Supported by
Overlooked No More: Ellen Armstrong, ‘Marvelous, Mystifying’ Magician of Mirth
Carrying on a family tradition, she brought her singular act, full of illusion and humor, to Black audiences in the segregated South and on up to Philadelphia.
The author, a freelance writer with an interest in women in magic, is not related to Ellen Armstrong.
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.
When we think of magicians, we typically imagine someone sporting a top hat and tails while holding a rabbit alongside a sultry assistant. Often, this magician is a man, and usually he is white.
But in December 1949, an article in Ebony magazine showcased a dozen Black magicians as “among America’s oldest entertainers although few in number.” The sole woman among them was Ellen Armstrong, who was described as “probably the only Negro woman magician in the U.S. today.”
Armstrong began by practicing magic onstage with her father but later performed a solo act full of illusion and humor. One trick involved a blank pane of glass in a picture frame, where a cascade of sand fell from top to bottom when she turned it upside down. When the sand cleared, the frame held an image of someone famous, like the boxer Joe Louis.
In another routine, called “Miser’s Dream,” she made coins appear out of thin air and land with a miraculous clunk into a metal bucket.
Advertisement