It inspired The Prestige because it was just such a truly elaborate and offensive scam He and his wife were both in on it and both pretended to be Chinese at all times in public, wearing yellowface makeup and "exotic" clothing, speaking in a thick accent, etc
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He wasn't just a fake Chinese guy He was *specifically* ripping off another magician, Ching Ling Foo, who actually was Chinese Stealing his whole act, top to bottom, including his ethnicity
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Ching Ling Foo had offered a $1,000 prize to anyone who could figure out the secret of his famous disappearing goldfish bowl trick (which is referenced in the movie) A young white man named Bill Robinson tried to claim the prize, but Ching ignored him
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And, as often happens with white men in the performing arts, he took it kind of personally
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But yeah another way in which it inspired The Prestige was this became a full on feud When Ching Ling Foo became aware of Chung Ling Soo and realized who he was he became obsessed with exposing him
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Which Bill Robinson/Chung Ling Soo responded to amazingly dickishly, including firing back that maybe Ching was attacking him because *he* was the impostor in yellowface makeup stealing his act It got ugly
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The only reason the whole story came out to the general public is that Chung Ling Soo died onstage due to a botched bullet catch trick (also referenced in The Prestige) Not, as a melodrama would have it, at the hands of his rival, just some random asshole
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(Ching Ling Foo had given up on the feud and moved back to China He got shot because he was doing a bullet catch trick and the person in charge of loading the fake bullet fucked it up It's why the first rule of magic is you don't fuck with tricks involving firearms)
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And as a result his whole act became a matter of a police homicide inquiry, which is the whole framing device The Prestige uses
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That's amazing. I love The Prestige but never realized it was based on an actual feud (well, apart from the real-life feud between Edison and Tesla). Is there a book about this feud by any chance?
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There's the book A Gift from the Gods by Val Andrews
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