Isola Brothers

Isola Brothers, Vincent (b.1862-d.1947) and Émile (b.1860-d.1945), were conjurers and theater directors in Paris.

Biography

Born in Blida, Algeria, the Isola brothers were trained as mechanics. Their passion for magic brought them to Paris in 1880, where they worked in railway machine shops while developing their magic skills by giving performances in cafés in the evenings. They ultimately became full-time itinerant performers.

They purchased the Théatre des Capucines in 1892, where according to legend, they were backed by a wealthy woman whose dying son they had entertained. Renamed the Théatre Isola, they featured their own magic shows, some with the aid of electricity, and were competitors to Georges Méliès.

They added films to their theater's presentations in 1896 and eventually directed a series of theaters; the Parisiana, the Olympia, and the nearly-bankrupt Folies Bergère, which they rebuilt into a great music hall with first-class variety shows.

They both died in Paris.

References

This page incorporated content from Émile Isola, a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

This page incorporated content from Vincent Isola, a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

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