Talma

Golden-age magic was a world of large apparatus and male performers. Within it, one woman made her name on small pieces of metal held in the hand. She was billed as the Queen of Coins.

Key achievements

1. Born Mary Ann Ford in Britain.
2. Married the Belgian magician Servais Le Roy and performed with him.
3. Worked for years in the trio Le Roy, Talma and Bosco, also billed as The Comedians de Mephisto Co.
4. Specialised in coin manipulation and was billed as "The Queen of Coins".

One of a trio

She was born Mary Ann Ford in Britain in 1861. Talma was a stage name.

She married the Belgian magician Servais Le Roy and performed alongside him. Le Roy was a performer, an illusion designer and a businessman.

With Leon Bosco they formed the long-running trio Le Roy, Talma and Bosco, also billed as The Comedians de Mephisto Co.

Choosing coins

Talma’s speciality was coin manipulation.

That was an unusual choice at the time. Women performers in the golden age were most often placed inside large apparatus as a partner to a husband or a company head — the person who goes into the cabinet, or the person who appears out of it.

She chose the kind of work that is decided by the hands alone. Coins are small. There is nowhere to put them. The audience’s eyes are on exactly the place where the work happens. For managing that, she was billed as The Queen of Coins.

Very few women of the golden age are recorded as having been judged on technique itself.

On the record

It should be said plainly that there is not a great deal of documentation of Talma as an individual. She appears mostly within records of the trio, or within material about her husband.

This is not particular to her. Women of that period who performed as equals on stage were not recorded as fully as the men beside them. Adelaide Herrmann’s memoir disappearing for seventy-nine years belongs to the same pattern.

This archive states only what could be confirmed. She died on 13 July 1944.

Some performers survive as little more than a name and a billing. Writing the name down is worth doing anyway.

Notable works

• Coin manipulation, the basis of her billing as the Queen of Coins
• The trio Le Roy, Talma and Bosco

Chronology

Only years that could be verified are listed.

1. 1861 Born Mary Ann Ford in Britain
2. 1944 Dies on 13 July