The cross-over of magic act to sideshow act is well-known, as magicians very often appeared in sideshows, filling out the cast. Magicians’ illusions, beginning perhaps with Pepper’s Ghost, made their way to the sideshow as either stand-alone shows, or combined with other illusions, into Illusion Shows.

In addition, magic illusions such as Spidora, Head On A Sword, Headless Woman all were used within 10-In-1 shows from the 1900s up through the present day.

Important to this genre was Henry Roltair (1853-1910) who began as a vaudeville magician, and who created illusion shows for Barnum & Bailey Circus, and is credited with inventing the ubiquitous and classic Spidora illusion. Roltair also designed the “Creation” dark ride for the 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair– later moved to Coney Island– that moved patrons through tableaus on a boat that illustrated God’s works, and culminated with a display under a great dome of the six days in the “Creation of the World.”