Chung Ling Soo
William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918) was an American magician who went by the stage name Chung Ling Soo (Chinese: 程連蘇; pinyin: Chéng Liánsū). He is mostly remembered today for his extensive use of yellowface in his act to falsely represent himself to be a Chinese man who spoke little English, as well as for his accidental death due to a failed bullet catch trick.[1][2]
Chung Ling Soo
Accidental shooting
East Sheen Cemetery
5
Early years[edit]
Robinson was born in Westchester County, New York, the first of three children born to James Campbell Robinson and his wife Sarah Robinson (née Titus). Both of his parents were of Scottish descent. The family settled in Manhattan while James Robinson toured in Charles "Charlie" White's minstrel shows. James Robinson variously performed under the names "James Campbell", "H. J. Campbell" and "Professor Campbell", and his specialties included impersonations, "dialect singing", hypnotism, ventriloquism and magic tricks.[3] He later taught his son how to perform magic tricks.
Personal life[edit]
Robinson married his assistant Bessie Smith on February 23, 1883. Shortly after the couple married, in December 1883, a woman with whom Robinson had been having an affair (possibly a young servant girl who worked for Robinson's parents) gave birth to his child, a girl named Annie.[13] Robinson's parents took the child in and raised her. Robinson and Smith would later have a son, Elmore (born February 1885).[10] After the birth of their son, Smith could no longer rehearse long hours and travel with Robinson as his assistant. He soon lost interest in his wife after meeting Olive "Dot" Path (born Augusta Pfaff), who would also become his assistant.[14] As divorce was considered socially unacceptable at the time and Robinson was a Roman Catholic, he and Smith never formally divorced and simply decided to "cancel" their marriage.[15]
Robinson and Path presented themselves as husband and wife for the next twenty years. They eventually married in a civil ceremony in March 1906. The marriage was not legally recognized as Robinson was still married to Bessie Smith. Shortly after Robinson married Path, he met Janet Louise Mary "Lou" Blatchford, an English woman from Plymouth. They began a sexual relationship and Blatchford became pregnant in May 1907. Path was angry to learn that Robinson had been unfaithful but the two decided to continue to present themselves as husband and wife for the sake of the act. While "Chung Ling Soo" and "Suee Seen" continued to tour Europe, Blatchford lived in Barnes, London.[16] In between engagements, Robinson would visit the home and the couple's children, of which there were eventually three: Ellsworth James (born February 1908), Hector (born December 1909) and Mary (born March 1911).[17]
In popular culture[edit]
Soo's story is related by the detective in Gus Van Sant's Last Days. It also figures prominently in Bruce Hartman's book, The Philosophical Detective, in the story "Illusionists."[27]