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| Tommy Hardy (1928) |
It is with great sadness that we report that Tom Hardy III has passed away. Tommy, as he known to those who knew him, was the father of Tom "Li'l Tom Hardy" Hardy IV.
He was 92 years old at the time of his passing. Tommy began his magic career working in the family act as an assistant to both his father Thomas ("Thomas") Hardy II and grandfather, Thomas ("Big Tom") Hardy.
At the age of seven, he and his father toured with Big Tom's show throughout the United States and Canada and were contemporaries of Houdini, Hermann, and Kellar. Big Tom's act was in the classic style with the magician as dapper gentleman making things appear, disappear, and change in a drawing room setting.
Tommy worked on stage as the bellhop or messenger characters. After an unfortunate falling out with Big Tom, Tommy's father Thomas broke from the show to tour first through out Central and South America, and then Europe.
Unlike Big Tom's show, Thomas portrayed a befuddled, drunk magician, unsure of his power or methods. This was his character both off and on stage. Thomas, who pronounced his name "Somath" because of a severe speech impediment acerbated by his constant drunken state, was a critical success in Guatemala and Costa Rica.
He was held over for six weeks in the Manhattan Club in pre-Castro Havana. His vanishing and reappearing lit cigars was copied by many U.S. magicians but usually with sufficient safety devices to prevent the incessant burns suffered by "Somath."
"Somath" is still the only man to attempt a tongue palm of a newly lit corona-size cigar. He was also one of the few men with three nostrils not caused by a birth defect.
At the age of 17, Tommy, or "Sthoomy" as his father called him, followed in his family's tradition and broke from the show to begin his own career. Tommy was lured from the show by his first wife, Klasse van Movin.
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| Klasse van Movin |
Miss van Movin was of the "Dancing German Gals" vaudeville troupe performing on the same bill as Tommy and his father before the breakup. In recently released court-appointed psychiatric records, Tommy noted his attraction to Miss van Movin was in spite of their inability to communicate in a common language:
"Her movement on stage, her dance, is the language of love. My eyes, then, become my ears to hear what she says to me with every bump and grind."
The two were married in 1920. It was Tommy's first marriage and Miss van Movin's third or fourth. The couple had to annul the bride's "psychic marriage" to a disembodied, androgynous spirit Miss van Movin met through a seance.
Psychic marriages were common during this time — the heyday of Spiritualism – where young women would marry spirit voices met during seances. Often, the marriage would end in heartbreak when the bride…
Continue reading In Memorium: Thomas Hardy III
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