Nate Leipzig was born in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Herman Leipziger, was a United States citizen of Russian birth; his mother, Hanna Edloff, was American-born. Nathan Leipziger (he shortened his name for professional use) was their fifth son and the sixth of their eight children. The Leipzigers, with their Swedish-born children, moved back to America when Nate was ten years old and settled in Detroit. His father was a furrier, one brother became a noted rabbi, another a famous cartoonist, the others successful business men. All the children were musical, and several of them appeared professionally. Nate was an excellent pianist, though he never played publicly.
Education
He received his schooling in Detroit.
Career
Leipzig's interest in magic began when he was a small boy and was fostered by an uncle who had some knowledge of the subject. Unlike so many others of his profession, he did not have a precarious, hand-to-mouth beginning. While still in school he started professionally by appearing at clubs and other organizations as well as at private parties in Detroit.
After leaving school he became an optician and for some years made this his livelihood, meanwhile continuing to practise and study magic and to give shows at night as often as he could. Very early in his magical career Leipzig developed a unique style and standard of performance. Though he had a wide knowledge of the methods of other magicians, he used only magic that he himself had originated. Furthermore, he early eliminated from his programs all feats requiring apparatus, relying instead on the dextrous handling of playing cards, coins, thimbles, handkerchiefs, and other small, common, unprepared objects. The success of his performance depended upon his delightfully genial and gentlemanly manner and his superb acting, as well as his great manipulative ability. Thus, though he went to see every magic show which played in Detroit, he spent more time in studying the technique of legitimate actors.
At the age of thirty Leipzig gave up his optical work, for he felt that he had reached a degree of competence which would permit him to live by the art he had studied so long and so hard. Moving to New York City, for a time he gave shows at parties in the homes of the wealthy. His ambition, however, was to appear in vaudeville with an act utilizing only small everyday objects. Managers and colleagues alike tried to dissuade him from what they thought was bound to be unappealing to theatre audiences, and while he managed to get a few engagements in vaudeville, the obvious success of each performance was ascribed to luck. But three years of society performances and semi-occasional vaudeville engagements satisfied Leipzig of the public's approbation of his type of magic, and he therefore accepted the offer, made by an English vaudeville agent who had seen his act in a New York theatre, to appear at the Palace Theatre in London for four weeks. The British public so thoroughly enjoyed Leipzig and his magic that he remained abroad for three years. When he returned to the United States he was famous, and never again was there a vaudeville manager who had the least hesitancy in engaging him.
In subsequent years Leipzig appeared all over the United States, Canada, and the British Isles and also in France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. He gave command performances before Edward VII and George V of England and before the royal families of Denmark and Spain. A good deal of the success of his performances depended upon what he said during them, for he had a pleasant voice, clear diction, and a large vocabulary, not only in English but also in French and German, which he spoke when appearing in those countries. Between vaudeville engagements, and increasingly in his later years, Leipzig gave shows at private parties, for which he was in great demand and for which he received very substantial fees. His ability to do magic intimately, coupled with his charm and warmth of manner, made him so acceptable in any company that he opened doors for other magicians in exclusive places where no magician had previously played.
Leipzig was highly esteemed among his colleagues, both for his skill and for the generous way in which he gave methods he had devised to the profession. Upon his first visit to London he so delighted an audience of fellow magicians in the club rooms of the Magic Circle that they awarded him a special gold medal. Among magicians he was considered the most skillful sleight-of-hand performer of his time or before. He died of cancer in New York City and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Westchester County, New York.
Achievements
Leipzig was one of the early pioneers of performing simple straight forward magic with normal objects and passing on the use of fancy boxes and gadgetry. His work influenced people like Dai Vernon, Roy Benson, and John Scarne. He also created the Leipzig Pass.
Connections
About 1905 Leipzig married Leila Jane Bersanz of Birmingham, England. There were no children.
