The fascinating and ironic story of magicians as film pioneers has is told by one of Americas foremost film historians in a book "that brightens one of the industry's dark corners - as magical as the subject itself." So said Lewis Freedman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The author describes how nineteenth-century magicians used magic lanterns to produce optical illusions, and assesses the magician's influence on the development of modern special effects. He interpreted the involvement of magicians in film from an evolutionary perspective and postulated that the cinema was a replacement for stage magic. bIn his view, magic and cinema are almost mutually exclusive and the move of magicians from the stage to the silver screen proved ultimately catastrophic for magicians. A finely produced book, cloth covered, dust jacket. 112 pages, 60 rare illustrations, valuable bibliography.