above Soo as he appeared on Stage, in 1905 in London, when both Chung and Ching were performing in different theatres, they developed a public feud — possibly a publicity stunt — referring to themselves as the only "Original Chinese Conjurer" and the other as an impostor, but for Chung Ling Soo (AKA William Ellsworth Robinson) it went tragically wrong when Chung was performing in the Wood Green Empire, London, he was performing 'the bullet catching trick' on March 23, 1918, Chung never unloaded the gun properly, the bullet was fired in the normal way, hitting Chung in the chest, His last words were spoken on stage that moment, "Oh my God, some thing's happened, lower the curtain." It was the first and last time since adopting the persona that William "Chung Ling Soo" Robinson had spoken English in public,
in fact William Ellsworth Campbell (he changed his last name to Robinson when he started his magic career,) was a strong American whose great strength like Foo's enabled him to preform the trick, but why this great preamble? well I recognized the name from a film called The Prestige, where Foo had a small walk on part, I could not believe that it was made up and sure enough it was not, I love things like this where a fictional film and a TV series or other film for that matter use a real person from history and bring them back to life even if for a short time, Chung Ling Soo, William Ellsworth Campbell, (1861 - 1918), fact really is stranger than fiction.
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