The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer"
Jim Steinmeyer, . . Carroll & Graf, $26 (451pp) ISBN 978-0-7867-1512-1
In the boisterous heyday of the vaudeville music hall—an era that featured renowned magicians like Herrmann the Great and Harry Houdini—the mysterious and exotic Chung Ling Soo was considered among the greatest. Thus, his shooting death on a London stage in front of a packed house in 1918 was cause for scandal and rumor. In this affectionate and informed biography, Steinmeyer (
Reviewed on: 05/30/2005
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 464 pages - 978-0-7867-1770-5