CARTER THE GREAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 135, 29 August 1927, Page 15

CARTER THE GREAT

BEWILDERING MAGIC Astounded, spell-bound, unable to believe the evidence of its eyes, a packed house at His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday evening gazed in amazed wonderment upon the magic and illusion of Carter the Great, the world’s master of mystery and miracle. His astonishing illusions leave one stupefied; yet it is all very entertaining, intriguing and amusing. Many of the impossible wonders of the magician of the Arabian Nights are made possible by this remarkable wizard. Mr. Carter’s cupboard of mysteries contains a wonderful and baffling assortment of thrills of which perhaps the most baffling and bewildering is his act wherein a woman is sawn in halves. Miss Ethel Wayne is the victim, and after hypnotising the lady Mr. Carter places her in two boxes with her head protruding from one end and her feet from the other. After sawing through the boxes (or at least part of them) and to all intents and purposes through Miss Wayne’s body, the l'eceptacles are moved to either side of the stage. However, when the boxes are placed together again Miss Wayne assumes her natural proportions. The only outward sign of her ordeal was an expression of astonishment. The same little lady was the central figure in another weird illusion, “Cheating the Gallows,” which is much too involved to attempt an explanation. The “torture cell of spikes” is another queer problem. Locked in a box a young woman seems to be impaled on 72 steel spikes. Whether she is or whether she isn’t is of no consequence—Mr. Carter weaves such a spell that he makes one believe that she has been rather severely treated, only to come out of the cell smiling and unhurt. The magician also shows that the human form can be stretched to great and still greater lenghs. By attaching one of his assistants to a stage property he pulls her legs and arms and head into the most extraordinary positions. Miss Evelyn Maxwell, Carter the Great’s assistant in illusion, is highly entertaining in her demonstration of mental telepathy. Those who are fond of magic and mastery will enjoy the programme, at Ilis Majesty’s Theatre. Those who don’t will have their thrills—whether they like it or not.