He is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. He died on February 13, 1936, aged 61 following a second heart attack. He was sent to the hospital and his son Larry took over the show.
In 1936, Charles Joseph Carter suffered a heart attack on his way to Bombay, India. The Great Carter returned to touring, playing packed houses in Australia in 1924 and again in 1934 together with Miss Evelyn Maxwell.
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In 1921, he lost a fortune while filming The Lion’s Bride in South Africa, a movie starring himself, that he had also written, produced, directed. The pair then toured Australia before heading overseas again. In 1920, The Great Carter was touring again, opening at the Criterion in Sydney, Australia in May, accompanied by stage psychic Miss Evelyn Maxwell. A famous anecdote states that he kept his lion, Monty, in the back room of the shop and when it would roar, the startled customers would run for the door. Despite plans of opening Martinka shops all over the country, Carter soon discovered that he was losing money in the magic shop business and sold the Martinka two years later to a group of investors that included Harry Houdini. Looking for a break from his world touring magic show, Carter purchased the famous Martinka Magic Palace in 1917. According to some sources, it was this heavy equipment of his that lead to him being refused a place on the RMS Titanic during a return trip to the US in 1912.
Because of his elaborate live shows, he had to travel everywhere with a lot of equipment, which at one point reached the weight of 31 tons. He would continue to tour the world with only short respites in the United States until 1917, completing seven world tours in this time. In 1907 he set off again on a world tour that took him and his family to Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Italy and beyond for three years. During this time, he also enrolled in law school, from which he graduated in 1905.
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During this time he tried to get a series of different business ventures up and running, such as an entertainment agency called The National Theatrical Exchange and his trade magazine called The Chicago Footlights, with various levels of success. Īround the beginning of the century, Carter decided to settle down in Chicago along with his wife and son, his first major break from touring.
A year later, his son, Lawrence, who would eventually take over the act after his death, was born. In 1894 he met his future wife, Corrine, whom he married and included in his show. He was also known for devising acts that were inspired by recent events that captured the public's imagination, such as the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922 or John Dillinger's famous jailbreak in 1934. Due to stiff competition from the number of magic acts on the American stages at the time, Carter opted to pursue his career abroad, where he gained fame.Īmong the highlights of Carter's stage performances during his career were the classic "sawing a woman in half" illusion (an elaborate surgical-themed version with "nurses" in attendance), making a live elephant disappear and "cheating the gallows", where a shrouded Carter would vanish, just as he dropped at the end of a hangman's noose. Carter's first theatrical experience occurred at the Herzog's museum and Pat Harris' Masonic Temple in Baltimore at the age of 10, where he appeared as "Master Charles Carter the Original Boy Magician". He was born on June 14, 1874, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and developed an interest in magic from a young age. Charles Joseph Carter (J– February 13, 1936) was an American stage magician, also known as Carter the Great.
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