Victoria State Library)
He convinced the inventor of the illusion Buatier De Kolta to allow him to use his new trick Vanishing Lady on his tour of Australia; it is believed to have been the first time the illusion was made.
In The Vanishing Lady, an assistant sits in a chair, throws a sheet at her, and vanishes into thin air, an illusion so simple and effective that variations are still made.
The key to the trick is a tricky cheating mechanism, but it was the scene of Dr. Lynn that sold the illusion.
As one critic wrote in the Sydney Daily Telegraph in 1886, “Dr. Lynn is a gentleman full of surprises.”
“Everything he says contains some form of unexpected joy; everything he does produces an unexpected and strange result,” the reviewer wrote.
After his trip to Australia in 1886, Simmons continued to carry his illusions to India and South Africa, performing until his death in 1899 at the age of 63.
While he is not held in the same esteem as Houdini, who would bring his own feats of excitement to Australia many years later, Arnold believes Dr Lynn’s contribution is worthy of reassessment.
“I think it was very, very important, I think it contributed to some of the most important [illusion] techniques. “
“If it wasn’t invented, it came very well.”