History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Horace Goldin, was born as Hyman Elias Goldstein the son of Emmanuel Goldstein, a Jewish fruit grower, on 17 December 1873 in Vilnius. Now the capital of Lithuania, it was then part of Russia. His father emigrated to join his brother in the US about 1881, leaving his family behind until he could provide for their passage. Hyman eventually arrived in Nashville Tennessee in 1889 where his parents ran a store. He had been fascinated by conjuring ever since watching a Gypsy magician when he was a boy and in 1894, he took the bold step to quit working as a travelling salesman and become a professional magician.  Hyman adopted the stage name Horace Goldin, and began working in cheap dime museums and similar venues. After the English conjuror Herbert Albini taught him his clever version of the ‘egg in bag’ trick, Goldin’s career prospered but his first major success was with an illusion called Dreyfus Escapes from Devil’s Island, based on the notorious French case. Throughout his career G...