Women in Magic

Leona LaMar

Leona LaMar

Women have done quite a bit of fortune-telling, crystal-gazing, and mind-reading, especially during the vaudeville era. Many were flash-in-the-pan acts, but one who lasted for over fifteen years—often as a headliner—was Leona LaMar, “The Girl with 1,000 Eyes.”

Suzette Yettmah

Suzette Yettmah

Okay, I admit, "X" was a tough letter, so I blended what I had on magicians filed under "X" for this series, and blended it with my entry for "Y." So consider this a two for one! Here, you will learn a few X magicians and also about an English magician, The Wizardette, who was also called England's leading magician in 1936.

Madam Zomah

Madam Zomah

Madam Zomah's real name was Adelaide Ellen Giddings, and she and her husband, Alfred James Giddings, performed a telepathy act as “The Marriotts” until 1910, when they changed the name to the Zomahs.

Emma Reno

Emma Reno

She married into magic early in life, at the age of nineteen. With no theatrical training in her formative years, Emma Reno was a quick and agile student of magic, and soon had her own magic act allowing her and her husband to maintain not one but two successful acts in the early 1900s.

Ellen Armstrong

Ellen Armstrong

She was a resilient, pioneering magician who had a family with strong magic ties. She also grew up performing on stage. When her father died in 1939, she took over his show and as a young, Black woman, she toured successfully through the segregated South.

Dell O'Dell

Learn more about Dell O’Dell, the glamorous, comedy magicienne and television pioneer, and discover how she became to be known as “The World’s Leading Lady Magician.”

Suzy Wandas

Suzy Wandas

Born into the life of fairground theatre in 1896, discover how Suzy Wandas—inspired by the elegant mastery of coin manipulation by Mercedes Talma—transformed from caravan act and into to The Lady with the Fairy Fingers.

Beverly Suzàn

Beverly Suzàn

While her father may have sparked the initial interest in magic by performing some delightful sleight-of-hand, and perhaps a hopeful beau captured more attention by producing a bouquet of roses from fire for her, this magician found her true calling as a stage performer, all on her own.

Mary Ann Campbell

Mary Ann Campbell

Mary Ann has to be one of the busiest women in magic. As a performer, she is, of course, a model for female magicians; but it is her creative use of magic as a financial teaching tool that can be an inspiration for any performer.