FU-MANCHU

David Teodoro Bamberg, "FU-MANCHU", born in Derby (England) February 19 of 1904. 

Young David Bamberg made a great name for himself in magic, one that is still revered in South American countries and in Mexico. As a youngster he had worked an astonishing variety of jobs: as onstage assistant to his father; as a mentalist; at age thirteen, as part of the Zancig mind-reading team; as a shadowgraphist in variety shows; and later as a movie extra.

He was only fifteen when he found himself alone in London, sent there to fur­ther his education. He accomplished that goal in a manner not intended by his parents, frequenting the interior of the Egyptian Hall theater, where the Maskelynes were host to so many major magic artists.

America, where he was to become so famous. Spreer designed and built a great number of effective stage props for him and was very much an integral part of the show for decades. He was not only a builder and mechanic, but served as chief assistant, troubleshooter, and stunt organizer. That was the day when employees were willing to serve an artist faithfully and knew with satisfaction that they were part of his success. 

David had adopted the name "Fu Manchu" when a friend jokingly addressed a letter to him that way, and it served him well except when he tried to play countries where copyright laws prohibited the use of the name invented by writer Sax Rohmer. For that reason, he kept pretty wellto South America and Mexico, where he worked for almost forty years. Having seen Li-Ho Chang, a genuine Asian magician, attain great suc­cess in Latin America with a number of costume changes during his show, Fu began to change both setting and costumes for each of his own produc­tion numbers, and within a few years he had amassed a collection of over three hundred fine, authentic Oriental robes, some of them over two cen­turies old.

His backdrops and curtains were hand-embroidered silk, and some weighed hundreds of pounds. In 1935 Fu Manchu was featuring the trick that Dedi had used to fool the pharaoh, switching the heads of a black and a white duck. And he had Spreer design and build a nine-foot-tall aluminum robot, filled with machinery and equipped with doors that could be opened so that the audience could be shown every aspect of the insides.

This monster walked about and answered secret questions that were asked of Fu while he was in the audience area of the theater. It was such a massive prop, however, that it could not be easily packedand transported, and it had to be junked. The principle behind the illusion, however, was new, and it was used in Fu's Pendulum trick. This was a wonderful new version of the Sawing in Half trick, in which a huge razor-sharp pendulum slowly descended while swinging in a great arc, slicing a hapless lady like a shapely bologna.

The inspiration, of course, was Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Pit and the Pendulum." The new principle he developed had the other magicians perplexed, and he even caught one of them-a prominent professional-on the darkened stage after his show had closed one evening, trying to discover the secret. It was a vain effort. Fu Manchu, as David Bamberg, also went into radio in Mexico. He had his own show there for years, and soon after he also entered the film business, portraying his Fu Manchu character in such thrillers as El Espectro de la Novia (The Specter Bride) and La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman), none of which caused Cecil B. DeMille to lose sleep through worry. 

He retired in 1966 and he open a Magic store "Bazar de magia" and the school. He died in august 19 of 1974.