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Hurd
| Hurd | |
 Taken at an early age[1] | |
| Born | Frederick W. Hurd November 26, 1873 Bridgeport, Connecticut |
|---|---|
| Died | July 25, 1941 (age 67) Fort Wayne, Indiana |
Fred Hurd (1873-1941) was famous for his Rabbit and Duck trick.
Biography
Hurd quit school after completing the ninth grade, and took a job in the tinning department of the Ives & Blakesley Toy Mfg. Co. Later he worked with a valve manufacturing plant and then went to the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Co.
Hurd, started his professional career in New York City in 1891. As a magician, Hurd's first job was in a sideshow, where he was discovered by an agent for Proctor's Theatre in New York. His acts took him all over the United States and into several foreign countries.
Around 1935, while touring South America with a show, he contracted a tropical fever. This impaired his health to such an extent that he retired from the stage and went to Fort Wayne. There he was employed by the Protective Electrical Supply Co. as a travelling salesman where he still found time to put on shows in the stores he visited.[2][3]
Hurd was a member of the I.B.M executive committee for their third annual convention in Lima, Ohio. He also performed at the fifth, held in Fort Wayne in 1930.
He was performing his most known "rabbit and duck" trick as early as 1901. He would make a paper cone, produce flowers from it then crumple it up. After pulling yards of paper ribbon from it, he would then produce a duck and a rabbit from that mess.[4]
Hurd also routinely performed the Bullet Catch.[5]
References