Chung Ling Soo (real name William Robinson)
Chung Ling Soo was the stage name for the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 - March 24, 1918) who is mostly remembered today for his death after a bullet catch trick went wrong. He initially performed under the name "Robinson, the Man of Mystery" and his specialties included impersonations, dialect singing, hypnotism, ventriloquism and magic tricks. He continued to perform under a variety of names but after accepting a job for a Chinese magician to perform at the Folies Bergere in Paris he went on to create a new act based on Ching Ling Foo's act. Robinson dressed in traditional Chinese costume, shaved his facial hair and began wearing his hair in a queue. This image published by James Upton shows Chung Ling Soo being billed as The Marvellous Chinese Conjurer'. It is one of two dozen posters on a hoarding in Bristol in about 1910. The hoarding was reproduced in Will Dexter's "The Riddle of Chung Ling Soo"
