America’s First Professional Magician
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Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in-store or online for easy drive-up and go-pick-up or delivery. Subject to availability, restrictions apply. Visit JewelOsco.com for more details. All right, Ray, pick a card, any card. Oh, man, is this a magic trick, Jeff? It is. I have a couple of go-to card tricks, you know, but nothing up my sleeve. All right, fine, fine. I'll take this one. All right. I'll put it back in the deck anywhere. Okay. And I'll shuffle it again.

All right, quick flip. And your card should be right here on top. Is that your card? The six of diamonds? It is. Wow. Okay, how'd you do that?

Magic. Fine. All right. I'm guessing we didn't come to this quiet spot in Andover, New Hampshire, just to do card tricks. No, no, we didn't. We came here to explore the life of someone buried right over there in the corner of the lot. Okay. Well, we're standing near the historic Potter Place Railroad Station, where there's a little fenced-in area and some graves. We're in front of the grave of Richard Potter. It says he died in 1835. And this is who we came to see.

Richard Potter isn't only the first in New Hampshire when it comes to his profession, he's the first in all the United States. We've come to Andover to pay our respects to the first American-born professional magician. ♪

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger. Welcome to episode 399 of the New England Legends podcast. And I'm Ray Ogier. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. We're always on the hunt for eccentrics, ghosts, monsters, and the just plain weird. Did you know most of our story leads come from you? This one did. Thanks to Justin Margadonna for emailing us about it. If you've got a story you think we should check out, you can email us anytime through our website.

We'll explore the life and magical times of Richard Potter right after this word from our sponsor.

Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in-store or online for easy drive-up and go-pick-up or delivery. Subject to availability, restrictions apply. Visit JewelOsco.com for more details.

So the rest of Richard Ponder's headstone says, the celebrated ventriloquist who died September 20th, 1835, aged 52 years. He wasn't just a magician and ventriloquist. He was also a hypnotist. Ah, one of those all-around entertainers. Yeah, he was definitely that. Now, today it wouldn't surprise you to hear about a touring magician, ventriloquist, hypnotist. No. But in the early 1800s, it was a different time. Keep in mind, vaudeville didn't even start until the 1890s. Oh, that's a good point.

So there's something else about him that's worth noting. What's that? So it's always awkward to talk about race, but it's worth noting that Potter was black and is widely considered the first black celebrity in the United States. Well, considering he died three decades before slavery was made illegal in the U.S., it seems like it's an important part of the story. Yeah, right? I agree. I agree.

So he's a touring celebrity in a time when slavery was still legal. He was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. And I'd love to tell you all about his family, but I can't. Why? Because there's not much out there besides rumors. For example, one version of the backstory suggests that his father was Sir Charles Henry Franklin, a tax collector of the Port of Boston, and his mother was a slave. Now, the only problem with that story is that Franklin died about 10 years before Richard Potter was born. So that rules him out, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Another story says Potter's father was a clergyman. Potter seemed to like his vague backstory. We do know his father was white and his mother was black. Their son, Richard, had light skin. Now, some believed he was West Indian. And he never did much to set the record straight or stop people from speculating. And as we've learned, when people don't have all the answers, legends grow. So very true. So Potter found success against all odds in the North and the South. To find out how it all happened, let's head back to the year 1811.

It's June of 1811, and tensions are still hot between this new nation called the United States and England. Some think another war could be brewing. Here in New Hampshire, people could use a good distraction. Enter John Ranney. Ranney is a Scottish ventriloquist and magician who first came to the United States in 1800. He tours local towns and cities, offering his tricks and entertainment for whatever money he can make.

Now, while touring through New England, Randy took on an assistant named Richard Potter. Potter loves everything about watching Randy perform. The way he works the crowd, the way the audience oohs and ahhs at his tricks. When Randy is on stage, he's on another level. Serving as his assistant, Potter picks up some of his own tricks. And Randy is all too happy to have a protege.

Potter even spends some time in Europe studying his craft. So Potter tours with Ranny as his assistant, all the while learning showmanship, magic, ventriloquism, even hypnotism. But Potter still makes time for love. Back in 1808, he married Sally Harris of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Potter claims Harris was a Penobscot Indian. The couple go on to have three children together. Still, Ranny's show continued, which often had Potter on the road with him.

Recently, though, Randy made a big decision. He's had a great run. He's performed in Europe and the Americas, and he's getting on in years. So he decides it's time to retire and head home to Scotland. Randy knows Potter has talent, and he's been well-trained.

It's time for Potter to step out on the stage himself. Ladies and gentlemen. And so he does. Soon Potter has audiences on the edge of their seats with his performances. By his side is his assistant and wife, Sally. Potter brings members of the audience up on stage for a hypnosis demonstration.

And soon has respectable town folk behaving like chickens on stage. All to the delight of the crowd. And Potter's good, too. One of his biggest tricks is to take a live chicken and set it on the table in front of the audience. Then he takes a sharp knife and cuts off the head of the chicken. Oh, gross. Potter then lifts the chicken's head up to show the audience. Then the head of the chicken is cut off.

The head vanishes. He picks up the chicken, and the chicken walks away unharmed. I guess to farming communities, that would be quite a trick to see. The more he performs, the more word spreads. People line up to buy tickets. Potter is so good, he's getting rich. Fame and fortune suit Richard Potter. He's touring all through the Northeast, but now he's turning his attention to the South.

So Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1780. New Hampshire and Massachusetts followed suit in 1783. Connecticut and Rhode Island did the same in 1784. The Northeast has allowed Potter to travel freely. Given his prestige and fortune, he's committed to building his audience in Southern states as well. Now, for the most part, Southern audiences love his show just as much as they do in the North. Potter is a natural entertainer.

Though the audiences love him, he still has some issues traveling. Oh, like what? Well, while performing in Mobile, Alabama, where he made thousands of dollars in a single weekend, he was denied a room at the nicest hotel in town because of the color of his skin. Yeah, so Potter views these events as speed bumps. Still, the show must go on. Plus, he figures if the audiences are cheering for his entertainment...

maybe he can change the hearts and minds just a little bit in lands where slavery drives a big part of the economy. A few years pass. America has just been through another war with the British.

Though the times were turbulent for the country, Potter did well. It's now May of 1814, and Potter is in Andover, New Hampshire. Potter is rich and famous, and looking to build himself a palace. So he purchases 175 acres of land in Andover, and construction begins on his mansion.

Within a few months, a grand mansion takes shape on this big estate. He's hired artists to sculpt life-size carvings of people standing on pillars. The grounds are well manicured. And soon, this king of magic has a castle to call his own. The estate is known by everyone as Potter's Place. It is a castle for when Potter isn't touring or performing. On the farm, he grows peas, rye, and flax. He also keeps herds of cattle and pigs.

As time passes, Potter is living the celebrity life. People stop him on the street, and his shows are sold out. Though he's successful, back home he's had his tragedies. His daughter died very young. Then in 1816, one of his sons was killed in an accident. He was run over by a wagon. Still, Potter presses on performing right up until his death in 1835. He was buried in the corner of his property. The following year, his wife also died and was buried next to her husband. And that brings us back to today.

So the grave we're standing before today here in Andover is not the original burial place of Richard Potter and his wife. No? No, back in the 1840s, the railroad came through. The graves were too close to the planned tracks and station, so they were moved just a short distance away to where they are right now. And today you can still see the Potter Place Railroad Station just a short distance from where we're standing. It's a great historic building in town.

As for Potter's home, all that's left is a cellar hole that the Andover Historical Society converted into a garden. Today, there's also an historic marker nearby that reads Potter Place. The community takes its name from Richard Potter, noted magician, ventriloquist, and showman.

This 19th century master of the black arts was known throughout America. He died here in 1835 in his mansion, a showplace in the town. He's buried in a small plot on his once extensive estate. Back in 1956, Grace Metallius wrote a novel called Peyton Place.

The book was a huge hit and is still widely read. It was also made into a television series in the 1960s. The main character, Samuel Payton, was inspired by the real Richard Potter and Potter's Place. That's really cool. I've never heard of Richard Potter before today, but clearly this guy was a big deal. He was a big deal during a time when people with his skin color mostly tried not to draw too much attention to themselves, but he was a natural performer. He was good at his craft, and he left behind a legacy and a legend. Wow.

That he did. And that brings us to After the Legend, where we take a closer look at this week's story, and we sometimes veer off course. After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon patrons. This amazing group of people is our inner circle. They support us in everything that we do, and we can't do it without them.

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It's funny how musicians, I keep saying musicians, magicians are either hated or loved. Seems that way, doesn't it? Pick a card, any card. Yeah. To some people is just. Well, they're tricking you. It's a trick. It's a trick. Exactly. No one likes to be fooled. Right. And I think if you see that too firsthand, I think you can convert anybody who hates magic into maybe like being at least curious enough. Right. To be interested in it. So I do know a few people.

Cool car tricks. They're pretty neat, right? And so I remember doing one for my mother-in-law once, and she was just furious because I fooled her, right? Like that's what it is. That's what a trick is. Most people can be like, wow, how neat. I don't view myself as stupid, but you pulled one over on me, and like that's great. Show me how it's done. And it's always sort of annoying. But she was mad. She was mad. She won't listen to this. It's fine. Do you want to show me a car trick now? You want to do that? All right. Well, let's see.

Is it going to be a pick a card, any card? No, but you know what? It's going to be so clunky. People can't see it. That's okay. I can see it. I can react. All right. I'm curious. Is it going to take long? No, it'll be pretty quick. Okay. So we shuffle. It's called 52 shuffle. So you tell me when to stop. Okay, stop. Okay, right. Take the top card. Okay. Right. I'm going to take the top card here. All right. You got it? You got it memorized? I got it memorized. Okay. Ready? All right. Put it back in the middle. Right. And I'm just going to...

Tell you. All right. Is the card... I'm going to ask you questions. Tell me the truth or lie. It's up to you. All right. Red or black, red or black. I think the card's black. It is black. Okay. Spades, clubs, spades, clubs. It's a club. It's not a club. Okay. It's a spade. You could tell me the truth. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's a spade. It's a spade. Number card, face card. Face card. No. Okay. I think you're telling the truth. It's a number card. I'm not going to lie to you. I'll be truthful. Oh, all right. Well, then...

Otter even. I'm nine of spades. It's nine of spades. I know it is. Very good. Anyway, obviously that's a card trick. How'd you do it? I can't reveal it. It's a plant. I knew what the card was. Okay. So it's a simple thing. So whatever cards on top, this case is seven of diamonds. Yeah.

I shuffle the cards. Yeah. But of course, I never remove the top card. Oh, I see. You may have just done it right there, though. It's really hard to do two things at once. Yeah. So anyway, so I pretend to shuffle. Yeah. But you always keep that card there. You tell me when to stop. All right. So stop. Right. I did it the wrong way. Ready? You tell me when to stop. Stop.

Oh, look at that. Sleight of hand. Sleight of hand. That is sleight of hand, ladies and gentlemen. And I wish you could see it. You can't. I should have filmed it. So once I know that you got the card I want you to get, well, now the tricks... So whenever a magician says, okay...

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to say the magic word. It's already happened. Yeah, yeah. It's already done. Right. And that's the fun. That's the showmanship of magic. Well, because you're like, is it a... I already knew what it was. What did you say? A spade. A spade. It's not a spade. It's a club. Yeah. No, it was a spade. Yeah. You said, this is a club. And I'm like, oh, I got them. Yeah. And I'm like, no, you don't. I already knew what it was. I could have just said, you have the nine of spades. But then that ruins the trick. There's no buildup. Yeah, yeah. You're like, well, you just obviously planted it on.

Right. So is the whole deck nine of spades? Like, no, it's a regular deck. You know, so it's, but I mean, I know a couple of fun card tricks, but when people, it's, people don't like being fooled. Right. But they like to be entertained. And so if you can sort of suspend your disbelief that the chicken's head was not really cut off. Yeah. That the chicken's okay. That hypnosis acts. Have you seen hypnosis acts? Sure. Yeah, yeah. I've seen adult ones. Oh, yeah. I remember that they're like, you know, have you do some like pretty outlandish stuff. Yeah. Right.

Every time I say a word, you're going to have an orgasm, that kind of thing. Right, or whatever. But I've seen some of those, and you go, I don't think that would work on me. And in fact, I got to the stage once where they said— Yeah, I've been there before. They asked for volunteers to come up. I'm like, go ahead, hypnotize me. I'm down. And they did this thing where they said, all right, your right arm is super, super light. It's floating up like full of helium. Your left arm is very heavy or vice versa. Yeah.

And he said, if I touch your hand, get off the stage. And very quickly my hand was touched. And I realized I looked and my hands were like maybe like six inches apart. And then as I'm walking off, I look at some of the other people and one's hand is like straight up in the air and the other hand is way down on the floor. And I'm like, obviously that person's way more susceptible than I am. And then they eventually were clucking like a chicken and walking around thinking they were naked, but they weren't, you know.

Yeah, I never get to that point, but I remember feeling relaxed from the whole process. Because it's almost like a relaxation technique to the way they're saying things, what they're telling you to do. Yeah. Gets your mind working, but I never went under myself. Plus, you have to have...

You have to be entertaining, too. It's everything in between the tricks that's important. Right. Have you ever seen The Amazing Jonathan? No. He's a comedian. He's since passed, but he was huge in the 80s. Yeah. And he's a comic, much like Penn and Teller. Sure. They're telling jokes in between the tricks, and the tricks are amazing. Yeah. But you also have that comedy component to it. It just makes the show even better. Sure. That's an entertainer, not just a musician, but an entertainer. Magician, yeah. You said musician.

I did it again. I did it again. Performer. We're all performers. But hey, musicians can't just play their instrument, right? They got to sell it. That's right. Right? You know, like, don't be the bass player.

Right? If you get it, you get it, right? They just stand there in the corner on their phone. Watching the game. My bass player usually watches whatever game is on the TV. Yeah. It's not like Flea, right? Like Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's the exception. He's like, I get it. I'll be part of the show. Other bass players. I will be the show. They're in the background reading the newspaper and playing the bass.

But anyway, so the Playbill for Richard Potter said he claimed audiences would see 100 curious but mysterious experiments. 100, that's a lot. That is a lot. So Playbill never mentioned the color of his skin. You know, he was a light-skinned person, and so sometimes he could pass for like a dark-skinned white man or a light-skinned black man or someone from the West Indies. He looked exotic enough. He never talked about it.

But at the end of the day, he did indeed have a black parent and, you know, is considered really like the first black celebrity in the United States, you know, and he was doing...

I think the fact that he was doing this, especially in the South, right? Although North too, let's face it. Everywhere. Everywhere. But he was putting himself out there for all to see because that's what a performer literally does. Yeah. Like you don't, I don't want 10,000 in the audience. I want 100,000 in the audience, right? And then that isn't enough. So he was out there. He was doing something great. He got famous and wealthy. Yeah.

And I think that's awesome. And the thing about celebrity is I know we scoff at them or whatever, but sometimes celebrities can change things. Absolutely. Just a little bit where you're like, oh, I relate to this person who I would never think I would relate to in regular life. Right. And suddenly you find yourself going, well, if that person's cool, maybe I got to broaden my view a little bit. Yeah, especially as a black performer back in that time. Right. I'm sure he inspired so many people. Yeah.

Sammy Davis Jr., years later, ran into the same situation as this guy. Today they do. Yeah, they do today. It's not totally cured. But, I mean, Sammy wasn't even getting hotel rooms. I mean, Frank had to, like, fight to get Sammy into a hotel room. We're talking the 50s. Yeah, right. Which I know that was a turbulent time for that movement. Yeah. But even years later after this, you think things would have changed. Yeah. Starting with this gentleman here. No, it's...

racial issues are always a thing and we're not going to preach. It's just, it's just a fact. This is the times that, um, that we still struggle with, but, but his story is amazing. I, I never heard it before. I didn't know about it until we started looking into this and which is why we love those, uh, those tips from people who are listening. So thank you.

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