Entertainment Gallery

Chung Ling Soo (real name William Robinson)

Chung Ling Soo (real name William Robinson). The other side of the previously shown circular flyer showing a portrait of Soo in the centre of a Willow Pattern Plate. The design appears as the central image of a poster reproduced as Lot 1156 in the Catalogue of Part III of the J. B. Findlay Collection of conjuring material (1980), which reproduces 37 Chung Ling Soo posters, none of which are in Will Dexter's, The Riddle of Chung Ling Soo (1955). At the Islington Empire Theatre in London, 17th August 1914, part one of Chungs performance was The Willow Pattern Plate. Date: 1910

© The Michael Diamond Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

Conan Doyle

circa 1895: British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle studied medicine at Edinburgh University and practised as a physician during the 2nd Boer War. He started publishing short stories in 1879 while working as a doctor in Southsea. The Sherlock Holmes stories were serialised in The Strand magazine and proved so popular that Doyle felt pressurized to revive the character after the detective had plunged to his death over a waterfall. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

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Circus Maximus in Rome by Matania

Proposed reconstruction of the Circus Maximus in Rome - the Circus at its zenith. A fight with wild beasts in the long arena of the Circus Maximus - a mounted archer meets an oncoming lion. By the fourth century, no less than 480, 000 people could witness the displays of wild beasts in the arena or one of the chariot races with quadrigas. The last official assembly for the games with the circus walls took place under Totila the Ostrogoth in 549. Date: 1925

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans