Wood, William B. | Edna Wood rises from the flames between her magician-husband and a devil

Wood, William B.

Wood's Great Sensation Edna. Newport, Kentucky: The Donaldson Litho Co, ca. 1900

Color lithograph poster (40 3/4 x 27 5/8 in.; 1036 x 703 mm). Fold and other creases with occasional minor separation, loss, and repair, some marginal tears and chips. Laid down on linen.

This poster highlights one of Wood's most famous illusions, the levitation from flames of Edna, his assistant and wife. After levitating, Edna would walk and turn around, all while suspended in the air. Although he patented the effect, this illusion was copied by both Kellar and Alexander Herrmann, the latter of whom presented it as "The Maid on the Moon."

In 1908, two years after Edna Wood had retired from touring because of poor health, Wood and their daughter, Bertha, who had replaced her mother in the act, disappeared when the tugboat on which they were travelling sank in a storm off the Yucatán Peninsula.

Wood, who was also a noted ventriloquist, is featured in a very youthful looking vignette portrait at the upper right.

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 37; Illusions 131