Billy Robinson, also known as Chung Ling Soo was born in 1861. When he turned nineteen he started touring with his magic show. He called himself "Robinson, the Man of Mystery."
Robinson started off by doing magic, mind reading, and spiritualism. He did no Chinese act yet. Robinson traveled with the Keller Show for awhile as "Nana Sahib." Robinson also traveled with the Herrmann Show as "Abdul Khan", but seeing how Herrmann died a shot time later their time together was very short. A magician by the name of Chee Ling Qua (a real Mongolian) came to America and changed his name to Ching Ling Foo. He did a trick where he produced a bowl of water and a small child while he was in the center of the stage. Foo offerd $1000 to anyone who could do as he did so Soo accepted his challenge. Right after he did, Foo withdrew his offer.
This made Chung Ling Soo prety mad so he told Foo that he would create his own Chinese act. That is when he started doing oriental tricks. He gathered all of the Asian looking tricks that he could find and he created the stage name Hop Sing Loo. His act opened in April of 1900 in Paris, France
For the last time Robinson changed his name (finally!) to Chung Ling Soo (which means double good luck in Chinese.) Soo would dress in traditinal Chinese clothing and paint his face white. He would also speak in "Chinese" which he barely knew and mostly made up. Chung Ling Soo made a very fatal mistake when he tried to do the famous bullet catch and died on March 23, 1918 while doing the trick.
