Claude Louis Delair (1876 – 1953) was a French

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performance artist and magician known as Mac Norton. He was called "The Human Aquarium" for his controlled regurgitation of live animals including fish, turtles and frogs as well as his ability to

water spout A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus cloud. In the com ...

Career

Delair was born in 1876 in Lyon, France. He began his vaudeville career in 1894 as a singer. He reportedly took the name Mac Norton after a bodyguard of

Mary Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

. He later began his career in the regurgitation act. He was able to drink gallons of water and regurgitate it at will. He could control the force of the stream of water and could gently press it out to wash his hands or force it out rapidly. Delair became known as the "Human Aquarium" when he began swallowing frogs, goldfish, and turtles. He could keep turtles and frogs alive in his body for approximately two hours. He traveled to Paris, Brussels, Antwerp and Russia. Delair performed in front of leaders such as

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

. In 1915 and 1916 in traveled to South America, but never visited the United States because of objections from the

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

noted in his book ''Miracle Mongers and Their Methods'' that on one occasion Delair had lost count of the animals he swallowed and feared he had digested a frog. Houdini also wrote that Delair was the only frog swallower who performed their act in a "dignified manner".

Death

Delair died in 1953 at the age of 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Mac 1876 births 1953 deaths 20th-century French artists French performance artists Vaudeville performers

Career

Death

See also

References