Oscar Eliason
Oscar Eliason was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 8 July 1869,[1] the third of nine children of Mormon pioneers Olof Larsson Eliasson (1836–1920) and Ingar Emma Andersson (1838–1893), who had migrated to the United States from Sweden.
[10] Eliason began acting at St Marks school in Salt Lake City,[11] and in his spare time entertained his friends by showing them magic tricks.
[15] Eliason later claimed his father was sceptical that he could make a living as a professional magician, but after impressing audiences as an amateur, it seemed an inevitable career path.
Eliason's popularity received a major boost when he publicly challenged so-called mediums and spiritualists – people who claimed the ability to "converse" with or serve as a "channel" of communication with spirits of the dead.
The Scottish magician with whom he claimed an ancestral link, John Henry Anderson, had done the same thing decades earlier, but spiritualism had continued to grow and by the 1890s, was believed to have had millions of followers in the United States and Europe.
For example, in August 1873, Eliason was appearing at the Saltair resort in Utah as "The Greatest Living Prestidigitateur" and "The equal of Anna Eva Fay as a Medium".
[20] The following year, Eliason responded to a challenge from Harry H. Waite, a spiritualist visiting Salt Lake City, by declaring: "I will so completely expose the sham, humbuggery and duplicity of all mediums and spirit manifestations that a belief in their supernatural power or production cannot find lodgment in any sensible and logical mind."
[32][33][17] After a brief season in Vancouver, Canada,[34] Eliason and Edmunda decided to head to New Zealand and Australia, accompanied by management and support staff as well as their first child, Ethel, then aged six,[35]), and his brother, Frank.
[46] While in New Zealand, Eliason took on a new business manager for an Australian tour – the well-known theatrical agent, Lewis J. Lohr, who had heard of the American's popularity and had travelled all the way from South Australia to sign him up.
[49][50][51] At his 40th appearance at the Palace, the audience included the New South Wales Governor, Lord Hampden, who also received a private show at Government House.
[57] Other stops included Gore,[58] Dunedin,[59] Wanganui,;[60] Oamaru,[61] Christchurch,[62] and Wellington[63] before Eliason returned to Sydney and began advertising a "brief farewell season" at the Palace Theatre.
To mark the achievement, employees of the theatre and other "admirers" presented him with a souvenir wand made of ebony and gold, inscribed with the words "Dante the Great".
Three days later, on 29 November 1899, he died at Dubbo's Royal Hotel, despite treatment by a Sydney surgeon who arrived by special train, and found his intestines had been perforated.
[82] Similarly, during a budget debate in South Australian Legislative Council in August 1899, a politician asked of the Treasurer, Frederick Holder: "By what magic had this financial Dante succeeded in making both ends meet?
"[83] In a South Australian series in 1900 called "What Might Have Been", a satirical drawing of "Dante the Greater" appears to depict Governor Tennyson in a magician's costume, producing money with his wand.
[89] From late 1900, Frank extensively toured Australia and New Zealand as Dante the Marvellous, in which he received a generally positive response but never equalled the popularity of his brother.
[93] In 1903, a "remarkable" mechanised Dante the Great, representing Oscar Eliason on a miniature stage, was produced for display at the Crystal Palace Hotel in Sydney.
"The head of the figure has been fashioned from a model taken shortly before the unfortunate incident which robbed the amusement-loving public of the skilful performer," stated one report.
