A Chinese Magician in Willesden

This is an unusual story about a Chinese acrobat and magician who in 1900, was living in Willesden with his English wife.

Mac Fee Lung was born in Chinatown San Francisco about 1878. The first report we could find of him was in 1896 when he was working in New York. His stage name was Prince Fee Lung and in February he was part of a double act with Dave Morrisey – ‘the grotesque gymnast’. They placed an advert for their ‘Brand new sensational comedy act’ in the New York Clipper, a theatre trade paper.

Prince Lee Fung worked in several music halls in New York, but mainly at the Chinese Theatre in Doyers Street, which was run by Chu Fong, a rich merchant in Chinatown who also operated several other theatres. But it was forced to close when Chu was arrested after running matinee shows on Sunday which had been made illegal. He had been losing money for several years because he paid the actors relatively high wages and provided food and lodging. In 1897 the 60 actors led by Dr Mac Quong Lung, the father of Prince Fee Lung, tried to carry on performing for two weeks and raise money to get them back to San Francisco.

Doyes Street, Chinatown, New York (Library of Congress)

A few years later, Fee Lung was asked by the magician Chung Ling Soo to join his new act after seeing him perform as a juggler and acrobat. Chung Ling Soo and his wife had previously worked with other great magicians, such as Harry Kellar and Alexander Herrmann, and he developed their tricks to produce his own act. With Fee Lung they travelled to Europe and arrived in Liverpool on 2 February 1900.

Chung Ling Soo

Ike Rose was an American theatrical agent working in Paris, and he had booked Chung Ling Soo into the famous Folies Bergère where they worked from 15 March 1900 for two weeks. Then they moved to the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square on 16 April. (This was on the site of today’s Odeon Cinema). As the only Chinese magician performing in England at the time, the spectacular act was extended to a 12-week run.

Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square

When they met the press, Chung Ling Soo spoke no English and Prince Fee Lung acted as an interpreter. In July 1900, Chums, a boys’ newspaper, gave a description of Fee Lung for their young readers. He is ‘a prince of the Flowery Land, who was educated in the United States. In addition to being an exceedingly clever juggler with fire brands, he is an expert card and chess player, a bicyclist, and a lover of pets, especially horses and bull-dogs’.

Prince Fee Lung, 1900

In London Mac Fee Lung met Jennie Mucklow who was working in the London theatres, and they married in Soho on 24 July 1900. The marriage certificate shows Mac Fee Lung aged 21, a theatrical artist living at 21 Lisle Street in London’s Chinatown. Jennie is aged 20, with no occupation shown, living at 2 Denmark Place, St Giles (near today’s Denmark Street). On the certificate her father Walter Mucklow is called a baker, but the 1901 census shows him at this address as ‘a seller of baked potatoes’.

After their marriage Jennie and Fee Lung rented rooms at 45 Sandringham Road in the centre of Willesden and had two children. We only managed to find the birth certificate of one of them, their daughter Jennie Lauretta Mooee Lung who was born in Sandringham Road on 2 September 1901. Fee Lung gave his occupation as ‘professional juggler’.

45 Sandringham Road Willesden

Fee Lung travelled with Chung Ling Soo and Suee Seen, his wife and diminutive assistant (ideal for some of the tricks). Their act proved remarkably popular, and they toured Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna, and other cities for several months. During 1902 and 1903 they performed all around England until Chung Ling Soo was informed that his father had died in America. He completed their bookings, and he and his wife returned to New York on 20 April 1903.

Prince Fee Lung
At this point Prince Fee Lung decided to set up his own act. The first solo performance we could find was at the Nottingham Exhibition on 24 July 1903. Then he toured around England, with the large Moss Empires organisation which had employed Chung Ling Soo. He continued working throughout 1904, and there is a passenger record that on 28 July 1905 Mr and Mrs Fee Lung travelled to the River Plate Argentina, returning to Southampton on 5 August.

A description of his act at the Hackney Empire in 1905 said:
‘He juggles flaming brands to the rhythm of music, swings and hangs by his pigtail, catches live goldfish in mid-air, and produces from nowhere a large bowl of water with ducks swimming in it’. The last two tricks show he had incorporated part of the act which Chung Ling Soo performed in 1900.

Fee Lung had regular bookings, even appearing with Hengler’s Circus in London during December 1906. (This was on the site of the London Palladium). Here he was advertised as, ‘Prince Fee Lung, late Court magician to the Dowager Empress of China’.

The Court Case
However, the marriage had broken down and Fee Lung had left Jennie and the two children in Willesden. In desperation she sued him for desertion, saying he was living at 18 Limehouse Causeway (in London’s first Chinatown near the docks), with another woman.

The case appeared at the Willesden Magistrates Court on 13 April 1907. Giving evidence, Jennie said that six years ago she assisted Fee Lung in his stage act; they were married in Soho and had two children. He refused to take her on tour, and now had two other lady assistants with whom he had children. He earned from £12 to £16 a week. Taunting her, Fee Lung’s solicitor said to Jeannie, ‘You have utter contempt for this man because he is Chinaman’. Jennie replied, ‘No, I have not, or I should not have married him'. The solicitor said: ‘You married him because you were attracted to the title of Princess’, she replied, ‘I knew he was no Prince’.

Fee Lung took the Chinese oath, by kneeling down and breaking a saucer, with the fervent wish that his soul might be broken in the same way, if he did not tell the truth. He gave evidence and said it was true he did not take her on tour, as she was now too fat to perform the vanishing lady trick and disappear down the tube under the stage. It was also impossible for her to perform the trick where she turned into a duck. At this point he stared mystically upwards. He did not earn the amount she said every week. He said that she has a fearful temper and during a performance at the Hackney Empire threw things at him on stage and the manager was very cross. She was accused of going off with a man on one occasion.

Jennie denied she went off with a member of the Fred Karno troupe, she said she was with Madame Melba at the time. (This was Helen Porter Mitchell the famous Australian opera singer, who took the name Nellie Melba from her hometown Melbourne). Jennie also said she had not caused a scene in any of their performances.

The magistrate ended with a remark about mixed marriages which was typical of the time: ‘Marriages between Asiatics and Europeans could never come to any good, the temperaments of the two people are so different’. Jennie was granted a separation order with an allowance of 30s a week (today worth about £165).

After the case Fee Lung only appeared once more in the newspapers. In December 1908 at Cooke’s Royal Circus in Edinburgh there was a comedy performance by Fee Lung and Chung La as two Chinese eccentrics. After this he disappeared – a good trick for a magician - and we have not been able to work out what happened to him. He may have returned to America or performed under a different name.

Chung Ling Soo
After Fee Lung left the act, Chung Ling Soo used other assistants and returned to England. In his book ‘The Glorious Deception’, Jim Steinmeyer the American expert on magic, shows that Chung Ling Soo was really an American called William Robinson.

Billy Robinson was a friend of Harry Houdini and had a very successful career until 23 March 1918, when he was shot at the Wood Green Empire during the infamous bullet catching act.

Poster for Chung Ling Soo

Tragically, he died a few hours later at the Wood Green Cottage Hospital. The inquest showed that there was a fault with one of the guns and a real bullet had been fired by accident hitting Robinson in the chest. He left £5,831 today worth about £300,000 to his mistress Louise Blatchford. She had two children with Robinson, and they lived in Lonsdale Road Barnes. He was still married to his onstage assistant called Suee Seen, who was Olive Path (Augusta Pfaff), and nicknamed Dot because she was so small.

Here is a short video about Chung Ling Soo with Jim Steinmeyer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1ib02AVNA4

We would like to thank Jim Steinmeyer for all his help with this story.

Also, thanks to Dr Chamion Caballero of the Mixed Museum, who first told us about Mac Fee Lung and found a rare picture of him.