Norton, Mac (Claude Louis Delair) | The Human Aquarium

Norton, Mac (Claude Louis Delair)

Circus Busch. Die Senaation: De universältliche Mac Norton Das menschliche Aquarium. Hamburg: Lith. Adolph Friedländer, ca. 1912 (no. 5753)

Color lithograph poster (28 x 37 1/2 in.; 712 x 942 mm). Fold creases with minor separation and abrasion, some light surface soiling. Laid down on linen.

Mac Norton performed for half a century in European music halls and vaudeville, spouting water and swallowing—and subsequently regurgitating—live frogs, goldfish, and turtles; opposition from the ASPCA kept the act from touring in the United States. Houdini appeared on the same bill at Berlin's Circus Busch with Norton, who he called the only frog swallower he ever saw "who presented his act in a dignified manner" (Miracle Mongers, p. 164). 

David Blaine, the contemporary magician and endurance performer, saw the present poster in Ricky Jay's collection and was inspired to learn Mac Norton's technique. In a moving homage, Blaine reprised the regurgitation of a living frog at Jay's memorial service.

REFERENCE:

LP&FW, pp. 295–92, 298 & color plate; cf. Harry Houdini, Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (1920), pp. 162–164