Albert Marchinsky

[2] Marchinsky was born into a Jewish family in 1875 in Osięciny, Warsaw region, Russian Poland,[1] the son of Philip or Faivish, a clothier, and Eva.

The family moved to Mile End New Town in Whitechapel in the early 1880s, stopping in Germany, where his brother was born.

[4] Marchinsky's stage name was "The Great Rameses", his bill matter described him as "The Eastern Mystic" and his costume and sets were intended to look Egyptian.

An article written after his death[6] described it as follows: "When the curtain rose, the audience saw an Egyptian temple with flaming censers and turbaned assistants.

Verall Wass, in a reminiscence in The Magic Circular Archived 16 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine in 1954, described Marchinsky's five main tricks: (1) Production of his assistants from miniature pyramids.

Back in England, he performed at the London Palladium, The Hippodrome, the Stockport Empire, the Salford Regent and the Shepherd's Bush Theatre.

In 1917 Marchinsky invested the money he had made on his tours in the Empire Theatre, Southend-on-Sea, where he presented, among other productions, Eugene Brieux's controversial play, Damaged Goods (Les Avariés).

In the 1920s he worked at The Kursaal, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, alongside another successful magician, Maurice Fogel, who began as Marchinsky's assistant, helping him out at a time when he was said to be "worse for wear".