by David J. Lustig (Author)
From the INTRODUCTION. I doubt whether I shall ever forget the first time I saw Robert Heller, charming entertainer. It was sometime in the early sixties, at the Chinese Assembly Rooms, New York, his first appearance, an invitation to the press. He was almost unheard of. His advance agent, John Hall Wilton, who brought Anderson, the Wizard of the North, to this country, believing that Heller would make a more favorable impression as a Frenchman, persuaded him, clever mimic that he was, to affect a foreign accent. This he did for a while, but soon gave it up on the plea that he had been long enough in the country to learn the language. His opening tricks were nothing surprising, but when he reached his Second Sight, which was then new, at least to our people, his reputation was made. His audience was made up, in great part, of bright newspaper men, who set their wits to work to solve the secret of that clever trick....