Howard thurston ran away from home and avoided incarceration by saying he found god.

Charles was murdered in February 1920 while working as a railroad detective in Columbus. The murderer escaped after pumping eight bullet holes into Charles’ back.

Howard Thurston ruined Hudini’s chances of being a magician.

Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.

he would "scale", or throw, the cards with impressive skill to specific members of the audience, even some in the balcony or at the back of the theater. Of course, these cards would be kept as souvenirs, and some still exist today.

As far as the history boo are concerned, Howard Thurston never cut anyone with a playing card.

In 1914 the Thurston’s Kiss Waltz Ride was completed, patented, and delivered to Luna Park at Coney Island. According to one of his friends, the gyrations of the ride “caused many a loving couple, under the delusion that they were waltzing, to throw up their hot dogs”.

Theodore Roosevelt's son Quentin saw the show so many times that he outsmarted Thurston once, by bringing a bag that foiled a trick involving an egg.

Houdini poached one of Thurston's former assistants for his own show.

Thurston paid $7,000 for the rights to master magician Harry Kellar’s illusions and props, including the famous Levitation of Princess Karnac. That’s  about $234,187.28 today.

Thurston’s act played up to the spiritualism of his era, suggesting that spirits caused women to levitate, for instance. His posters depicted little devils whispering to him, with the slogan, “Do the spirits come back”?

Towards the end of his career Thurston was performing 4 shows a day rather than the usual 10 shows a week.

In the 1920s and 30s it was becoming difficult to compete with motion pictures so In 1931, he established a new show that included a live performance and a motion picture — in short, magic and a movie.

 Thurston had a trick where he would turn a small tree into a woman, he went through many trees over the course of his shows, mostly because the women kept leaving him.

According to legend, a Mexican magician appeared in a magic shop run by Otto Maurer in New York City. The enigmatic magician demonstrated how to make the cards disappear one by one with his fingertips. Maurer showed Thurston the move, which he would later feature in his performance.

Howard Thurston was never shy in promoting the women of his show which tended to be him many wives.

Howard Thurston’s first wife was a 16 year-old singer and dancer, Grace Texola. To make ends meet they resorted to doing cons.  he divorced her after achieving success.

Thurston’s Second Wife was Beatrice Fleming Foster, called “Tommy.”  They were married in 1910 and divorced in 1914 and she performed magic in the show as “The Queen of Magic”. 

After his second divorce it only took him 3 months to remarry Nina Leotha Fielding Allison, a showgirl and comedian who took on a manager, director, costumer, critic and companion role rather than becoming the next “Queen of Magic”.

Thurston legally adopted Nina’s daughter, the five-year-old Jane (1909-1994), after they were married. She never became an assistant, but ended up with her own show appearing as a dancer, singer, and magician.

The Marqui of Jane’s show read “Thurston, The World’s Greatest Magician – Co-Starring His Daughter Jane”.

Jane sang a song written for Thurston’s show called “My Daddy is a Hokus Pokus Man”.

Thurston is quoted as a subject matter expert in Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People. 

“I asked Mr. Thurston to tell me the secret of his success... Thurston had a genuine interest in people. He told me that many magicians would look at the audience and say to themselves, "Well, there is a bunch of suckers out there, a bunch of hicks; I'll fool them alright." But Thurston's method was totally different. He told me that every time he went on stage he said to himself: "I am grateful because these people come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way. I'm going to give them the very best I possibly can.

 “The primary excuse for being in college, is to learn to do one thing a little better than someone else. Any man who wastes his time with general courses is not fit to be among serious people. He is a thief of someone else’s time; he should be put out to make way for the man who is earnest and sincere”.

He is entombed at Green Lawn Abbey, a mausoleum in Columbus, Ohio, which opened again to the public in 2021 after more than fifty years.

 He died on April 13 at his Oceanside apartment in Miami Beach, Florida.

 Howard Thurston died of Pneumonia.

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Howard Thurston had a pact with Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Howard J Carter to have a reunion beyond the grave.

 Thurston’s will had a few interesting details in it including that his wife, Paula Frances Thurston, forfeit his estate unless she kept a secret agreement between them. If she failed to do so the money from selling the estate would go to build a mausoleum in Columbus. The will does not make it clear who the arbiter of the agreement was.

 Thurston also left something for his adopted daughter Jane in his will, a measly $500 with the following comment “I am mindful of the fact that my adopted daughter has caused me great mental anguish and suffering and has caused me to spend large sums of money on her behalf through her whims and caprices and she has been generally, undutiful to me.