Elliott & Schlemowitz, Magic Lanternists

Dawn Elliott and Joel Schlemowitz are magic lantern performers, working with original magic lantern glass slides and projectors. Elliott & Schlemowitz perform magic lantern shows and give lecture/demonstrations at museums and other historic, cultural, and educational institutions.

Their repertoire and presentation equipment includes hundreds of magic lantern slides, an 1890s McIntosh stereopticon, a replica of a fantascope projector for their phantasmagoria show, a children's lantern for interactive programs for young audiences, and a large display of magic lantern-related apparatus, flyers, and ephemera.

Elliott and Schlemowitz have received a Program Award from the Victorian Society New York and the Dick Balzer Presentation Award from the Magic Lantern Society UK.

What is a “Magic Lantern”?

The magic lantern was the first projector, was first created in the 17th century by the Dutch inventor and scientist Christiaan Huygens (who did not regard it as one of his serious accomplishments!) It was used as a form of popular entertainment from the 17th to the early 20th century.

In the 18th and early 19th century Étienne-Gaspard Robertson and Paul de Philipsthal (aka Paul Philidor) used the magic lantern independently of one another to create supernatural spectacles known as the “Phantasmagoria” in Paris and in London. Ghosts would appear in the form of projections, grow in size on the screen, as if advancing toward the audience, and suddenly vanish.

By the 19th century the magic lantern evolved from a ghost-raising apparatus into a broader form of entertainment. Poetry and story would be illustrated with magic lantern slides, as well as illustrated lectures on travel and science. Two and three-lens lanterns allows for the lanternist to produce elaborate effects and transitions on screen. Comical slides would provoke laughter. Fraternal organizations would use the magic lantern to instruct their initiates, and churches adopted the lantern so that congregants could view pictures depicting stories from the bible. Toy lanterns were produced in the late 19th century, mostly by German toy manufacturers, with color-printed images, rather than hand-painted glass slides.

In the late 19th century lantern slides began to be manufactured photographically (including illustrated slides) and this allowed for the mass-production of images for the increasing number of lantern projectors. Even as cinema eclipsed the magic lantern it still was used for illustrated lectures and for the “coming attractions” announcements at the movies well into the 20th century.

Who are Dawn Elliott and Joel Schlemowitz?

Dawn Elliott is a New Paltz-based museum professional and historic interpreter. Before working with Joel Schlemowitz she was doing magic lantern shows with an original early 1900s parlor lantern and glass slides at Locust Lawn in Gardiner, NY. She was the recipient of the Martha Washington Woman of History Award in 2018.

Joel Schlemowitz is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and part-time faculty member at The New School. He was a long-time collector of magic lantern slides before partnering with Dawn Elliott to do magic lantern performances. Previously his collection of lantern slides had been used with Arcane Project, a three-person ensemble of artists doing multiple projection performance: Bradley Eros, Lary Seven, and Joel Schlemowitz.

What types of shows and presentations are available?

Lecture/demonstration.

The lecture/demonstration presentations cover the history and technology of the magic lantern and include PowerPoint illustrations as well as projections of original glass slides (such as animated slip slides, lever slides, gearwork slides, and dissolving views).

Magic lantern performances.

18th century “Phantasmagoria” with reproduction slides modeled after originals to be found only in museums and a small number of private collections, using a reproduction fantascope projector.

Recreations of Victorian-era magic lantern performances of various thematic types (such as nautical disasters, comic slides, temperance lectures), adapted for a contemporary audience, using original magic lantern slides in the collection of Elliott and Schlemowitz, with live sound effects and music on the roller organ and Victrola.

Magic lantern portable museum.

A display of lanterns, glass slides, magic lantern ephemera and advertising, and toy lanterns, with Elliott & Schlemowitz explaining and demonstrating the slides and techniques on an ongoing basis.