PC Sorcar: India's 'maharajah of magic' who terrified the UK.

Pedro_P

Collection of Saileswar Mukherjee

▼ At 9.15pm on 9 April 1956, the BBC's switchboard suddenly lit up with calls from hundreds of viewers convinced they had just witnessed a gruesome murder live on their television screens.
A mysterious-looking oriental magician had put a 17-year-old girl in a trance, laid her on a table and sliced her body in half with a massive buzz saw as if she were a slab of meat on a butcher's table.
It was meant to be the climatic finale to that evening's top-rated Panorama programme, but something appeared to have gone terribly wrong. When the magician rubbed his assistant's hands and tried to revive her, she did not respond. As he shook his head and covered her face with a black cloth, presenter Richard Dimbleby stepped in front of the camera and announced the programme was over.
As the credits came up, the phone lines at the Lime Grove studios went into meltdown.
Breaking into the Western magic scene had been a struggle for Mr Sorcar. London's Duke of York theatre was reserved for a three-week season, but bookings were patchy. The opportunity to appear on Panorama was a coup - one that he was determined to exploit.
The official explanation for the show's abrupt termination was that Mr Sorcar's set ran overtime. Anyone who had followed his career knew better. Even his detractors admitted he was a master of timing. To leave his assistant, Dipty Dey, severed by a screeching razor-sharp steel blade, was the ultimate sleight of hand.
The story made the front-pages the following day, with headlines screaming "Girl cut in half - Shock on TV" and "Sawing Sorcar alarms viewers". His season at the Duke of York sold out.
Sorcar was born Protul Chandra Sarkar on 23 February 1913 in the village of Ashekpur in the Tangail district of Bengal (now Bangladesh).
At school, he excelled in maths - some say he was a prodigy - but his real calling was magic. Changing his name to Sorcar - it sounded like "sorcerer" - he started performing in clubs, circuses and theatres.
Still a complete unknown outside a few cities in Bengal, he decided to call himself "The World's Greatest Magician" or "TW'sGM" for short. The ploy worked. Invitations started to pour in from across the country. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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samgmu

Thanks ! I believe his son is also magician now .