Any reader interested in the history of magic or show business in the U.S. will appreciate this fascinating exploration of Black performers, their craft, and what it took to perform in a society built to exploit them. Steele, herself a magician, examines the lives and careers of the teens who assisted The Great Hermann and his succeeding acts, popular magicians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as the titular Boomsky. Twelve different people filled the role through the years, but Steele focuses on the two that we have more details about: Milton Hudson Everrett and Isaac William Willis. Drawing on extensive archival research but writing with a novelistic flair, Steele traces their history as performers and how they navigated a racist society and built a life for themselves inside and outside show business.

The time period covered here was one of rapid change in America, especially as motion pictures came on the scene, and Steele helps capture a vanished era of magic shows and vaudeville in rich detail, showcasing stagecraft, professional jealousies, trick-theft, press accounts, and curiosities like Diabolo, the “talking” skull of Frederick Bancroft, and a Hermann performance in Sing Sing Prison. Steele has done extensive past research into the Hermann clan of magicians, particularly Adelaide Hermann, which helps her fill out this story. Much of the press coverage of the magic troupe did not cover the Black performers, making Steele’s work more difficult.

At times, Steele’s engaging narrative style may have the unintended consequence of confusing the reader about the level to which insights into people’s motivations are based in historical record and what is speculative. Steele approaches the racial dynamics of the Boomskys’ story with sensitivity and necessary directness, discussing discrimination, slurs, minstrelsy, and segregation at appropriate places. Photos and ephemera, especially reproductions of advertisements, help humanize the subjects and bring the milieu to life, while extensive endnotes, index, and recommended additional reading will edify readers eager to learn more.

Takeaway: Deeply researched, detail-rich history of Black magicians of the vaudeville era.

Comparable Titles: Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer’s The Secret History of Magic, Hardin J Burlingame’s Hermann the Magician.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-