As his signature shows, Carter always signed himself “Charles E.O. Carter”. He may have avoided the simpler form of “Charles Carter” because in the early part of the twentieth century that name was already famous for a different reason. “Charles Carter” was a great stage magician, illusionist and escapologist – a headlining act in the golden age of theatrical magic. “Carter the Great” was American by birth but had an international reputation, having toured the world several times with his spectacular magic company. Interestingly Carter the magician and Carter the astrologer were of about the same age, both born in 1887 (the Englishman in January, the American in November). There is no record however that their respective paths ever crossed. (Information on Carter the magician from ‘Carter Beats the Devil’ by Glen David Gold, Sceptre, London, 2001).
