Germain the Wizard Preface
Todd Karr
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- “If you ever write anything about me after I’m gone, I will come back and haunt you.”
– Karl Germain’s warning to Stuart Cramer
Fine art in the world of magic dawns rarely. During the prime of his career, from 1900 to 1916, Karl Germain brought magic to a higher pinnacle, combining shiningly beautiful miracles with a new level of performance perfection and technical ingenuity.
Not since Robert-Houdin had a magician created such a stunning stage show nor one so elegant. Germain set a new standard of excellence and artistry for magicians, and his influence echoes to this day.
Like wisps of smoke, however, the secrets of the world of Karl Germain would have dissolved and vanished had his wishes not been betrayed.
Lifting the Veil
Throughout his life, Germain passionately guarded his techniques, locking his trunks backstage and steadfastly declining to discuss secrets with fellow performers. He constantly turned down the magic magazines’ requests for explanations of his effects. In his later years he even refused to be recorded or photographed (with a few known exceptions).
But after his death in 1959, his longtime friend Stuart Cramer decided to sidestep Germain’s secrecy and preserve the master’s work in the form of the books The Secrets of Karl Germain (Mr. Meriweather and Company: Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 1962) and Germain the Wizard and his Legerdemain (Buffum Publishing: Goleta, California, 1966).
The magic world is beholden to Stuart Cramer and his act of love for his friend and his art, for otherwise Germain might have remained a respected but hazy name in show business history, remembered through file folders of his brochures and clippings. Cramer’s volumes blessedly keep alive the high art of Germain’s magic by allowing us to study his intensely clever methods and learn from his amazing life.
Stuart Cramer and the Master
As a young Ohio magician, Cramer timidly knocked on Germain’s door one day in the 1930s and the warm welcome he received began a friendship that lasted until the death of the old magician. Cramer lovingly cared for his friend, running errands and keeping him company through the years.
But he also kept notes of their many conversations, and after Germain’s death in 1959, Cramer collected together his friend’s diaries, scrapbooks, and notes and began assembling two superb books on Germain. As Cramer explains:
"Germain was so adamant on the subject of retaining his obscurity after he had ended his career as a magician that for years he stoutly refused to permit anyone to write anything about his life or about his tricks. On more than one occasion, and in no uncertain terms, he turned thumbs down to well-known persons in magic who approached him on either subject.
"Just why he held this attitude is a rather long and complex story…but knowing that story I have decided to risk the possibility of a vengeful visitation by lifting the veil. It is time more people who are interested in the art of magic learn of his fascinating and poignant life and his artistic genius as a master magician.
"In addition, I am acting contrary to his express wishes in presenting these publications to the fraternity because he should at long last be given credit for the tricks his fertile brain added to the history of magic, despite the fact that he wanted no part of such laurels."
Cramer’s wonderful ability as a storyteller gives his words on Germain a cherished place in magic literature. With superb narrative style, he tells Germain’s story while weaving explanations of the tricks throughout. Germain’s tale is fascinating enough, but Cramer’s literary finesse makes the reader’s voyage even more enthralling.
Germain composed a number of...poems to accompany his annual Christmas cards. They reflect not only Germain’s spiritual beliefs but at times also provide a glimpse of Germain’s world of blindness:
Though eyes turn dim, and ears mere ornament,
May we with inner senses sense beyond
– Karl Germain, “A Winter Solstice Sonnet”- — From Todd Karr's preface to Germain the Wizard (2002)
- “If you ever write anything about me after I’m gone, I will come back and haunt you.”