Frank Eugene Eliason

Frank Eugene Eliason (1878-?), was an American illusionist, magician, and shadowgraphy artist, who used stage names including Dante, Dante the Marvellous, and Frank Frazee.

Early career

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 9 January 1878,World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Record M1509 Franklin (Frank) Eugene Eliason was the son of Mormon pioneer migrants from Sweden, Olof Larsson Eliasson (1836-1920) and Ingar Emma Andersson (1838-1893).1870 United States Census; Salt Lake City Ward 20, Salt Lake, Utah Territory; Roll: M593_1611; Page: 727ADeath certificate of Olof Lars Eliason, 15 December 1920, Utah, Death and Military Death Certificates, 1904-1961 An elder brother, Oscar Eliason (1869-1899), who used the stage name Dante the Great, claimed that a maternal ancestor was the Scottish professional magician, John Henry Anderson, (1814-1874) known as “Professor Anderson” and the “Wizard of the North”, but produced no known evidence of a direct link.Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 9 December 1899, page 1397Dubbo Dispatch and Wellington Independent,1 December 1899, page 4Otago Daily Times, 12 January 1899, page 6The Era, 22 February 1874, page 12The Ballarat Star, 15 June 1899, page 2Quiz and the Lantern (Adelaide), 17 August 1899, page 4

After Oscar turned professional in about 1892,Evening News (Sydney), 15 October 1898 page 1Salt Lake Tribune, 1 December 1899, page 8 Frank began performing alongside him while he was still a teenager. One performance by Oscar in Salt Lake City in October 1894 included a segment by Frank, giving an exhibition in shadowgraphy, a form of entertainment involving the use of hand shadows that would become a mainstay of Frank's later career.Salt Lake Tribune, 27 Oct 1894, page 21 Along with Oscar's wife, Virginia Edmunda Hammer (1873–1946), Frank was many times Oscar's assistant in his shows.Logan Journal, 30 May 1895, page 16Topeka State Journal, 28 Jan 1896, page 8Honolulu Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 20 June 1898, page 2

On tours with Oscar and Edmunda Eliason

In 1897, Frank went on tour with Oscar and Edmunda to Cuba.Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York City, 1820-1897, US National Archives The following year he joined the couple on a tour that began in Canada, then continued to New Zealand and Australia, where Oscar was promoted as Dante the Great.Sydney Morning Herald, 6 October 1898, page 2 Frank continued to support his brother on stage during the tour. For example, in a “Simla Séance” act, he played the part of a medium who was purportedly helped by an Indian spirit called “Silverlight”. Audiences were left mystified how he was able to ring bells and blow harmonicas, despite appearing to remain securely tied inside a cabinet, with his mouth full of water.The Argus (Melbourne), 17 April 1899, page 6Quiz and the Lantern (Adelaide), 17 August 1899, page 5 The Australasian tour was highly successful. Oscar received positive press reviews at virtually every stop of many along the way, with a record 101 performances at Sydney's Palace TheatreReferee, 12 April 1899, page 10 and a record 11 weeks at Melbourne's St George's Hall.The Herald, 13 April 1899, page 2The Herald, 10 June 1899, page 2 He was on a “farewell” tour of New South Wales when he died after being accidentally shot in November 1899 near Dubbo.Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 30 Nov 1899, page 2

In January 1900, Frank and Edmunda decided to comply with a dying wish expressed by Oscar for his show to continue,Salt Lake Herald-Republican, 1 Jan 1900, page 5 and went on a month-long tour to New Zealand, where Frank was promoted as Dante, brother to Dante the Great, with Edmunda as his assistant. Almost certainly without any basis, New Zealand press reports at the beginning of the tour claimed that Frank had taught Oscar the art of conjuring, and most of Oscar's main tricks were the work of Frank's “inventive brain”.Auckland Star, 6 Jan 1900, page 2 Nevertheless, Frank had worked alongside Oscar long enough to know how to perform well, and the show received positive reviews. “While regretting the death of Dante the first, who made himself very popular in Auckland, we must express our satisfaction that his work is so ably carried on by Dante the second,” wrote one reviewer.Observer, 3 Feb 1900, page 6

Performances in Australia and Asia

Back in Australia, for several months Frank was engaged to perform “feats of magic and mystery” at a new entertainment complex in Adelaide called The Pantheon.The Advertiser, 29 March 1900, page 6 In his shows, Frank reproduced tricks his brother had often performed with Edmunda, like “suspending” a woman in mid-air with no visible means of support.The Advertiser, 12 May 1900, page 8 However, he also introduced shadowgraphy into the program.The Advertiser, 13 June 1900, page 6 From Adelaide, Frank performed a season at Brisbane's Theatre RoyalThe Brisbane Courier, 26 September 1900, page 6 before beginning a period being a travelling performer across Australasia.

From 1901 to mid-1905, Frank would promote himself as Dante the Marvellous and mention in advertising that he was the “brother of the late Dante the Great”.Western Herald, 9 February 1901, page 3 Again, he reproduced many tricks previously performed by Oscar Eliason, including the famous “bullet catch”.Tasmanian News, 24 September 1901, page 2Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 1 May 1902, page 11The Inverell Times, 21 June 1902, page 5 and incorporated shadowgraphy.The Queanbeyan Observer, 14 February 1902, page 2New Zealand Times, 5 June 1905, page 6 Frank managed to draw good audiences in many locations in Australia from 1901-1904 and then in New Zealand in the first half of 1905. But despite touring for longer, he was never as successful as his brother had been.The Temora Star, 5 April 1902, page 2The Inverell Times, 21 June 1902, page 5Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 23 July 1904, page 2New Zealand Mail, 31 May 1905, page 27

Throughout his Australian tour, advertisements for Frank's shows always stated that he was assisted by a “Mademoiselle Camille”.Western Herald, 9 Feb 1901, page 3 Her identity was not disclosed, but she may have been Sydney-born Elsie Kathleen Caldwell (1882-1914), who travelled overseas with Frank and married him in Madras (now Chennai) in southern India in December 1906.British India Office Marriages, N-11-11, Folio 364/43 Frank had been performing in India as Dante the WonderfulThe Sphinx, 5 July 1906, page 58 after putting on shows in ManilaOtago Witness, 9 August 1905, page 67 and Shanghai that included shadowgraphy.The Sphinx, 4 Jan 1906, page 125 In the western Indian city of Pune, he was reported to have been hospitalised with “enteric” (typhoid fever) before he proceeded to Rangoon and the British Straits Settlements.The Sphinx, June 1907 page 39 Frank and his wife, apparently preferring to use the name Kathleen, also went to Manila before sailing to the US from Yokohoma in Japan in June 1909.Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, Washington, 1890-1957, US National Archives

On tour in the US with The Dantes

When Frank returned to the US with Kathleen, they would begin touring as The Great Dantes, English Wonder Workers. A major component of their show would be derivations of the “Simla Séance” that Frank had performed many times with his brother. At first, they called it an “Australian Simla Séance”Anaconda Standard, 26 Dec 1909, page 15 but soon changed it to a “Fujiyama Séance”.The Daily Missoulian, 28 Jan 1910, page 10 According to one reviewer, the act presented by the “mysterious” Dantes was “weird, creepy and beyond even the investigative curiosity of stage hands and house attaches”.Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, 5 September 1910, page 3 Another reported that the Dantes’ show was “a continuous source of wonder”.Washington Herald, 11 April 1911, page 5 Years later, fellow American magician Eugene Laurant (1875-1944) would pay tribute to their performance. “It was a beautiful act, thoroughly mystifying,” he wrote. “Even today I can say I have never seen the Séance more artistically presented.”The Sphinx, March 1942, page 15

As a solo shadowgraphy artist

In late 1910, Frank appears to have begun using the stage name “Frank Frazee” as a solo shadowgraphy artist.The Gazette Times (Pittsburgh), 8 November 1910, page 5 It was a name that he would keep using for more than a decade, perhaps for the rest of his life. Often at this time he presented his shadowgraphy as part of a vaudeville company. At the Nesbitt Theatre in Pennsylvania in January 1912, for example, he was described as “the human picture machine” who was presenting a cartoon offering in a variety program.The Evening News, 11 Jan 1912, page 8 Later that year, he made a brief Canadian tour.The Gazette (Montreal), 22 June 1912, page 2 By then, Frank and Kathleen had given up performing together as the Dantes. They had apparently been living in San Francisco when, at the age of 29, she died in January 1914.San Francisco Chronicle, 27 January 1914, page 5

Frank continued with shadowgraphy performances after Kathleen's death,Harrisburg Telegraph, 17 June 1914, page 6 but perhaps demand for his act dwindled as moving pictures became more popular, and he also got a job as a day watchman for the New York printing press manufacturing company, R. Hoe & Co.World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Record M1509 During World War I, Frank was drafted into the US Army in 1917 as Frank Eliason Frazee.World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Record M1509 In April 1919, in New York, he married Margaret E. Gordon (1884-?) from Grantown-on-Spey, in the highlands of Scotland.US Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Passport issued to Margaret Eliason on 7 July 1923, US National Archives About two years later, Frank was performing in a vaudeville show in New York when he fell, fracturing his skull, and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.Variety, 13 May 1921, page 23 This is the last known reference to Frank. His place and date of death has not been traced. Shipping passenger records show that Margaret Eliason-Frazee was still travelling between New York and Britain under that name at least until 1953, describing herself as a married “housekeeper”.UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, Arrivals at Southampton, England on 29 July 1953 However, it seems she always travelled unaccompanied and none of the known records gives any indication whether she was either widowed or divorced at the time. No record has been found of Frank having had any children.

Frank Eugene Eliason

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