Rayman Bey and the Bullet Proof Lady
The Advertiser, Adelaide, April 8, 1937
[Bathurst Showground]
“Robert White, who, although only 15 years of age, weighs 40 stone, was struck on the back of the neck by a bullet, which is alleged to have passed through the sideshow tent of the "bullet-proof lady" into his tent. The wound was not serious.
White, who appeared in a sideshow at the Sydney Royal Show, is known as "Bonnie Peter,the Pride of Blenheim." This afternoon in the "bullet-proof lady's" tent, the usual invitation was extended to the audience to shoot at the "bullet-proof lady". A boy accepted the challenge. The sound of the shot was followed by a cry of pain from the adjoining tent. It was discovered that "Bonnie Peter" had been wounded in the neck. He was taken to Bathurst Hospital.
The hospital authorities were faced with a difficult problem. It was necessary that the patient should be detained for observation after his neck had been dressed, but there was no bed or lounge strong enough to cope with his abnormal weight. Eventually he was made comfortable in an easy chair. His condition is not serious.”
According to the National Advocate (Bathurst NSW) of Friday April 9, 1937, the boy was only mildly concerned, asking "What stung me?", and that the shot had actually been fired by Mr. William Horner, an elderly resident of Bathurst.
The same article mentions one Reymen [sic] Bey as the proprietor of the Bullet-Proof girl show, and that she climbed into a box before the bullet was directed towards her. Rayman Bey, not to be confused with Rahman Bey the fakir who attracted Houdini’s attention, was a sideshow performer under the title "Bewilderist", whose rather more prosaic name was Bill Nash. His other attractions, between 1938 and around 1952, included an "Invisible Girl", Electros the Electrified Lady using a Tesla Coil device, and the Indian Rope Trick. Nash was also a skilled performer of the Cups and Balls.
Sometime in the 1930s, he issued a small pitch book of just eight pages plus cover, titled “Oriental Mysteries Revealed”, in which he described, though not well, a number of supposed mysteries from the Far East. One of those mysteries was the vanishing coin in a glass of water, which mystical oriental feat happened to be available at the magic shop of Will Andrade, the booklet’s publisher.
