Chung Ling Soo (William Ellsworth Robinson) | Forty-two fewer assistants than Ricky Jay

Chung Ling Soo (William Ellsworth Robinson)

Chung Ling Soo and His Ten Assistants. Birmingham: James Upton Ltd. Art Colour Printers, ca. 1908–1915

Color lithograph poster (30 x 20 in.; 763 x 509 mm). Signed in stone lower right T.E.S.; light fold and other creases, some marginal dampstaining, some tiny marginal tears and chips, laid down on board. 

William Robinson is believed to have commissioned more than one hundred posters promoting his appearances as Chung Ling Soo, and this spare image of the illusionist holding up his ten fingers must be one of the most effective. It is signed in the stone with the initials of T. E. Stephens, a prolific designer of posters for Upton, David Allen, and others. The McCord Museum dates this poster to about 1915, although most authorities place it several years earlier.

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 40; Illusions 207