Dante

Danish-born Harry August Jansen was not the first magician to don the sobriquet 'Dante the Magician' -- that honour belonged to fellow Scandinavian Oscar Eliason (born in Utah to Mormon parents). Eliason, invariably attired in courtly dress, performed stage illusions, including the spirit-cabinet act, touring the United States, Mexico, Canada and Australia as early as the 1890's. He was at the peak of his popularity when he took a fatal bullet to the abdomen during a hunting trip in South Africa after a gun discharged accidentally. The second Dante was the famous one. Harry Jansen was understudy to Howard Thurston in the 1920's and adopted the moniker on the advice of his mentor. He took Thurston's magic show on a world tour and was still overseas performing to captivated audiences when Thurston died in 1936. The name of Dante's lavishly produced show was 'Sim Sala Bim' (a nonsense phrase from an old Danish song and Dante's trademark line). It featured classic routines like the "Backstage Illusion", sawing a woman in half, the vanishing horse and rider and the "The Un-Sevilled Barber". The only illusionist of his day to enjoy success on all five continents (something even his great rival Harry Blackstone failed to achieve), Dante was the epitome of sartorial elegance and poise. The New York Times aptly described him as a cross between Mephistopheles and Monty Woolley. He appeared in a handful of films as himself, notably a leading role in A-Haunting We Will Go (1942), starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Dante spent his last years on 'Rancho Dante', his estate at Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, where he died in June 1955 at the age of 71.