Sawing a woman in half

Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of stage magic tricks in which a person (traditionally a female assistant) is apparently cut or divided into two (or more) pieces.

There remains a debate about the origin of sawing illusions, with some sources saying a magician named Torrini may have performed the first version in front of Pope Pius VII in 1809.

Modern magic inventor and historian Jim Steinmeyer has concluded that there was probably no real Torrini and the story was merely a way for Robert-Houdin to play with ideas.

[4] Until recently it was generally accepted that the first public performance of a sawing illusion was achieved by British magician P. T. Selbit on 17 January 1921 at the Finsbury Park Empire theatre in London.

[5] In fact Selbit had previously performed the illusion in December 1920 before a select audience of promoters and theatrical agents at the St. George's Hall, London, to try to persuade one of them to book his new act for public shows.

The impression that she could not evade the saw was created by the confined space in the box and by ropes tied to her hands, feet, and neck, which were held throughout the illusion by spectators from the audience.

According to Jim Steinmeyer the woman who participated in the December 1920 demonstration was Jan Glenrose, who was Selbit's main assistant at that time and who was also the partner of magician Fred Culpitt.

Goldin sawed through the middle of the box, inserting metal sheets to cover the cut ends, and then pushed the two halves a little way apart.

One major group of tricks involves an assistant in a box, which conceals her body from view while any cutting takes place.

Jansen's improved version of the apparatus featured a smaller box from which the victim's head and feet would protrude during the sawing.

[2] Goldin had great promotional acumen and was fond of resorting to legal action to block anyone else, including Selbit, from competing with him in the USA.

The magician presents a set of restraints consisting of a sturdy collar and a pair of ankle straps, each attached to a length of chain or rope.

The assistant sits on the table with her legs stretched out and volunteers are invited to fasten the restraints around her neck and ankles.

The ropes or chains are threaded through holes in the table and the ends given to volunteers, who are instructed to pull them tight and hold them that way throughout the illusion.

Whilst Wakeling performed this illusion and perfected aspects of it, the general configuration and method have been attributed to an earlier magician, Virgil Harris Mulkey (1900–1989), aka.

The magician switches on the saw and apparently uses it to slice through the audience volunteer's waist, which remains obscured by the frame.

This variant begins in a similar way to the jig sawing and is also usually performed using an audience volunteer as the assistant, again without any prior rehearsal.

To demonstrate the saw is completely genuine, a piece of wood is placed on the table and sliced in two in full view.

Once the table reaches the end of its travel and the saw is switched off the assistant is released and shown to be in one piece and uninjured.

The performer is secured to a table beneath a large buzzsaw or blade, which is set to descend upon them under the control of a timing mechanism.

The performer then appears to command the whole process to reverse: The body halves go back together, the saw rises, the box closes.

Panels in the front of the cabinet are opened to show the top and bottom halves of the assistant apparently separate.

In September 1921, motivated by concerns about preventing competition from other magicians who might copy him, Horace Goldin forwent secrecy and applied for a patent for Sawing a woman in half.

Expecting the box is the size of an ordinary chest, they may assume that the "victim" is arranged (B), crossing the path of the saw.

This method is generally not in use today, as the false table must be extremely thick to conceal the assistant.Penn & Teller use the second variant of this trick on a regular basis in Las Vegas.

Jim Steinmeyer has argued that Selbit's introduction of the sawing illusion was a turning point in the history of magic after which gentler styles represented by the likes of John Nevil Maskelyne were in irreversible decline to be replaced by more sensational presentations that owed something to the shock effect of Grand Guignol theatre.

In particular, Steinmeyer identifies the sawing illusion as the beginning of a fashion for magic featuring female assistants in the role of victim.

Male assistants were common in magic history and in the Victorian era; the cumbersome clothes imposed on women by the fashions of the time made it impractical for them to squeeze into confined spaces required by some tricks.

Changing fashions in the early 20th century made Selbit's choice of a female victim a practical proposition.

However, more controversially, a combination of the emancipation of women and a population desensitized by war and exposed to new entertainment phenomena meant Selbit's choice struck a chord in the public imagination.