MagicGizmo

Theo “Okito” Bamberg, born in 1875, comes from a famous family of magicians. His great great grandfather, Eliaser Bamberg (born 1760, died 1833) was a famous magician, and the same may be said of Eliaser’s son, David Leendert Bamberg (born 1812, died 1870) and of Tobias’s son, David Tobias Bamberg, born 1843, the father of Theo Okito Bamberg, whose son, David Bamberg, was born in 1904. Thus it will be seen that the family can boast of six generations of magicians.

It will be understood that in this brief history of the family it is only possible to deal with the eldest son of the six generations. There where other sons in each generation, and Theo Okito Bamberg has two brothers, Emile and Edward, both in the magical profession.

The first of this famous family, Eliaser Bamberg, was born at Leyden, in Holland. He won fame as a performer in pure sleight of hand, his favourite tricks being those with cards, coins, the cups and balls, etc. In 1807, he was injured by an explosion onboard a ship; his leg was broken and had to be amputated. After he had fitted himself out with a wooden leg he continued his professional work and used the wooden leg to good advantage as a secret servante, by means of which some very wonderful appearances and disappearances were effected. He acquired a large collection of automata, including the vaulting figure made by Opre, which is referred to in “The Unmasking of Robert Houdin” by Harry Houdini; his collection of automata, including all those made by Opre, have been handed down from generation to generation.

Eliaser’s son, David, became his father’s assistant when he was nine years old, and, following his father example, took up the study of pure sleight of hand and quickly became a very expert performer. He was the inventor of the original type of egg bag. His performances enabled him to add to his father’s fame, and he became a great favourite at court.

David’s eldest son, Tobias Bamberg, was born in 1812. He upheld the family tradition and, being a very accomplished linguist, was able to “patter” equally well in French, German, English and Dutch. He was appointed “court mechanician,” but survived his father for only fifteen months. His only son, David Tobias Bamberg (the father of “Okito”) was appointed and brevetted “court mechanician” in 1870, and, being a very accomplished elocutionist and mimic as well as a very skilful magician, he soon added lustre to the family name. He commenced his stage career as an actor, but in 1866 (at the age of 23) he made his debut in Rotterdam as a magician with great success. He was appointed royal conjurer to the court of Holland, and in 1886, gave two royal performances, one of which was specially prolonged for two hours. On both these occasions, he was assisted by his son, “Okito.”

In 1907, David Tobias Bamberg, together with his son" Okito," made a long tour, playing in Batavia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Guinea, Colombo, Ceylon, and other places. During this tour he offered a large reward to any fakir who would produce the famous Indian rope trick, but no one came forward to claim the prize. Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, David Tobias Bamberg achieved great fame as a sleight of hand expert.

Theo “Okito” Bamberg continued to assist his father until he decided to strike out for himself and appear as a Chinese magician. With this act he has toured nearly the whole of Europe, performing in nearly all the principal theatres with brilliant success. Like his ancestors he is an expert sleight of hand performer, but he is also a brilliant all-round magician and a very beautiful shadowgraphist. One of the red-letter days in his career was April 13th, 1907, when he appeared before His Majesty the Prince of Solo, the most influential Prince of Java, with great success.

“Okito” is a member of the Masonic fraternity and an active member of the Society of American Magicians. His son, David, now seventeen years of age, appeared in magical acts before he was five years old, thus carrying on the tradition of his family and preparing himself to emulate the example of his illustrious ancestors.

This brief chronicle of the Bambergs shows that theirs is the oldest and largest family succession of which the history of magic can boast.