This is the story of Alex Weyer, a magician in
the Golden Age of Magic (ca. 1875–1948). He started off with a strongman act and ended up traveling the world with his
magic show. He charmed the aristocracy of Europe, walked the stage of the
Moulin Rouge in Paris, and entertained Australian troops in Egypt during World
War I. He was billed as an American conjuror under the title The Great Alex
Weyer, as the French prestidigitateur
Weyer Le Mystérieux, and as a Belgian mystifier called Professeur Weyer. He was
also a close friend of the most famous escape artist and magician of all time,
Harry Houdini. And like Houdini, he had another name.
Alex Weyer’s real name was Jean Pierre
Decker. He was born February 4, 1872, in the small town of Mondercange in the southwest of Luxembourg.
The adventures of
Alex Weyer were collected from a variety of sources, including contemporary
articles from magic magazines found in the Ask Alexander database, the largest
online resource of information about the history of magic; online newspapers
and genealogical databases; original promotional material, playbills, and other
ephemera from several private collections and from a relative of the Weyer
family; the National Archives in Luxembourg; and most importantly, Weyer’s
letters to Harry Houdini, from 1901–1914, which are part of the Houdini
collection in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of
Texas in Austin.
Alex Weyer himself
Lily Weyer, his wife
Two of Weyer's three children
A wonderful poster
More photos on KissKissBankBank and Rüdiger Weyer's website