Goldin was born Hyman Elias Goldstein on December 17, 1873, in Vilnius, Lithuania. His family name was Goldstein and his given name originally Hirsh. His father, a fruit grower and cantor, emigrated to the United States when Horace was only eight years old and over a period of years, as he saved the necessary funds, sent for the other members of the family. Horace, the eldest child, was the last to cross the Atlantic, joining his parents and his brothers and sisters in Nashville, Tennessee.
Education
Such education as Goldin possessed had been acquired in Poland, in schools and a music conservatory. His ambition as a boy was to become a concert violinist. Although he had learned his first feats of magic when he was about twelve by closely observing a Gypsy performer at a traveling fair, he had no thought of public performance.
Career
After coming to the United States Goldin used his skill in magic at first to interest the customers in his father's general store, where he worked as a clerk, and then, after he became a traveling salesman of a line of inexpensive jewelry manufactured by an uncle, to win the friendship of his clients. Meanwhile he retained his ambition to become a violinist and practised during every free moment. But one day, on a sales trip, he met a magician who happened to be staying in the same boarding house and went to see his show. Greatly impressed by the enthusiasm of the audience, Goldin decided that very night to make magic his career. The next day he persuaded the magician to take him on as assistant and supplementary performer. Within three months Goldin had become proficient in the magician's entire repertoire and in addition had saved three hundred dollars. He then decided it was time to give his own show. For one only twenty years old, it was an audacious decision. To his advantage, Goldin had a winning personality and, from his work as a salesman, a knowledge of how to deal with people; through his study of the violin, moreover, he had the keen sense of rhythm so essential to a magician. To his disadvantage, he was completely unknown, and he still spoke English with an accent hard to understand. In a short time he had used up his savings. The next few years of Goldin's life, while financially precarious, gave him the training for his later great success. For a time he lived in Washington, D. C. , where he took a daytime job and gave shows at night when he could find the opportunity. Later, in various cities, he went into "dime museums, " where he gave as many as twenty-five performances a day for from ten to fifteen dollars a week - hardly worthwhile were it not for the practice and experience of performing before the public. His success came when he decided upon three basic ideas: first, to give more magic during his performance than did any other magician; second, to eliminate all talk, as much to accelerate the show as to avoid the problems of vocabulary and accent; third, to be topical in at least some of his feats. With his inventive and facile mind and his willingness to work, it was not long before he had the show he had envisioned. It was big and required a corps of assistants, but it was an immediate success, and he had no difficulty in finding engagements. At the beginning of his success, giving much of the credit to his new country, Goldin became a United States citizen. Leaving America, where he was just becoming widely known, Goldin went to England, at the age of twenty-nine, and secured an engagement for one week at the Palace Theatre in London. His first performance was such a signal success that the audience insisted upon a curtain speech, and he was kept on, eventually, for months, with repeated increases in salary. While Goldin helped other magicians in a variety of ways, his greatest service to his profession was to convince theatre managers that good magicians were great attractions to the public and as such should be highly paid. Goldin's success continued, and his magic met with enthusiasm wherever he went. He toured the British Isles, most of the countries of Europe, North and South Africa, Australia, and much of Asia. Beginning while he was at the Palace Theatre in London, he gave a succession of command performances before European and Asiatic royalty, perhaps more than any other magician in history. After each foreign tour he returned to the United States, where his audiences eagerly awaited him. Part of the reason why people never tired of seeing Goldin's show was because he so consistently changed his program and added new feats. Of the many illusions he devised, one of the most ingenious and by far the most famous was his "Sawing a Woman in Half. " But though Goldin had great facility in presenting large feats, he was equally adept in tricks with a borrowed handkerchief or a coin. He was a master in all branches of magic and, in addition, a competent actor and a highly skilled showman. The style of Goldin's performances changed in his later years as a result of a mishap in 1919 when his entire show - scenery, costumes, apparatus - and much of his money were lost at sea. For a while he gave shows using only a few small objects, and with these to finance him he personally rebuilt his big show and within months was again touring with his customary success. But in these small shows, in order to help fill the time allotted, he started once again to talk during his performances. He now spoke well and clearly, and he discovered that he could amuse audiences by talking as well as by his tricks. Thereafter he never again gave a completely silent show, though he still crowded more magic into a single performance than did any other magician. During the latter years of his life, finding that theatrical conditions in the United States made appearances here less profitable than abroad, Goldin made no engagements in this country. He died in London on April 22, 1939, of a heart attack and was buried in England.
Achievements
Goldin is noted for his lightning fast presentation style; he achieved international fame with his versions of the sawing a woman in half illusion.
Connections
In 1927, after thirty years of courtship, Goldin married Helen Leighton. They had no children.
