Acts of Violet(66)

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: From what I’ve gathered, it’s not an opening that anyone can pass through. It’s more like a security door that’s unlocked with a special code, which I’m still trying to crack, whereas Analise and Violet may have inadvertently—or even deliberately—cracked the code.

CAMERON FRANK: How could either of them have done it?

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: Like I said, there is minimal documentation pertaining to the Margolis case, but I’ve found some information that suggests her family was involved in the Spiritualist movement. It’s not clear to what extent, but they did host and participate in séances. Back then, there were countless hucksters preying upon people who wished to communicate with the dead—there still are, to be frank, but from what I’ve gathered, the Margolises took a sincere interest in supernatural matters. It’s possible Analise developed certain sensitivities as a result.

As for Violet … it’s a shame her talents were recognized on such a superficial level, because she was truly extraordinary. Violet Volk didn’t merely practice magic. As others before me have stated, she was magic.

CAMERON FRANK: That is a pretty bold claim. I can’t help but think of the Sagan standard.

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: Yes, yes, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Volk’s stage shows were magnificent, but I realize they were mostly—mostly—the work of skilled performers and engineers.

The close-up shows were a different story. These were sporadic, unpublicized, exclusive … and utterly mind-blowing. I was fortunate enough to attend one in 1998, and I’m convinced what I witnessed was more than mere sleight-of-hand.

CAMERON FRANK: Which I imagine is the desired effect. Yet a professional illusionist would have a more practical take. In fact, there have been magicians who claimed to know her secrets, and in the case of Ace Morgan—

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: Ace Morgan never revealed how she performed these specific effects. All the illusions he exposed were part of Violet’s stage act. You have a more controlled environment in a theater, more access to rigs and pulleys and elaborate methods of distraction. You have yards of space separating you from the performer. In a hotel suite, high-tech options are more limited. When you’re standing mere inches away from your audience, it takes great skill to fool them. Or, in my case, to convince them.

Also, In the Picture was never solved, despite other magicians’ claims to know how it was done. They called it one of the best illusions ever crafted and insisted on defending its secrets, but why has nobody ever performed it identically?

CAMERON FRANK: Magicians are always borrowing ideas from each other, but they prefer to iterate on popular tricks, stamping each with their own signature. Like with the Ambitious Card. In the Picture has been performed numerous times in the last ten years.

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: With a key difference. The other magicians who try it never let anybody keep the photograph after. Violet always gave the photo to one of the volunteers at the end of the trick. Nobody has been able to pull off In the Picture in the way Violet performed it, and not because they’re taking creative license. They can’t perform it like she did.

Those Polaroids were analyzed—including one I was given at a private Vegas performance—and shown to have no external tampering. Later on, when she updated the trick to incorporate webcams and cell phones, photo and technical experts studied the images but concluded there was no digital manipulation and no representational materials involved. This debunked the cardboard cutout and special effects theories that had been long prevalent. If that’s not extraordinary evidence, I don’t know what is.

CAMERON FRANK: So, you believe that proves Violet … actually possessed extrasensory powers? And these powers enabled her to … disappear into another dimension?

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: I know how it sounds when you lay it out like that.

The collective I belong to does maintain a degree of skepticism when investigating high strangeness. We do our due diligence. We’re thorough with our research, careful in conducting our own interviews, and employ boots on the ground whenever possible. Something we’ve learned in our years of doing this is, the loud ones making outlandish claims are usually easy to discredit. The authentic ones do not seek out recognition; in fact, they often go out of their way to avoid the spotlight. There’s a musician who recorded an album of eerily prophetic songs, an artist who painted vivid scenes out of strangers’ lives, an author who’s been published under numerous pen names over the last century and is believed to be immortal. All were careful to maintain a low profile despite their impressive body of work. You’ve probably never heard of most of them.

CAMERON FRANK: I have heard of a certain magician named Violet Volk, though. She hardly maintained a low profile.

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: Ah, but she never made outlandish claims—her singularity played out behind a veil of entertainment. When she performed a disappearing act for an audience, nobody actually believed she had dematerialized into the ether and rematerialized in a different part of the theater.

CAMERON FRANK: But it sounds like you believe she could do such a thing.

ANTOINETTE STRANGER: I’m not the only one who believed it. After I saw one of her private performances in Las Vegas, I created a case study on her and brought it to the rest of the collective. Enough members were swayed to pool our resources to attend another one of Violet’s private shows. We made special arrangements for her to perform solely for members of our group, offering a generous bonus to do a meet and greet with her afterward.