Hadji Ali

Hadji Ali (c. 1887–92 – November 5, 1937)[note 1] was a vaudeville performance artist, thought to be of Egyptian descent, who was famous for acts of controlled regurgitation. His best-known feats included water spouting, smoke swallowing, and nut and handkerchief swallowing followed by disgorgement in an order chosen by the audience. Ali's most famous stunt, and the highlight of his act, was drinking copious amounts of water followed by kerosene, and then acting by turns as a human flamethrower and fire extinguisher as he expelled the two liquids onto a theatrical prop. While these stunts were performed, a panel of audience members was invited to watch the show up close to verify that no trickery was employed.

This article is about the Egyptian performance artist. For the French performance article also nicknamed "The Human Aquarium", see Mac Norton. For the camel driver, see Hi Jolly. For the Ottoman voivode of Athens, see Hadji Ali Haseki.
Hadji Ali
1913 Adolph Friedländer company poster; the German-language caption translates as "Ali, the mysterious Egyptian"
Born
Hadji Ali

c. 1887–92
Khedivate of Egypt
DiedNovember 5, 1937 (aged 45 - 49)
Wolverhampton, England
Resting placeKensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York
Other namesThe Great Egyptian Miracle Man
The Amazing Regurgitator
The Egyptian Enigma
The Human Volcano
The Human Aquarium
The 9th Wonder of the Scientific World
OccupationVaudeville performance artist

Although he never gained wide fame, Ali had a dedicated following on the vaudeville circuit in the United States. He performed for heads of state including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Judy Garland named him her favorite vaudevillian and David Blaine identified Ali as his favorite magician. Portions of his act were captured in the short film Strange as It Seems (1930) and in Politiquerias (1931), the Spanish-language version of Laurel and Hardy's Chickens Come Home. Two documentaries contain footage of Ali taken from Politiquerias: 1977's Gizmo!, and 1999's Vaudeville. Ali's unusual gastric abilities led to rumors that the Rockefeller Institute had offered a large sum of money to obtain his stomach post-mortem. After he died in England, his body was offered to Johns Hopkins University for study, though the offer was declined.

Background

Hadji Ali was born into a working-class family[1] in approximately 1887[2] or 1892,[3] depending on the source consulted,[note 1] probably in Egypt.[note 2] His fame was as a practitioner of a recognized vaudeville subgenre known as a "regurgitation act", involving the swallowing of material or objects and their regurgitation in various ways.[4] Ali became aware as a child that he possessed an unusual gastric ability. He explained in response to audience questions at a performance held at St. Mary's Hospital in Niagara Falls, New York, in May 1926, that while swimming in the Nile as a ten-year-old boy, he naturally discovered that he could swallow a large amount of water and blow it out like a whale spouting. He continued to develop and refine the ability as he grew older.[5] A more dramatic version of these events was provided by Ali's daughter, Almina Ali, in an interview in England after his death. She stated that his abilities were first learned through a single incident: while bathing in the Nile, he inadvertently swallowed a fish and an ample volume of water. Instead of dying, as those present thought he might, Ali simply regurgitated the liquid and the fish without ill effect.[6][note 3]

Ali learned that his regurgitation talents had the potential to entertain and to earn money through performance at the age of fifteen:[6]

I tried out my tricks first of all in the street, swallowing many glasses of water and then pouring forth a great fountain from one side of the road to the other ... A cafe proprietor saw me doing this one day, and chased me down the street. I thought he wanted to beat me up, but no—all he did was to put a coin in my hand and ask me to repeat the trick. Finally, he was so delighted that he asked me to come to his cafe and entertain the customers.[1]

Taking his abilities on the road, Ali met an Italian man in Cairo who signed him to a contract for music hall performances. Ali performed under contract throughout Europe and at times for heads of state. According to Ali, in or about 1914 he was summoned by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to perform at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He stated that the Tsar "must have liked my performance because he awarded me a special decoration, which is now one of my most treasured possessions."[1] Following World War I, Ali began managing his own affairs and toured the world, learning more tricks as he went.[1]

Advertisement appearing in the August 11, 1927 edition of The North Adams Evening Transcript (Massachusetts) for a Hadji Ali performance at the Empire Theater

Ali came to the United States with Almina in the mid-1920s.[6] They performed together at fairs, carnivals and in vaudeville,[3] sometimes advertised under the collective name, "Hadji Ali & Co."[7] Almina played the part of assistant in her father's act, billed in his shows as "The Princess".[5] Ali alone had a variety of stage names, including: "The Great Egyptian Miracle Man",[8] "The Amazing Regurgitator", "The Egyptian Enigma",[3] "The Human Aquarium",[9] "The Human Volcano"[10] and "The 9th Wonder of the Scientific World".[11] Ali has been described as a "large, barrel-chested and bearded man ... [that cut] an imposing figure in his Arab costume."[12]

Although Ali spoke a number of languages[5] and became a naturalized U.S. citizen,[13] it was reported that Almina acted as his interpreter in the United States and other places, as he did not speak English and was illiterate. Once he had gained some notoriety, Ali took on as his manager Hubert Julian,[6] a former colonel in the Abyssinian Air Force.[14] Although he developed a significant following, even being named Judy Garland's favorite vaudevillian,[15] Ali "remained more a sideshow curiosity than a true vaudeville headliner" according to at least one source.[3] Nevertheless, at the time of his death in 1937, Julian commented that Ali had "earned big money in America—$1,000 a week sometimes. I was building him up here [in Europe] and had a Continental tour arranged."[6][note 4]

Performance
Hadji Ali demonstrating his skills, 1927

The mainstay of Ali's act was "water spouting". After swallowing large amounts of water, 60 to 100 glasses at a time,[16] he spouted the water in a continuous stream for a sustained period of time, sometimes approaching one minute.[17] Another common trick was to swallow 30 to 50 unshelled hazelnuts (although one of his posters advertised 40 pecans), followed by another nut of a different variety, such as an almond. Ali then brought them up one by one with the odd-nut-out produced at a mark called out by the audience.[16][18][19] In another trick, Ali swallowed three to six handkerchiefs of different hues and then produced them in a color order requested by audience members.[16][19]

In a 1929 article appearing in the Lowell Sun newspaper, physician Morris Fishbein speculated that for Ali's nut feat, the one nut of a different variety was held in the mouth rather than swallowed, thus allowing him to produce it on cue. Dr. Fishbein also stated that unnamed "investigators" were convinced that for Ali's handkerchief stunt, to produce them in the sequence stipulated by the audience Ali flavored the cloth, and could therefore taste for the correct one as he brought them up.[20] Ali also swallowed live goldfish, watches, coins, costume jewelry, paper money, peach pits, stones, live mice, buttons, pool balls and other odd objects.[3][21][22][23][24] In another standard performance segment, he placed eight or more lit cigarettes in his mouth but instead of inhaling, he swallowed the smoke and, after a significant time had passed, issued it forth in a steady stream like an erupting volcano.[25]

Ali [was] the man who could swallow anything—cigarettes, live goldfish, handkerchiefs, petrol ...

—Colonel Julian, Ali's manager[6]

Ali's longstanding finale was the swallowing of copious amounts of water again, but this time followed by a pint of kerosene.[16] A prop was then produced, typically a model castle or house made of metal set on a table,[23] within which a small flame burned.[12] Lighter than water and immiscible with it, the kerosene floated above the liquid in Ali's gut, allowing him to disgorge it first. The stage thus set, and to a drum roll[16] or an imitation of fire bells,[26] Ali became a "human flamethrower", spewing the accelerant in a long stream over the sacrificial prop, setting it ablaze. Once the kerosene was exhausted, the water followed, streaming out his mouth in a long flow from up to six feet away, extinguishing the fire.[16]

One can always hear a Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. One can always see Walter Hampden or Ethel Barrymore giving their superb renditions of Shakespeare, or if one's fancy turns to box, or wrestling he can visit the new Madison Square Garden ... [but] with all due respect to the art of John McCormick, Harold Lloyd or Jack Dempsey none of them can swallow three gallons of water, or fifty hazelnuts and one almond nut and return the almond at any number called between one and fifty. Not one of them can swallow three different handkerchiefs and then restore any one of the handkerchiefs called for. And it is questionable as to their ability to drink kerosene oil. Mr. Hadji Ali can do all of these things.

—The Fredonia Censor, May 2, 1928[27]

At some performances, a panel or "jury" from the audience was invited on stage to verify that no trick mechanism was being employed—that he was actually swallowing the items in question and delivering them back through acts of regurgitation.[17] Sometimes Ali would stroll into the audience during his nut swallowing trick. His stomach exposed by his standard costume, he invited audience members to pat his stomach, allowing them to hear the nuts rattling within.[28] One newspaper reported that Ali's feats, essentially controlled vomiting, were performed in "a manner without the least bit of unpleasantness or anything bordering on repulsiveness."[29] Not everyone felt the same: at least one of Ali's engagements was cut short once the proprietor realized that the nature of the act "was killing their supper shows".[3] Famed escapologist and magician Harry Houdini remarked in his 1920 work Miracle Mongers and Their Methods that water spouting was a "performance that could not fail to disgust a modern audience."[30]

The abilities of Ali fascinated the public and medical authorities.[31] As reported in a 1928 Sheboygan Press article, at one of Ali's acts a number of doctors attended and thoroughly examined him during the performance. They came away satisfied that he was actually imbibing and regurgitating the material and objects as claimed, but remained "mystified over his extraordinary performance."[17] According to an article appearing in the Naugatuck Daily News, "Physicians of three continents have puzzled over the gastronomical mechanism of this human ostrich without success. X-ray experiments have been made during his exhibition without a plausible explanation forthcoming that satisfies the critical, in fact, the profession of surgery has thrown up its hands in amazement over this human ostrich."[16][note 5]

Film appearances
No verbal description can quite encompass the act's rich absurdity, not to mention Hadji Ali's virtuosic esophageal control.

—The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution (1997)[15]

Ali's act was captured in two films: the 1930 short Strange as It Seems, and Politiquerias (1931), the expanded Spanish-language version of Laurel and Hardy's Chickens Come Home.[3] Ali also had a bit part as the "Turkish landlord" in Warner Bros.' 1932 film Scarlet Dawn starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Nancy Carroll.[32] Two documentaries contain footage of Ali taken from Politiquerias: 1977's Gizmo!,[33] and 1999's Vaudeville, a documentary produced by KCTS-TV that exhibits 90 vaudeville acts over a two-hour running time.[12][34] The documentary has since aired on the Public Broadcasting Service's American Masters series numerous times.[12]

Speaking about the democratic nature of the vaudeville performance circuit, Vaudeville's writer and executive producer said in reference to Ali that the film "embraced everything from Caruso to a guy who threw up."[34] By contrast, in episode 30 of the Sundance Channel television program Iconoclasts, magician David Blaine speaks enthusiastically of Ali. During the episode, Blaine shows artist Chuck Close Ali's kerosene and water finale footage from Politiquerias and comments that Ali is his "favorite magician ... it's real but nobody's been able to do it since ... his name was Hadji Ali ... he's my favorite of all time."[35]

Death

Ali died on November 5, 1937, in Wolverhampton, England, from heart failure during a bout of bronchitis.[2][6] Even before his death, a rumor had circulated that the Rockefeller Institute sought to procure Ali's stomach upon his death, and would pay as much as $50,000 for it. This claim appeared in a poster advertising Ali's impending appearance at a theater during his lifetime.[36] After Ali's death was reported, the rumor resurfaced as an active offer of $10,000.[6] When a Rockefeller Institute manager was interviewed about the story, he said the offer had never been made but that nevertheless, "we should very much like to see the body."[6] Almina and Julian transported Ali's body back to the United States on board the Queen Mary.[6][31] According to a November 29, 1937 article in the New York Post, upon their arrival, Almina offered her father's body to Maryland's Johns Hopkins University for investigation by surgeons, after which it would be transported to Egypt for interment in a mausoleum.[37] However, The Afro-American newspaper reported on December 11, 1937, that Johns Hopkins' officials had declined the offer.[38]

He was eventually buried on 9 December 1937 at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.[39]

See also

Notes
  1. ^
    A number of online and book sources give Ali's year of birth as 1892 or approximately 1892. However, Ali's daughter stated to reporters after her father's death in 1937 that "he was only forty-nine."[2][6] If Ali's daughter was correct about her father's age at the time of his death, he was born in 1887 or '88.
  2. ^
    Ali's entry in Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America speculates that "Hadji Ali" may have been an alias or a simplification of an unknown birth name, and that there was little proof he was actually from Egypt.[12]
  3. ^
    The ten years of age figure is attributed to an interview Ali gave to a correspondent for The Morning Bulletin while performing in Australia.[1] By contrast, after her father died, Almina Ali was quoted in The Gleaner as stating he had first learned of his abilities at seven years of age.[6]
  4. ^
    According to the United States Consumer Price Index, a $1,000 per week salary in 1937 translates to approximately $17,800 per week as of 2021.[40]
  5. ^
    "Human Ostrich" in this passage refers to the conventional wisdom that ostriches will "eat anything".[41] While ostriches may be more selective than the adage provides, they are known to indiscriminately swallow shiny objects[42] and to eat small rocks naturally as an aid in their digestive process.[43] When one Australian newspaper described Ali and other regurgitators in like fashion, the expression became "Human Emus".[44]

References
  1. "The Man Who Has Jonah Beaten". The Morning Bulletin. Rockhampton, Qld. November 16, 1937.
  2. "The Man Who Could Swallow Anything Dies" (fee required). Daily Express. London. November 18, 1937. p. 1.
  3. Felton, Bruce (2007). What Were They Thinking?: Really Bad Ideas Throughout History. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-59921-132-9.
  4. Stewart, D. Travis (2006). No Applause—Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous. NY: Faber and Faber. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-86547-958-6.
  5. "Nurses and Doctors Witness a Stomach Freak at Hospital" (PDF). The Niagara Falls Gazette. Niagara Falls, NY. May 26, 1926. p. 2.
  6. "The Man Who Could Swallow Anything" (fee required). The Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. December 11, 1937. p. 63.
  7. "Advertisement". The Worker. Brisbane, Qld. March 23, 1937.
  8. "At The Theatres: Plaza". St Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, FL. February 27, 1927. p. 10.
  9. "5 Big Keith Vaudeville Headliners". The Altoona Mirror. Altoona, PA. February 11, 1926. p. 21. Archived from the original (fee required) on July 14, 2012.
  10. "H F. Keith's Theatre" (fee required). The Lowell Sun. Lowell, MA. October 13, 1926. p. 5.
  11. "Lincoln Theatre advertisement" (fee required). The Decatur Review. Decatur, Ill. November 22, 1928. p. 4.
  12. Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville, old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performers in America. NY: Routledge Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2.
  13. "Swallowing Feats: Hadji Ali Dead". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW. November 8, 1937. p. 10.
  14. Scott, Lawrence P.; William M. Womack (1998). Double V: The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen. East Lansing, MI: MSU Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-87013-502-6.
  15. Eyman, Scott (1997). The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-193. NY: Simon and Schuster. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-684-81162-8.
  16. "Amusements: At Palace" (fee required). Naugatuck Daily News. Naugatuck, CT. September 28, 1926. p. 5.
  17. "Hadji Ali, Egyptian Mystic, to Appear at Sheboygan Theatre" (fee required). The Sheboygan Press. Sheboygan, WI. December 21, 1928. p. 23.
  18. "Hadji Ali Headliner at Electric First Half" (fee required). Joplin Globe. Joplin, MO. September 28, 1928. p. 22.
  19. "World's Greatest Human Wonder, Hadji Ali" (fee required). The Bridgeport Telegram. Bridgeport, CT. September 17, 1926. p. 5.
  20. Fishbein, Morris (December 21, 1929). "Yes, Some human Beings Chew Their Cud, Just Like Cows" (fee required). The Lowell Sun. Lowell, Mass. p. 11.
  21. "Human Volcano is Appearing at the Strand" (fee required). Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. Oshkosh, WI. April 11, 1935. p. 14.
  22. "Palace Theater advertisement" (fee required). Evening Independent. Massilon, OH. August 18, 1928. p. 11.
  23. Wallechinsky, David; Amy Wallace (2005). The New Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information. NY: Canongate. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-84195-719-7.
  24. Singleton, Brian (2004). Oscar Asche, Orientalism, and British Musical Comedy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-275-97929-4.
  25. "Human Volcano is Appearing at the Strand" (fee required). Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. Oshkosh, WI. April 11, 1935. p. 14.
  26. Christopher, Milbourne (1975). The Illustrated History of Magic. London: Hale. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-7091-4814-2.
  27. "Hadji Ali Does Amazing Feats" (PDF). The Fredonia Censor. Fredonia, NY. May 2, 1928. p. 8.
  28. Price, David (1985). Magic: A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theater. NY: Cornwall Books. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8453-4738-6.
  29. "At the Jefferson" (PDF). The Auburn Citizen. Auburn, NY. April 21, 1926. p. 15.
  30. Houdini, Harry (1920). Miracle Mongers and Their Methods. NY: E.P. Dutton. p. 66. OCLC 1832765.
  31. "Brings Dad's Body". New Castle News. New Castle, PA. December 1, 1937. p. 7. Archived from the original (fee required) on January 4, 2013.
  32. Hall, Mordaunt (November 4, 1932). "Movie Review: Scarlet Dawn (1932)". The New York Times. NY.
  33. Jay, Ricky (1986). Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers. NY: Villard Books. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-374-52570-5.
  34. Grimes, William (November 23, 1997). "It's Back From the Wings: Vaudeville, Good and Bad" (fee required). The New York Times. NY.
  35. "David Blaine and Chuck Close". Iconoclasts. Season 5. November 6, 2010. 18 minutes in. Sundance Channel.
  36. "Poster for a Hadji Ali performance at the Empire Stratford Theater". Raffaelederitis.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on December 11, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  37. "Harlem Eagle Guards Body of Prince With 2 Stomachs" (PDF). New York Post. NY. November 29, 1937. p. 13.
  38. "Hospital Noes Julian's 2-Stomach Prince". The Afro-American. Baltimore, MD. December 11, 1937. p. 4.
  39. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14000 Famous Persons by Scott Wilson
  40. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  41. Living Bird. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. 13–14. 1994. OCLC 24618159.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  42. "Root of Evil" (fee required). Kokomo Tribune. Kokomo, IN. Associated Press. September 1, 1969.
  43. Caroline Arnold (January 1990). Ostriches and Other Flightless Birds. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-87614-377-3.
  44. "'Human Emus': Cases Described". The Cairns Post. Cairns, Qld. November 9, 1937.

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