158: Henry Roltair’s Creation exhibition ephemera

Roltair, Henry. Roltair’s Creation exhibition ephemera. Including a colored stereoscopic card showing the entrance to the exhibit; a chromolithographed postcard showing the entrance from another view of a later incarnation of the exhibit; and a scarce souvenir booklet written by Roltair that outlines the exhibit and shows scenes from the interior. The latter being 8vo and showing wear, the former two in good condition. Ca. 1904 - 1905. Rare. Henry Roltair was the subject of John McKinven’s monograph Roltair: Genius of Illusion (1980), and was an inventive magician who also designed the massive Creation exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair and New York’s Coney Island. Early in his career, Roltair worked for Alexander Herrmann. Among Roltair’s most famous inventions were sideshow illusions like Spidora the Spider girl, and devices used to create the illusion of human flight on stage, as well as levitating bicycles and automobiles. The statue of a bare-breasted angel at the entrance to his Creation exhibits stood some 30 feet high.