Otto Maurer's Magical Bazaar

— 321 Bowery —

On this spot in the late 1800s stood Otto Maurer's Magical Bazaar. Called the "Wizard of the Bowery" by the NY Herald, the German-born Maurer made and sold magic and juggling apparatus, performer and taught magic here. Famous and soon-to-be-famous magicians came here to witness Maurer making cords vanish and reappear at his fingertips. Called the back palm. the influential trick is believed to have originated here in the 1890 when Maurer learned it from a Mexican magician who passed through his shop.
Among those who may have learned it from Maurer was Harry Houdini, who worked across the street at the Globe Dime Museum (298 Bowery) and was briefly billed as the "King of Cards".
With world-famous magicians performing on the Bowery, Otto Maurer's shop was a popular attraction for over 20 years. In addition to Houdini, who played both the Globe and Miner's Bowery Theatre (165-167 Broadway), John Henry Anderson, the "Great Wizard of the North," played the Bowery Theatre (46-48 Bowery), and Hermann the Great played the Windsor Theatre (45-47 Bowery) and People's Theatre (199 Bowery). It was indeed a magical time on the Bowery.

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