The Alhambra Theatre site has great significance in the history of magic as a form of mass entertainment. This is due to the theatre being the first theatre that Harry Houdini performed at after proving himself at Scotland Yard. In addition to this interesting anecdote, the Alhambra is also notable for having a large variety in the class of audience who attended the theatre. This class diversity is in part due to the Alhambra's status as a variety theatre. Since it did not have a license to show any performances that had a story, the shows it did produce were aimed at less cultured classes. Donald Shaw, a theatre goer in 1908 described the common occurrences at the Alhambra that were commonly tumultuous due to the unsavoury rablerousers that frequented the theatre.5 The commonality of lower classes at the Alhambra suggest that magic shows were also commonly a form of entertainment that could be enjoyed by large range of social and economic classes. The view of magic as a form of mass entertainment is also evident at the Alhambra theatre since it further shows how magicians struggle to attract increasingly disinterested audiences. The public view of magic is evident in the Alhambra Theatre program on the day that Houdini first performed. This program shows that performances such as a "fancy bicyclist" and "a patriotic military display" we more prominent than Houdini escaping from handcuffs.6 The program also shows that popularity of the magician Chung Ling Soo, who was more expensive to see than Houdini. Chung Ling Soo's performances at the Alhambra is another example of how magicians needed to maintain public interest. Chung Ling Soo arrived in London in the same year as Houdini and had quickly made a name for himself as the "Celestial Chinese Conjurer," opening at the Alhambra on April 16th and performing for 12 weeks.7 However, Chung Ling Soo was just a persona used by Billy Robinson who constructed an entire background for Soo in order to attract British audiences by appealing to the common interest in exotic culture.8 This successful tactic used by Robinson reveals how magicians used popular attitudes in order to attract broader audiences and make theatres charge more for admission. Thus, the Alhambra Theatre provides a useful perspective of magic as mass entertainment by being the site of attraction through spectacle and deception, that shows how different magicians used various tactics to appeal to the working and upper classes of London.

1. Theatres Trust, "Alhambra Theatre," Theatres Database, accessed November 20, 2017, https://database.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/th....

2. London Fire Brigade, "LFB150 - The 1882 Alhambra theatre fire," London Fire Brigade, accessed November 20, 2017, http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/LatestNewsRelea....

3. "The Demolition of the Alhambra Theatre in 1936," Arthur Lloyd, accessed November 20, 2017, http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Alhambra.htm#alhambra.

4. "Alhambra," Theatre Database/Theatre Architecture, accessed November 20, 2017. http://www.theatre-architecture.eu/db.html?theatre....

5. "The Alhambra Theatre - From 'One of the Old Brigade' (Donald Shaw), London in the Sixties, 1908," Arthur Lloyd, accessed November 20, 2017, http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Alhambra.htm#alhambra.

6. Alhambra Theatre, Program, July 2, 1900.

7. Edwin A. Dawes, "The Magic Scene in Britain in 1905," Early Popular Visual Culture 5, no. 2 (2007): 114.

8. Richard A. Baker, British Music Hall: An Illustrated History (South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2014), 188.