Thurston was deeply impressed after he attended magician Alexander Herrmann's magic show and was determined to equal his work.

His father William Henry Thurston was a wheelwright and carriage maker who served briefly as a private during the Civil War in the Third Ohio Regiment.

Among his fellow students were Lee de Forest, "The Father of American Radio," and musical humorist Charles Ross Taggart, "The Old Country Fiddler.

[4]: 113 Thurston said, "The historian of magic can trace an unbroken line of succession from the Fakir of Ava in 1830 to my own entertainment."

From that point on he called himself "The man that fooled Herrmann" and used the publicity to get booked into top vaudeville houses in the U.S. and Europe, billing himself as the King of Cards.

[10][11][12] He is entombed at Green Lawn Abbey, a mausoleum in Columbus, Ohio,[13] which opened again to the public in 2021 after more than fifty years.

[14] Thurston is quoted as a subject matter expert in Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

The poster's placement in the show would lead viewers to believe that Thurston was possibly a student of the school, and thus his performances used "real" magic.