It’s Female Firsts on Stuff Mom Never Told You, when Anney and Samantha are joined by Unpopular and This Day In History Class host Yves to hear about some amazing women who were first in their fields or professions. On this magical episode, they talk about Ellen E. Armstrong, the first and only Black woman of her time to run her own independent magic show and tour the United States. It’s full of great magic facts, Black history, hilariously-worded reviews, and alliterative accolades all about the marvelous Mistress of Modern Magic. Plus, Anney helpfully points out some magic stunts to avoid when she confesses to trying a trick and almost setting something on fire. Will we ever see a SMNTY magic show? “It would be a trainwreck,” Anney laughs.
Magic was a family business for Ellen. Her father, John Hartford Armstrong, traveled up and down the East Coast with his brother and wife, billed as “The Armstrong Brothers,” performing magic shows in Black schools and churches; eventually they were playing for mixed crowds in opera houses and theaters as well as in Europe and Cuba. They were highly respected, one of only “a handful of Black magicians of this era and were the only ones to have an international reputation.” And it seems, at least judging by the reviews at the time, that making magic shows educational and scientific – and far removed from anything dark or occult – was of extreme importance. “Professor Armstrong’s work,” one review declares, “is highly credible….all the results of phenomena that are the results of science,” and commends him for showing people that “everything which we cannot comprehend at a glance does not originate with the Prince of Evil.”
From an early age, Ellen joined her father, mother, and uncle onstage, assisting with tricks and even doing a mind-reading segment of her own, as well as something called “Chalk Talk,” where she demonstrated her cartooning skills. After her father died, she continued the show, focusing on churches and schools, keeping up the educational and scientific elements. Some of her act included tricks like “Silken Sorcery” and “The Puzzling Parasol,” but posters advertising her shows also claimed “original, chemical, mechanical, and electrical magical experiments.” All in all, it was a “modern, marvelous, matchless, merry-making march through mysteryland,” and what more could you really want? Hear all about the trailblazing Ellen E. Armstrong, the Mistress of Modern Magic, on this episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You.
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