'Professor' John Henry Anderson (1814-1874), the Scottish magician and theatrical entrepreneur better known as 'the Wizard of the North', was the showman and philanthropist regarded as the first magician to raise Magic from street performance to a respectable theatrical event through his flair for publicity and his expertise with astonishing illusions including the bullet-catching act. He is seen here with Louie Anderson, one of his two daughters who assisted with his act and became magicians themselves. Anderson began performing magic aged seventeen and started a travelling show in 1837, aged twenty-three. He settled in London in 1840 where he performed at the New Strand Theatre and in August 1845 opened his own 5,000-seat theatre the City Theatre on Glasgow Green, for which from 8th to 19th September 1845 he engaged an operatic company headed by the well-known tenor Sims Reeves. The theatre burned down in November 1845, only four months after its opening, but through the assistance of friends Anderson started a new London company at Covent Garden Theatre in 1846 and went on to perform around Europe, and in 1849 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.