The Interesting Case of Karl Germain
Like most magicians and magic-enthusiasts, I am fascinated by the history of our Art.
I’m particularly fond of posters of famous magicians, especially the lithographs from the fin de siècle.
One poster that I found hauntingly interesting is one of Karl Germain’s (1878-1956), who curiously died just six days after I was born. (More about this poster below.)
I never knew much about Karl Germain. He was not one of the superstars of magic, although he was a major player.
Recently, an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Ophthalmology page, formerly “Archives of Opthamology,” crossed my path. I don’t remember how I came across it. It was entitled “The Magician With a Meningioma,” and was written in 2012. You can find it online at http://archopht.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1377763
The article begins,
“Nearly a century ago, Karl Germain (1878-1956), a magician who had an international reputation for conjuring, became blind from a brain tumor. It ended his career. His physicians in Cleveland, Ohio, advised him to consult the eminent neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, MD (1869-1939), in Boston, Massachusetts. Cushing successfully removed the tumor and reported the case in his landmark article on meningiomas arising from the tuberculum sellae published in the first issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology in 1929. Germain is case number 1 in this publication.”
You may know Harvey Cushing from the eponymous Cushing’s Disease and Cushing’s Syndrome. According to the article, he was “arguably the most famous neurosurgeon of the 20th century, and the best known medical personality of his era.”
Both Germain and Cushing were fascinating figures, and I think it is interesting and noteworthy that they developed a correspondence concerning not only Germain’s progress after the surgery, but philosophy, magic, and other topics, that lasted until Cushing’s death in 1939.
One thing in the article particularly caught my attention. On the second page, near the top of the third column, it said about Cushing, “Intractable facial pain due to tic doloureaux was one if his interests, and he was able to provide relief for may individuals bey severing the ganglion of the fifth cranial nerve.”
This was interesting to me, because I happen to suffer from tic doloureaux, otherwise know as Trigeminal Neuralgia. According to Wikipedia, “Trigeminal neuralgia is a neuropathic disorder characterized by episodes of intense pain in the face, originating from the trigeminal nerve. The clinical association between TN and hemifacial spasm is the so-called tic douloureux. It has been described as among the most painful conditions known to humankind.” So you can see why I am intensely concerned with anything I can find out about it.
About the poster – I’ve always admired a famous Karl Germain poster, and wanted to rework it to use it for my own publicity as a professional magician, myself. The poster is over 100 years old, so there are no copyright issues.
I have finally put my Photoshop chops to work, and came up with what I feel is a satisfactory version. See https://www.theamazinggreat.com/posters
If you’re interested in seeing more of this kind of beautiful magician’s posters, go to: http://www.pinterest.com/magiclearning/magic-posters-of-famous-magicians/
Comments
The Interesting Case of Karl Germain — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>