In response to your as-yet-unasked query, yes, I do have an alibi.' 'At the time the President met his maker, I was in a straitjacket, upside-down over a steaming pit of carbolic acid. That afternoon, a reporter disguised himself as a delivery man and interrupted Carter's close-up practice the magician's more sardonic tendencies, unfortunately, came out.

At first, Carter made the pronouncements he thought necessary: 'A fine man, to be sorely missed,' and 'it throws the country into a great crisis from which we shall all pull through together, showing the strong stuff of which we Americans are made.' When pressed, he confirmed some details of his performance the night before, which had been the President's last public appearance, but as per his proviso that details of his third act never be revealed, he made no comment on the show's bizarre finale.īecause the coroner's office could not explain exactly how the President had died, and rumors were already starting, the men from Hearst wanted quite desperately to confirm what happened in the finale, when Carter beat the Devil.

On Friday, August third, 1923, the morning after President Harding's death, reporters followed the widow, the Vice President, and Charles Carter, the magician. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. The Jay T.The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. Probable date based on date provided for copy held by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University 'The Otis Litho.

Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social Historyįor information on using Huntington Library materials, please see Reproductions of Huntington Library Holdings: ĭescription Image of American magician Charles Joseph Carter, known as Carter the Great, wearing a turban and tuxedo and showing a hand of playing cards with four aces to the audience while sitting at a green card table with a deck of cards and poker chips and playing poker with the devil who has two horns and mustache and displays four kings. Title Carter the great : Carter beats the devil Creator Otis Lithograph Co., printerĬollection Jay T.