Vanishing Bird Cage Blog

This blog contains images and video clips I have collected for my own reference on The Vanishing Bird Cage .  I hope these may also be of interest to other people interested in the history of this amazing feat of magic.  Scroll on down (or click on Archived posts to the right) to view the gallery and check out the archived posts. 

*NOTE: this page is graphics heavy with many images and some of the video GIF files are quite large so be patient as they may take a minute to load up and play back smoothly depending on your internet connection speed.

Fred Keating Vanishing Bird Cage

 Fred Keating was well-known for his presentation of the Vanishing Bird Cage. 

(read more about Keating here: https://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Fred_Keating)

As much as Fred Keating is noted for his performance of the Vanishing Bird Cage , there don't seem to be any extant photographs of Keating performing the feat. (there is a posed publicity photo of him gazing at a ridiculously over-sized bird cage, and another publicity photo of Keating with the singer Maurice Chevalier looking on in apparent astonishment at a bird cage held by Keating,  but neither of the cages in those publicity photos are the cage he actually performed with in his act.)

If anyone reading this blog has a photograph of Fred Keating performing the Vanishing Bird Cage, I would appreciate it if you would send me a copy to use for this blog.

Here is an illustration of Keating in silhouette form performing the vanishing bird cage, drawn by Nelson Hahne for Max Holden's book "The Programmes of Famous Magicians".

Fred Keating (center, with cigarette and cards) and his assistant 'The Great Alexander' (at left)

Fred Keating used a ribbon trimmed brass cage (white ribbon for better visibility on stage) made by Martin Sunshine (or possibly Jay Palmer). This cage  offered at a magic auction was said to be one of the cages Fred Keating used during his career.

Fred Keating's Bird Cage (made by Martin Sunshine or Jay Palmer)

Publicity Photo of Fred Keating with Maurice Chevalier from Mechanix Illustrated May 1932. 

A publicity photo of magician Fred Keating in the 1930's at the height of his popularity.

The Elusive Canary by Mystic Craig

 In 1936, Mystic Craig (William M. Vagell) published the book "The Elusive Canary - (The Vanishing Bird Cage) The Last Word In Cages".  This long out-of-print rare book is now available in an e-book (pdf) edition on the invaluable Lybrary.com  - https://www.lybrary.com/the-elusive-canary-p-926908.html

Here is my review of the book  -

The Elusive Canary - (The Vanishing Bird Cage) The Last Word In Cages by Mystic Craig (with assistance from Jean Hugard) has long been somewhat elusive itself. The book was originally self-published in 1936 and sold for $2.00. Today in 2025 it is not unusual to see a copy going for $65 or more. Many thanks to Lybrary.com for making it available. Mystic Craig's real name was William M. Vagell.

Those magicians who have a particular interest in the classic effect, The Vanishing Bird Cage, will be the primary audience for this book. I for one am glad to have access to this rare book as an e-book edition through Lybrary.com. For what it is as a historical piece , I'm rating this book 5-stars, but potential buyers should be aware that it is a slender volume (23 pages) and the subtitle: “The Last Word On Cages” is a bit of an exaggeration on the part of the author. It is not a comprehensive treatment on all the various methods and types of vanishing bird cages that had been used from the time of Buatier De Kolta (the inventor of the effect) to the time when the book came out (in 1936). It is mostly the author's own particular handling for the effect and a few novel ideas he had for enhancing the effect. Although, at the time (and in the years since then) you could almost say it was the ONLY word on the vanishing bird cage, as very little detailed information has ever been put into print on this delightful, but difficult to perform feat of magic. Most information on performing the vanishing bird cage effect -- the 'real work' on the cage -- has been passed along in person from magician to magician or in the occasional article published in magazines such as Linking Ring or M-U-M. In the present day I would say “the last word on cages” is to be found in John Carney’s outstanding book Sleights and Insights in his chapter 'The Vanishing Bird Cage Re-imagined, which at 27 pages is longer than The Elusive Canary.  John Carney also covers much of the same material from his book Sleights and Insights in a video tutorial which is also titled 'The Vanishing Bird Cage Re-imagined'. (Available to purchase from John Carney on his website - https://carneymagic.com/carneymagic-2013-complete-series/ )

At any rate, I appreciate Mystic Craig’s book The Elusive Canary , even if it falls a bit short of being “THE  Last Word On Cages”. It contains some valuable information on the vanishing bird cage, so for the vanishing bird cage aficionado I would recommend it as a historical curiosity worth reading. It is rumored that master craftsman James P. Riser (whose vanishing bird cages are regarded as among the best ever made) has a book in the works about The Vanishing Bird Cage, which, if he ever publishes it, may likely be The Last Word On Cages.

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From the book:

A Word from the Author

I want to take this opportunity to thank the following magicians for the assistance and information given me making this book possible. John Mulholland for the historical background and the title, who does his Flying Cage in a very unique showmanship manner. Also to Jean Hugard for his assistance in helping to compile this first and only book in magicdom on Bird Cage Vanishes and Routines.

Respectfully,

MYSTIC CRAIG 

Cover of the book 'The Elusive Canary' by Mystic Craig

Mystic Craig about to vanish the cage and canary.
(in the book the author mentions he uses a Thayer cage;
Walter Baker made the cages for Floyd Thayer.)