Three sheets of mystical magnificence are devoted to one grand statement: "The Man Who Knows." Claude Alexander Conlin (1880-1954) was a wildly popular psychic, mind-reader, and mentalist, and the highest-paid magician in the world at that time. Born in South Dakota, he was the first Stage Mentalist, donning Oriental robes, a turban, and a crystal ball. Alexander invested a lot of money into the production of his posters; when he retired from the stage, he sold all of the unused posters to Robert Nelson, a magic dealer in Ohio, who sold many of them to Leon Mandrake, another magician, who performed mentalist illusions throughout the Pacific Northwest under the assumed name "Alexander," which is totally mental. Now you know.
Av Yaga, Bombay.
literature: Magic Posters, 89 (var); PAI-LXXIV, 159