Magician John Henry Anderson died in 1874, the same year Harry Houdini was born - yet despite the two never meeting, Anderson ...

Magician Gloria Dea, 99, looks at old photos at her Las Vegas home Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Dea was the first magician to perform on the Strip, doing magic at the El Rancho Vegas in 1941.

LAS VEGAS — Gloria Dea, who was touted as the first magician to perform on what would become the Las Vegas Strip in the early 1940s, has died. She was 100.

In 1980, she and Sam moved to Las Vegas, but this marked the end of her time as a magician; she never appeared onstage again. Eventually, she sold or gave away most of her props and costumes.

In 2014 the magician Kenrick “ICE” McDonald broke down a barrier when he was elected the first African-American president of the Society of American Magicians, an organization founded in 1902 ...

Magician Gloria Dea, 99, feels her old magic silks at her Las Vegas home Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Dea was the first magician to perform on the Strip, doing magic at the El Rancho Vegas in 1941.

After Gloria Dea's show on May 4, 1941, "the door was open for magicians to keep performing here," said David Copperfield of Sin City's magic pioneer Gloria Dea, known as Las Vegas' first magician ...

Dea was the first magician to perform on what would become the Las Vegas Strip in the early 1940s. She also appeared in several movies in the 1940s and '50s.

Onstage, she is equal parts storyteller, teacher and magician in shows that reference and evoke Ellen Armstrong, who is believed to be the first Black woman to have a touring magic show in the 1900s.

Magician Gloria Dea poses at her Las Vegas home on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Dea, touted as the first magician to perform on what would become the Las Vegas Strip in the early 1940s, has died.