The actual playbill for The Sun Music Hall, 26 Knightsbridge High Street in London. 26th December 1888.

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Michael Magister, known then as ‘The Americonjuror’, is right at the foot of the bill. It proved to be a memorable show for all the wrong reasons, because the headliner Alfred Vance, one of the great Music Hall stars of the era, concluded his performance to great applause, walked off stage and promptly dropped dead in the wings from a heart attack.

 

And the curse of the show lived on! If ‘lived’ is the right word - because a decade later most of the cast were gruesomely murdered in a mystery which formed the plot of ‘Steam, Smoke & Mirrors’.