A Magical True Story

The legendary magician Alexander Herrmann (1844-1896) began his career at age eight when his older brother, Carl Herrmann, kidnapped the very willing boy to be his onstage assistant and featured child star.

When the adult Alexander set out on his own, he taught his childhood assistant role to a succession of African American teens and boys, some as young as eleven. Herrmann named his assistant character Boomsky.

At least fifteen young men played Boomsky over the years. Some lasted a few days. Some stayed for years.

Boomsky was present for many of Golden Age Magic’s most memorable moments. He met U.S. presidents, European royalty and brilliant stars of the stage. 

The youths who played Boomsky were born in the decades following the Civil War and most had parents who had been enslaved. Before joining Herrmann, they faced futures of subsistence-wage manual labor.  

The Boomsky role was a training ground and launching pad for at least eight successful, world-class Black magicians, a phenomenon during the Jim Crow segregationist era, with its near-complete lack of opportunity for African Americans. These magicians included The Great Boomsky (Isaac W. Willis), Black Carl (Edward Johnson), Alonzo Moore, Milton H. Everett, James A. Willis, C. Edward Clarke, and Bernard Baker. As Herrmann's only students (besides his wife, Adelaide), they embodied the great magician's repertoire, technique, and presentation. Magicians of their day sought them out to watch and learn. Yet they were banned from the magic societies because of their race. The magic history books left them out, as well. Their story of these amazing magic pioneers has never been told - until now. 

Magic historian Margaret B. Steele is recognized as the leading expert on the legendary Herrmann dynasty of magicians. In 2011 she uncovered and published the long-lost memoir of Adelaide Herrmann, the Queen of Magic (1853-1932). Margaret has appeared on the HISTORY channel and WNYC's "The Takeaway," and has lectured at the New-York Historical Society. A stage magician and Juilliard-trained oboist, Margaret has performed around the world from uniquely different vantage points -  the spotlight, the orchestra pit, and inside boxes - and writes of road companies from lived experience. In The Great Boomsky, she interweaves the never-before-told stories of the young men and teens who assisted the Herrmanns as the comic assistant, Boomsky, with many previously-unknown tales of the world's most fascinating family of magicians in a book that's part Upstairs, Downstairs and part 20 Feet From Stardom, all set in the Golden Age of Magic.

Based on twenty years of research, The Great Boomsky incorporates information gathered from numerous magic collections and libraries with data from ever-expanding digital resources not previously available. 

Additionally, the book features images, promotional materials, and the family history of Isaac W. Willis, The Great Boomsky,  which have been generously provided by his descendants. Meticulously sourced, with over 500 footnotes, The Great Boomsky explodes some entrenched magic history myths while bringing to light many new and amazing true stories from the Golden Age of Magic.