- See also: Harry Marvello (1879 - 1967).
|Born||Lester D. Lake|
New Trenton, Indiana
|Died||August 26, 1977 |
Lester Lake, who performed as The Great Marvello, was a professional magician, inventor of magic effects and accomplished photographer.
A boyhood friend of John Calvert, he began his career in 1927 on a riverboat that traveled the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers. He appeared in nightclubs, theaters and amusement parks.
He was the first to produce the modern guillotine and wrist chopper illusions which he worked on with Percy Abbott.
Another of his illusions was "Buried In Flames" (aka Burned Alive) in which he was buried alive in a coffin into which five gallons of gasoline had been poured and ignited.