THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
Stage Hypnotism: A Text Book of Occult Entertainments – Professor Leonidas
I picked up this 1901 book on stage hypnotism just as Kev started reading Notes From A Fellow Traveller, British mentalist and “psychological illusionist” Derren Brown’s journal-style reflections on his 30-year career, penned during his 2021-2022 Showman stage show tour. I’d read Notes a year prior and it was kind of spooky being reminded of Derren’s insights and anecdotes whilst reading Professor Leonidas’s turn-of-the-century vaudevillian ‘secrets’ in semi-synchronicity.
Professor Leonidas was an American touring hypnotist, probably based in Chicago, and his book, Stage Hypnotism: A Text Book of Occult Entertainments, is primarily written for fellow US hypnotic entertainers and aspirants, containing, as it does, specific, detailed – fascinating – instructions on how to orchestrate a successful vaudeville tour. This edition was published for a British audience; there are multiple adverts for the London-addressed ‘New Thought’ movement in the end matter, and Leonidas writes briefly yet sympathetically of this now-forgotten human potential movement in his closing words.
Leonidas’s writing is energetic, charming, and transportive. He narrates his example touring season as if the reader were an invisible companion picking up tips and tricks. He begins with the selection of what were known as hypnotic ‘horses’; highly suggestible subjects who travelled with the hypnotist, and who demonstrated the most impressive phenomena – real or fake. Leonidas displays sociopathic detachment from his “six boys” as he stabs them with needles, smashes rocks upon their torsos, and sews their lips together (youch!) – all while calculating their fleeting dollar value. Yet his fondness for the camaraderie of touring seeps through. Still photos illustrate the hypnotic hijinks while Leonidas writes of the male youths who come and go: “$5 a week is good pay for a subject. There are lots of boys who would go for board and clothes and cigarette money. Yes, these long sleep artists want some vice, some glaring sin, and they are happy.” Anecdotes about Harry and Albert, and the strengths and weaknesses that Leonidas exploits for hypnotic effect, really do transport you into the life of a touring vaudeville hypnotist.
Even though Derren’s Notes is written for fellow mentalists and magicians, particularly those putting on stage and parlour shows, there’s a loneliness to his professional advice. I wondered, as I read journal entries on, say, regional ‘flavours’ of theatre-goers or the conducting of applause, who, if anyone, fancies themselves as the future of magical showpersonship? Professor Leonidas is gladly selling his stage show to copycats, as well as peers, at a time when America was a vast land of new opportunity. Thanks to the frank financial breakdowns, detailed guidance on publicity, routines, and audience management, and verbatim framing speeches, a competent and financially savvy performer or aspirant could indeed replicate his success without apprenticeship or apology. The barriers to becoming an artist or entertainer are today so prohibitive that it is novel to read a breezy, accessible ‘rinse and repeat’ formula for yesteryear vaudeville success.
Between Leonidas, his six boys, and an “advance man” who sells the shows, plus the travelling men and male community figures who hype and attend, the Professor’s demonstrations are a distinctly male affair. He does address the book to male and female performers, but notes his reasons for preferring male ‘horses’ and participants. Hypnotic routines featuring women have that ‘phantasmagorical’ sexual-grotesque ambiguity that’s at the heart of hypnotism’s allure: Leonidas favours a strawberry picking skit where female and male participants crawl on all fours before gorging on imaginary ripe fruit facing the audience. Invasions of invisible mice and bees, etc, provide ample ankle glimpses as skirts are raised and ruffled. And a climactic feast on papier-mâché fruits and foods screams ‘Debaucheries of The (Semi-Nude) Gods’ classical painting scenes. Yet more risqué ‘female’ scenes – of courting, canoodling, and kissing; or, worse, Motherhood and nursing babies – are left to The Boys, ‘hypnotised’ to behave as women and girls.
Part three of the book focuses on hypnotic “Higher Phenomena” – telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, muscle reading, divination, etc. Given Leonidas is a seasoned pro who continually emphasises the importance of reliable, consistent results, and prioritises profitable entertainment over education, he is not here to share mystical secrets from the beyond. For instance, ‘muscle-reading’ requires six months of practice, but he does not elaborate on how such training is achieved. Perhaps this was a disappointment to those seeking ‘New Thought’ superpowers? He seems to labour the role of women in Higher Phenomena somewhat against his better judgement, perhaps to appeal to that readership. I particularly enjoyed this outpouring on securing a somnambulist clairvoyant:
“Still, I am speaking as though boys or men were the only ones qualified in this class of work. The opposite is the rule generally. The boy makes the best hypnotic subject. It would scarcely do to keep a girl under the same condition that you would put the boy under. And yet one of the greatest hypnotists who ever lived had a daughter with him. A daughter, however, is quite different from a paid subject.
“But in psychic work you will find that you can get girls that will far excel anything you might be fortunate to get among boys. It is better to have girls or boys for this class of work; that is, young ladies or gentlemen. They are much more attractive on the stage. I speak from a purely commercial point of view. I am looking at the advertising there is in all these things. […]
“If you step off the train accompanied by a good-looking young lady you will create more favourable comment that you would were you to step onto the platform with some shriveled [sic] up old woman at your elbow. Avoid these females that try to pose as young. I am not putting beauty as the requisite, but I know that it counts for a great deal. It is far better if you have your wife or a sister, for then you can fulfil your duty of caring for her.
“That is to say, you are to choose a woman of comely appearance if you can. If you cannot, by all means do not advertise her as some young girl. It will cause disgust on the part of that element who are still unmarried or who are married and seem to forget the fact. But do not take the best appearing woman on earth into your company if you know that her work is faulty. Boys are best where you can get a good one.”
Or, as he puts it more succinctly – and, perhaps, accurately – clairvoyants are “mildly insane” to “deranged”. He and I also both agree on the following key point: whisky and mind-reading do not mix! Yet he fully appreciates the value of ‘A Trilby’; “there are armies of Trilbies on this earth, all with talent. We cannot give them what they have not, but we can often hand them the key to the Powers Within.”
The 2023 British stage production Unbelievable – a non-Derren magic show created by Derren and long-time collaborators Andy Nyman and Andrew O’Connor – featured a female performer with powers of clairvoyance. There was insufficient crying, screaming, vomiting, rocking, cackling, convulsing, etc, (“IDEALLY FROM BENEATH A BLACK SHROUD!”, Professor Leonidas hollers from The Summerland!) for me to be personally convinced by it. But it’s interesting that clairvoyance was presented as a ‘feminine’ power in a show that sought to be progressive and subversive. That isn’t a criticism; just a reflection on the nuanced choices in presenting psychological ‘wonders’. These gendered roles and power dynamics of hypnosis and all its related themes are endlessly fascinating to me…
My favourite bit of Derren Brown themed synchronicity in between Kev’s comments on Notes was Leonidas himself writing: “The bill at the Alhambra proclaims to the theater-going public that Prof. Raphael Sardonelli, the renowned hypnotist, will appear in vaudeville in his mysterious and amusing feats of hypnotism. What magic there is in a name! If you are plain Brown or Smith, the public cares not for your prowess.” A ‘Mr Brown’ also pops up in a dubious instance of hypnotic telepathy that’s clearly just a coincidence. Or was it..? Hmm.
Perhaps Derren’s coming was, in fact, foretold to Professor Leonidas..? While the book predominately focuses on The Business That They Call Show, there are flashes of preaching, prophecy, ‘The Greater Good’, and the future of human evolution. ‘Higher Phenomena’ are new technologies; Leonidas muses that telepathic communication is unlikely until humans achieve a – *ahem* – cleanliness of thought, but he anticipates some great hypnotically aided leap forwards in cerebral evolution within two-to-three generations. That’s around about now!
And, gosh, with Derren Brown’s as-of-now Simpsons-level mind-control prowess returning to British stages next year via his new show, Only Human, I wonder – given the technological vibes of the publicity design – if hypnosis, mentalism, and all that ‘Brand Derren’ represents in terms of national and international public perceptions and beliefs are due to meet The Professor’s suggested inflection point… Big Tech knows more about us than we do ourselves; disembodied – and mostly female – voices of Alexa, Siri, “Okay-Google”, and our sat-navs guide, advise, serve, and soothe us; we can interact with, befriend – love, hate – ‘fuck’, marry – write for – bots, deepfakes, and AI-generated ‘humans’.
As with many hypnotists of his time, working with what was then often viewed as a miraculous ‘Gift From God’ weighs heavy on Leonidas at times. He takes being ‘A Professor’ seriously in terms of sharing his psychological insights for the benefit of humanity; but his life’s calling is profitable entertainment. Which makes me wonder what he would make of human progress and the current possibilities for a Showman such as he..? Who, now, are the archetypes unconsciously guiding, advising, serving, and soothing us into this emerging future? Who is ‘The Hypnotist’ in our heads willing – or able – to lead the way?
If a man such as Leonidas could win the modern public over to HIS hypnotic prowess, how would he mesmerise – and monetise – modern audiences..? Using technologies like deep faking, AI, and granular data-driven insights, he could please all of the people all of the time… and perhaps even make The Ultimate Magician’s Wish – to live forever – come true.
