Charles Morritt
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(–) gentleman farmer in the north of England. As a seventeen-year-old he was drawn to conjuring. Years later he would recall his beginnings as a performer: Mystery Entertainments first drew my attention in , when a great sensation was caused in England by the Davenport Brothers. The papers gave a description of their amusing performance and the subject so fascinated me that I at once began to study it. The first result was that I made a light wooden seance cabinet, inside which I placed a person, closed the door, and then showed the cabinet empty.… I then set to work to get together a programme of Mysteries with a view to giving my first show. This debut was duly made in , and I may say I had the courage, or audacity, to make my first a full two hours’ entertainment at the Public Hall, Selby, Yorks, with no other person on the bill. I advertised extensively and my programme consisted, first, of catching half-crowns in the air and throwing in to a tall hat; then going amongst the audience and taking them from people’s noses of the audience, and finally producing a rabbit from a hat. My second item was a series of card tricks, concluding with the rising cards from a bottle, which made a good impression.…My concluding item was “Thought Reading.”
By he was not only performing, but managing several theatres in Leeds. But the young man was ambitious; and eventually he moved on to London. By then he had acquired an assistant: his “sister Lillian,” as she was billed. In reality, the two were not siblings, but lovers. On stages in London they performed a mindreading act. It proved popular with audiences; made a name for Morritt; and