We found this great vintage poster for the Turkish illusionist Zati Sungur, who began performing during the 1920s and parlayed his talent into international fame. Spending most of his career touring Europe, the Middle East and South America, he performed not only as Zati Sungur, but as Zati Bey, Sati Richmond, and Conde Sati von Richmond. In the 1930s he developed the famous illusion of sawing a model in half, which was adopted by nearly every illusionist in the world. He eventually opened the famous Universal Magic and Illusion Tricks Studio, where he taught scores of Turkish students his secrets. Sungur died in 1984, but is well known among today’s illusionists as one of the masters of the craft. We located a few other vintage posters for famous and semi-famous magicians, illusionists and seers, circa 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and we’ve shared them below.
1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago
Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.