Although the hallmark of his act was to get magic tricks wrong, he was in reality an accomplished magician and member of the Magic Circle.
Father of Thomas Henty.
He collapsed on stage while in the middle of his act on a live Sunday evening variety show, falling backwards through the centre of the stage curtain. As he began to snore loudly (often a symptom of a massive heart attack) and as his feet remained protruding underneath the bottom of the curtain the theatre audience assumed this was part of his "failed magic trick" act and continued to roar with laughter. After a few moments of confusion the orchestra struck up and the show went to a commercial. Although the incident had been seen live by millions of viewers at the time, the sequence was never shown again out of respect to his family and to his memory.