Harry Kellar: Dean of American Magicians

Erie, Pennsylvania gave the world one of the most celebrated magicians who ever lived. Harry Kellar was born here in eighteen forty-nine and went on to perform across five continents over a career spanning more than forty years, becoming the first American magician to achieve genuine international stardom.

Kellar was famous for his elegant theatrical illusions. He popularized the Vanishing Birdcage effect, in which a cage and its occupant seemed to disappear from his open hands in an instant, and he perfected the levitation illusion, floating an assistant in mid-air with nothing visible supporting her. He became mentor and close friend to Harry Houdini, who idolized him and considered Kellar the gold standard of the profession. His peers called him the Dean of American Magicians. He returned to perform in Erie many times. His boyhood home once stood near this very park.