CARTER THE GREAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 126, 18 August 1927, Page 17

CARTER THE GREAT

COMING TO HIS MAJESTY'S Carter the Great, who will appear for ten nights only at His Majesty’s Theatre, commencing on Wednesday next, August 24, with his company of assistants, 31 tons of magical accoutrement and a live, ponderous elephant, brings with him a number of new and startling illusions, thaumaturgic marvels and conjuring conceits, notably, “The Vanishing Elephant,” in which a huge, live pachyderm, chained to and hoisted by a crane, clear of any suspected or possible contiguous trapdoors in the stage, is, at the report of a pistol, made to disappear instantly into nothingness—all executed on a brilliantly lighted stage before the eyes of all beholders. This masterpiece was suggested to Carter the Gjreat by a visit to the Caves of Elephanta, which he visited in Bombay during the course of his recent tour of India. “The Elongated Chinese Maiden” is another of Carter’s late wonders, and consists in apparently stretching to impossible lengths, the neck, legs and arms of a demure daughter of the Celestial Empire, without disturbing in the least the oriental calm of this extraordinary miss. “Do Spirits Return” is a strange seance in which Carter surprisingly demonstrates the wonders of the occult and marvels of the spirit cabinet.

Houdini’s ghost is said to frequently manifest herein! “C h e r c h e z la femme,” or “Find the Woman,” is another of Carter’s latest. A young lady costumed to represent the Queen of Hearts, most tantalisingly appears and disappears at well while shielded by one of three large life-size playing cards suspended from a board in th® air. (

“Cheating the Gallows” depicts a live person undergoing a sea change and fading into thin air after being suspended by his neck from the gallows tree. A most incomprehensible mystery! The “Torture Cell of Spikes” wherein a young girl’s body is to all intents and purposes penetrated by 72 sharp steel spikes without injuring or inconveniencing the performer. “Shooting the Woman” is another of Carter’s new sensations, wherein a marked bullet is placed in a gun and shot completely through the body of a young girl, piercing a marked card and carrying with it a piece of red ribbon, which is pulled backwards and forwards through the body of the subject. A canary that flies into a lighted electric lamp, “Printemps,” the elusive doves, Guy Fawkes Firework, and hundreds of other modern wonders, form the nucleus of a most excellent show. Box plans will open at Lewis R. Eady’s on Monday morning at 9 o’clock.