More On Baltimore History

The Blog of Poe's Magic Theatre at the Lord Baltimore Hotel

Issue 9  |  May 3rd, 2026

FEATURE: THE NIGHT AMERICAN MAGIC CHANGED HANDS IN BALTIMORE

There is a moment in the history of stage magic that gets described as a "passing of the torch," which undersells it considerably. It was more like a public abdication, witnessed by an audience that knew it was watching something that would not happen again, performed in a city that had a long habit of being the place where things happened that would not happen again.

Ford's Theatre in Baltimore. May 16, 1908. Not the Ford's Theatre in Washington where Lincoln was shot, but the one on Fayette Street that Baltimore still had at the time, a working performance venue on a busy downtown block. Harry Kellar was 58 years old and had been the most famous magician in America for the better part of two decades. He was retiring, which was not in itself unusual. What was unusual was what he chose to do about it.

He chose Howard Thurston as his successor. Thurston was not a surprising pick if you knew the magic world in 1908, but he would be if you knew it now, because Houdini has consumed the entire popular memory of that era and left almost no room for anyone else. Thurston at the time was arguably better known than Houdini, and his stage show was on a scale that made Houdini's look economical. His props filled eight railroad cars. His illusions were lavish, theatrical, spectacularly over-prepared. Kellar had watched him work and decided: yes, him.

At the performance that night, Kellar called Thurston onto the stage and ceremonially placed his cape upon his shoulders. The audience understood exactly what they were watching. A title was being transferred. The Dean of American Magicians was stepping down and naming his heir, in public, in Baltimore, with full theatrical weight behind the gesture. It was the kind of moment that theater was invented for.

There is something worth noting about why Baltimore. It was not sentiment. Kellar had played Baltimore regularly throughout his career, and the city had a serious and established magic community that knew his work well. The Demons Club, a local magic organization with deep roots in the city's performance history, turned the occasion into a genuine civic ceremony, complete with a banquet and a train car renamed "Kelthurma" in honor of Kellar, Thurston, and magic combined. Baltimore was not a coincidental venue. It was chosen because it would understand what was being done.

Kellar retired to California. Thurston took the title and ran his touring show for another two decades. Houdini, who was close friends with Kellar and eventually inherited Kellar's famous automaton Psycho, kept an eye on what happened to the old man's legacy with the slightly proprietary affection of someone who knows exactly what he's looking at. He even coaxed Kellar out of retirement once more, in 1917, for a benefit show where the audience carried Kellar off in a sedan chair while a 125-piece orchestra played.

Kellar died in 1922. The cape he placed on Thurston's shoulders in Baltimore is gone now, or at least not publicly accounted for. The moment survives in descriptions, in photographs, in a line or two of magic history books that almost nobody reads. Which seems appropriate. The best performances always leave less evidence than they should.

The Ford's Theatre building on Fayette Street is long gone too, replaced, like most of the 20th century, by something considerably more practical and considerably less interesting.

POE'S MAGIC THEATRE THIS WEEKEND

Two shows Friday and Saturday, and the Comedy Brunch on Sunday. That is a full weekend.

Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7 bring the Magic Showcase at 8 p.m. both nights. This is the recurring gathering that has established a well-earned reputation as the most reliable way to see top-tier working magic in the city. Mid-Atlantic performers, rotating cast, genuinely no-filler policy. If you have been meaning to come and have not yet, the excuses are running low.

Sunday, June 8 is Poe's Comedy Brunch, running 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Stand-up comedy, full brunch service, the Lord Baltimore Hotel on a Sunday morning. Relaxed but not sleepy. Funny without trying quite as hard as Friday-night comedy tends to try.

Tickets for all three at poesmagic.com.

Coming up the following weekend: Cody Clark returns with A Different Way of Thinking, Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13, both at 8 p.m. Clark's work runs in the direction of comedy magic with enough genuine craft underneath the jokes to catch you off guard, which is the right direction for comedy magic to run.

DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE THIS WEEKEND

Pride Week officially begins Sunday, June 8. Baltimore Pride 2026 runs through June 14, with the theme "Charm City Homecoming," marking 51 years of Pride events in the city. The main parade and Druid Hill Park festival are the weekend of June 13 and 14, but the kickoff events starting Sunday are worth knowing about. If you are in the area Sunday, the energy will be detectable from some distance.

The Rainbow Run, a 5K walk and fun run at Patterson Park, kicks off Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. and runs through about 1:30 p.m., followed by a community festival on site. Colorful. Loud in the good way.

Looking further ahead: DEVO comes to the Lyric Baltimore on Wednesday, June 10. Yes, that DEVO. Still touring. Still wearing the hats.

LOCAL MAGIC HISTORY: THE KELLAR HANDOFF

See the feature above. The short version: in 1908, on a stage in downtown Baltimore, Harry Kellar publicly handed his title as Dean of American Magicians to Howard Thurston. It remains one of the most formally theatrical moments in the history of American stage magic. The Demons Club of Baltimore, founded three years later in 1911, carried that tradition of organized magic forward in this city. Poe's Magic Club continues in that lineage, whether or not anyone at the time would have admitted it.

CFG BANK ARENA

5 Seconds of Summer bring their EVERYONE'S A STAR! World Tour to CFG Bank Arena on Sunday, June 7, at 8 p.m. This is the show that will be audible from roughly a two-block radius, which is useful information if you are walking to or from the hotel Sunday evening. Plan for some additional pedestrian traffic in the Inner Harbor corridor. Tickets at cfgbankarena.com.

Next week, A$AP Rocky's Don't Be Dumb World Tour lands at CFG Bank Arena Monday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. One of the bigger bookings the arena has had this summer. Tickets at cfgbankarena.com.

WEEKEND WEATHER

Friday, June 5: High of 90 degrees, 10% chance of rain. Summer has arrived whether anyone asked.

Extended forecast for the weekend was not yet available at time of publication. Check before making outdoor plans: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Baltimore&state=MD&site=LWX&textField1=39.2904&textField2=-76.6122

SPORTS

The Orioles open a home series against the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yards on Monday, June 8, first pitch 6:35 p.m. The Birds are sitting at 28-32 heading into the weekend, which is not quite where the optimists imagined June, but the season is long and the AL East has a long history of delivering late surprises in both directions.

No Orioles home games this weekend, which means the Camden Yards neighborhood will be unusually navigable for anyone heading downtown Saturday or Sunday evening.

The Orioles broadcast on MASN and MASN+. Tickets through mlb.com/orioles.

POE'S MAGIC CONFERENCE 2027

Mark it down. Poe's Magic Conference returns April 15 through 18, 2027 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. Last spring's conference set the bar high enough that planning for the next one started almost immediately after the last one ended, which is probably the most accurate possible measure of how it went. Early bird tickets are available now at poesmagic.com. Prices will go up. They always do.

Poe's Magic Theatre is located at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Tickets and information at poesmagic.com.

The Purloined Dispatch publishes every other Tuesday.

Poe's Magic Theatre is located at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Tickets and information at poesmagic.com.

The Purloined Dispatch publishes every Tuesday.

Poe's Magic Theatre at the Lord Baltimore Hotel  |  poesmagic.com