Albertine - Fire King and Wire Walker
Albertine, Magician and Gymnast
Attempts to unravel the facts about Mons. Albertine have been met with any number of obstacles, such that we are only able to speculate about who he might have been. ‘Albertine’ was most likely a pseudonym, in line with the common practice of circus and magic performers.
In connection with his skills as a magician, Albertine (sometimes “Signor” or “Mons.” Albertine) was billed as a “Clown and Fire King”, with one hundred illusions, including ‘Necromancing, Fortune Telling, Ladies’ Wedding Ring. Past, Present and Future. Inexhaustible Hat. Swallowing Tumblers and Knives … will devour two plates of Fire. The Pudding in the Hat. Magic Candles. Watch Breaking. The celebrated growth of Flowers. Magic Rings.” Elsewhere his repertoire included the Rope Tying Feat, Fire Eating, and Magic and Mystery.
Aside from his magic, he was also described as the Wizard and Blondin (1) of the Southern Hemisphere, in reference to his ability to ascend a wire rope; and he appeared as an actor in some short plays connected with the evening’s entertainment.
New Zealand Troubles
The first mentions we can find of Albertine come from New Zealand, and not in a good way. On July 23, 1867, he was reported arriving at Wellington aboard the cargo ship “Airedale”. Moving North to Wanganui, he opened at the Theatre Royal on September 21 and 23 as “Albertine The Wonder of the Age”.
Almost immediately he fell afoul of the law and the local newspaper, and in a combined news story and editorial rant, it was reported on (2) September 25:
“Albertine – A swindler calling himself by this name has been starring it in Wanganui for a few days as the Wizard of the South. He has attained a kind of colonial notoriety by running away from every place he goes to without paying his bills, a practice he tried to repeat here this morning. A summons was obtained by this journal yesterday for advertising, and this morning, Albertine not appearing, judgement was given by default, a warrant taken out, and in less than half-an-hour constable Burke, on one of Mr. Christie’s horses, crossed the river in pursuit – for the fugitive was seen to ride out on the N.2 line, after stopping some time to regale himself at the Red Lion. He had, however, returned to the Lion, where Constable Burke found him and presented the warrant. He refused to either pay the money or be taken in charge, and a scuffle took place, ending in the “wizard” being completely worsted, and was carried head and heels by Constable Burke and a gentleman who volunteered his services, down to the punt. When he was in the punt, he paid the money and was liberated. This is not the first case of the kind that has occurred of wizards! dramatists! and actors taking themselves off without giving notice, and who, through a defect in the law, there is no means of stopping, except by the tedious course of summons and judgement. Too much praise cannot be given to Constable Burke for the alacrity he showed, and the able manner in which he made the capture, a few minutes after obtaining the warrant, of one of those scoundrels who make a boast of living upon a too credulous public.”
In court the following day, a judgement was also made against Albertine for £2 10s and costs, the amount owing to Mr Davidson’s hotel for two weeks’ board and lodging for the magician and his agent. Albertine offered to pay for himself, but objected to pay for the agent. A slight puzzle arises on September 27 when the Wanganui Herald noted that “The police have not yet succeeded in capturing this rascal; he is supposed to have gone to Patea. Our object in noticing him again is to destroy his chance of imposing upon our friends in that district.”
Again, on October 19, the Wanganui Herald, having taken a serious disliking to our hero, reported:
“ALBERTINE AGAIN – This character was brought up at the Court this morning, charged with being drunk and disorderly, and find 10s, or 48 hours imprisonment.”
As a side-note, the same page made note of an acrobat named Mons. Vertelli making an ascent on a wire rope. Vertelli re-enters our story later, and was a much more important figure, but he does not seem to have had any professional connection with Albertine.On November 21 he was reported to have arrived with the intention of performing on the 23rd. Fortunately Mons. Albertine made a better impression up north, and the NZ Herald of September 25 gave him a cautious welcome –
“Mons. Albertine, the prestidigitateur, conjuror, acrobat, juggle, &c. made his first appearance at the Brunswick Hall on Saturday night. The visitor’s arrival was heralded by none of those precursory flourishes and glowing announcements that usually precede the advent of any “star” or celebrity, and if the whole truth must be told, his professional reputation was by no means very brilliant. Nevertheless, the performance he gave on Saturday night was worthier a larger if not more appreciative audience, and some portions of the programme were well worth seeing. The performer, too, had to contend with many and great difficulties, being entirely without a confederate, whose assistance is so valuable in entertainments of that character. A half-inch cord stretched across the hall at the height of about twenty feet, was successfully crossed, and the pigeon trick, gun trick, watch, tea, coffee, inexhaustible bottle, and other tricks, were very creditably accomplished. The rope untying feat [a Davenport Brothers routine] was also executed in a manner that elicited considerable applause. The entertainment was a great deal better than was expected by many, and we trust Mr. Albertine will, as he unquestionably deserves, meet with better luck this evening.”Following a deferral of his November 25 performance due to some unstated misunderstanding, Albertine gave a second performance on the 26th at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The New Zealand Herald was pleased to note that, despite a limited attendance in poor weather, the Wizard was “a most deserving and skilful artist … accomplished with an amount of ease and success which we have seldom seen excelled by more pretending professionals in this line … please to notice the exceedingly easy manner in which the feat of walking upon the half-inch wire cord stretched across the hall was accomplished.”
From here, Mons. Albertine is unheard of, save for a cryptic comment in the Daily Southern Cross (November 29) – “The wizard has vanished out of sight. The rough treatment, which, for some reason I cannot explain, he received, seemed to have interfered very seriously with his powers of magic.” Assuming this to be a reference to Albertine, he may have met with some physical handling from a disgruntled creditor.
Wherever he went, by February 8, 1868, Albertine had arrived far south of his previous location, at Lawrence in the South Island. “His entertainment this evening, owing to the inclemency of the weather, was not so well attended as it deserved.” Perhaps the Wizard gave up New Zealand as a poor prospect; it would be four more years before he was seen again in the Antipodes.
Australian Appearances and a Red Herring
From 1872, an “Albertine the Wonderful” or “the Wondrous Albertine” appeared fleetingly in Australia. His whereabouts in the previous four years is unknown, but the clues that this was the same performer come from his repertoire: the unusual combination of magic and wire-walking, and the featured “rope tying” challenge.
His appearances are very few. In October 1872 he performed for a single night at Trevena’s Assembly Rooms, Avoca NSW. In an advance notice, the weekly Avoca Mail stated “The Albertine troupe are announced to give an entertainment of variety at Trevena’s theatre this evening, Saturday. All sorts of conjuring, rope ascending and wonderments will be presented including the appearance of a Fire King, Comic Songs &c.” However there is no mention of his performance in the following week’s issue.
The Avoca performance allows us to avoid a potential massive ‘red herring’. From August 1872, a grouping of trapeze artists and acrobats were on the scene in Sydney and Melbourne, including at least one artiste named Albertine. The temptation would be to link the magician/wirewalker with the gymnast of the same name. However, at the time the magician was due to perform in Avoca, the trapeze artists were appearing at the Royal Colosseum in Melbourne.
Consideration needs to be given as to whether there is any possible link between the pair, but it seems unlikely. The core performers of the trapeze troupe were:-
- a Madame Zulu (and later a Madame Zuila)- Charles Verletti, who with his brother William, was a gymnast and had an earlier intersection with the closely-named “Monsieur Vertelli”. John ‘Vertelli’ Morcom was a magician and wire-walker, of far greater success and fame than Albertine, and his story is told in a separate essay.
REFERENCES:
- Albertine, a trapeze artist (not a wire walker), referred to as both “Hughey” and “Harry” Albertine, and sometimes appeared in advertisements as “The Brothers Albertine”. Records of the troupe’s movement by ship list only a single ‘H.Albertine’ and there is no firm evidence that there was more than one. There is also an unreliable pairing of Albertine’s name with the title “The Flying Beetle of Ceylon” which may or may not provide any clue to his origins.
It would take a very brave historian to jump to any conclusions based on the similarity of names here. Magicians are renowned for assuming exotic stage names, but the circus and acrobatic world was even more inclined to invent names to add some romantic spice to their advertising. The mention of the “Brothers Albertine” confirms nothing more than that two performers appeared; in all likelihood they were in no way related, and their real names were probably dull and commonplace. One other example of this theatrical artifice is the “Leotard Troupe” which also performed in Australia, but whose members were no relation whatever to the famous Jules Leotard; the main members were the far more prosaic Edwin and Fred Hodgkinson. Likewise, our magician Albertine could have been Smith or Jones.
There is never a mention of magic or ‘wire ascending’ in connection with the gymnastic troupe, and we have to conclude that no relationship existed between these two “Albertine” performers.
Rockhampton Advertisement >
From February 24 until March 14, 1873 there were almost daily advertisements for the “Wizard and Blondin” in a purported upcoming appearance in Rockhampton, Queensland, but after fully three weeks of advertising, there is not a single mention of any performance taking place, nor even a proposed venue. Given his prior problems in New Zealand, this seems to indicate that Albertine continued to be an erratic performer.
On March 21, 1874, Signor Albertine was at Martin’s Assembly Room at Mackay QLD, on a variety bill. In April 1875, Albertine is promoted as “Clown and Fire King”, in association with the Californian Circus featuring Mr. Collins the celebrated Equestrian, on Haymarket Reserve in Sydney, which would, over time, morph into what is now the Capitol Theatre (3).
It may be that, whoever he was, he abandoned the title of “Albertine” and merged in with the world of circus and clowning.
(1) Blondin – a reference to the Frenchman Charles Blondin, the most famous of all tightrope walkers.
(2) Wanganui Herald September 25 1867
(3) https://resource.acu.edu.au/siryan/Academy/theatres/Syd_Belmore_Tivoli.htm