Samuel Spencer Baldwin (January 21, 1848 – March 13, 1924), or Samri Baldwin, most well known as "The White Mahatma" was an American magician.

Biography

Baldwin was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. He became interested in magic whilst watching the Davenport brothers perform séances. He began to duplicate the tricks of fraudulent mediums such as

Anna Eva Fay Anna Eva Fay Pingree (March 31, 1851 – May 12, 1927) was a famous medium and stage mentalist of the twentieth century. Biography Fay was born Ann Eliza Heathman in Southington, Ohio. She married Henry Melville Cummings, a medium, who went ...

. He was the first to take the "question and answer" mentalism act to the stage. Baldwin exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums and claimed to have learned the tricks of the

fakir Fakir, faqeer, or faqīr (; (noun of faqr)), derived from ''faqr'' (, 'poverty'), is an Islamic term traditionally used for Sufi Muslim ascetics who renounce their worldly possessions and dedicate their lives to the worship of God. They do ...

s of India. He was married to the stage mentalist Kitty (1853-1934) would assist him in his performances, they had one daughter Shadow. The magician Fulton Oursler when writing on the subject of magic and spiritualism, used the name Samri Frikell. He made it by combining the names of Samri Baldwin and another magician, Wiljalba Frikell. Baldwin was one of the first magicians to have practiced a stage escape from handcuffs. He had performed this feat as early as 1871. Early in his career the magician

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

demonstrated a handcuff escape at the Alhambra Theatre. The manager C. Dundas Slater noted that Baldwin had performed the trick many years before Houdini. Magician Joseph Rinn noted that Baldwin in his day was believed to possess

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

powers but this view was erroneous because "he never pretended to be anything but an entertainer." Baldwin died at his home in San Francisco on March 13, 1924.

Publications

''The Secrets of Mahatma Land Explained''
(1895)
''Spirit Mediums Exposed''
(1879)

Quotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Samri 1848 births 1924 deaths American magicians American skeptics Harry Houdini Mentalists Entertainers from Cincinnati

Biography

Publications

Quotes

References

Further reading

External links