(Jūlijs Skrastiņš)
(31.03.1877. Valmiera, Latvia – 21.06.1946, Braunau, Austria)
The legendary magician San Martino de Kastrozza has been written about extensively in professional magazines devoted to the art of illusionism, in periodicals during his performances and even today. He has a place of honour in the exhibition of the Mystero illusionist theatre-museum, set up by Dace and Enrico Pecolli.
San Martino de Kastrozza (also San Martino di Kastrocca or San Martino de Kastrozza), real name Julius Skrastiņš (sometimes mistakenly – Krastiņš), born in Valmiera, died in Braunau, Austria, and is buried there, although he married Emilie Annette Olli (1895. or 1896 and divorced in the 1930s) – gained an attachment to the town of Võru and Estonia. Details of all known relatives can be found at the end of this article.
For the following information about his life, I have used the artist’s own accounts to reporters while on tour in Latvia, as well as evidence found in professional publications devoted to the art of illusion, while descriptions of tricks are taken from promises in advertising columns, reviews of performances and Anšlav Eglītis’s memoirs.
In the first years of his life, the future master of illusions has already had to deal with the prowess of thieves: while his parents were at a christening ceremony in a church with their newborn Julia, thieves came into their apartment and took everything of value. At the age of just five, Julius lost his dad. Later, he attended school for, as he said, “just a few weeks”… It so happened that on his way home from school, he had to pass by the circus that was then in Valmiera (on the occasion of the Semjud fair). There he regularly stopped, watched performances and even befriended one of the other artists. He liked the circus so much that, without thinking much, he hid in it and, under the tutelage of a rope dancer, followed the circus to Riga. Searchers looked for him, but all in vain. He had already begun to practise various circus tricks, both knife-throwing and magic tricks. However, the joys were short-lived. The people who belonged to her found her and brought her back to Valmiera, where she had only to continue her schooling. At school, classmates and teachers alike marvelled at the young artist’s sleight of hand and various tricks. But Julius could not stay at home any longer, and at some point he left again with another circus. This time to Kiev. The circus owner noticed the young man’s dedication and abilities, helped him to learn various tricks, and soon the circus-goers noticed the young “magician”, whose performances were always associated with “daring tricks and even with horror”. During this time, Julius even set up his own “menagerie” with trained pigeons, ducks, geese and canaries. At the age of fifteen, he already has “trained fish”. At that time, the young censor also realises that he still lacks education and tries to remedy his lack of education by teaching himself.
Julius Skrastiņš mentions 1892 as his fateful year. Here he is noticed by Bruno Schenk (Friedrich Wilhelm Bruno Schenk,1857-1932) – a prominent German illusionist and director of one of the largest travelling magic theatres in Europe, who since July 1891 has also marked Riga on his tour and has built his “Eden-theatre” with more than 1000 seats in Jacobs Square. It is a true illusionist theatre, with performances by Schenk himself and other artists in the programme, showing large-scale miracle attractions. Shenk takes a liking to the young performer’s exquisite work and becomes his teacher. Incidentally, Schenk’s biographers have noted San Martino de Kastrozza as one of his most famous pupils.
Sorting through the Latvian, German and Russian newspapers, however, I have to correct Jūlijs Skrastiņš’ memories. A characteristic feature of B. Schenk as an entrepreneur is that he understands the value of good advertising. He is therefore generous with extensive advertisements, while newspapers in all languages follow his work very closely, both with reviews and with regular information on the number of viewers. In 1892 there was no illusionist theatre in Riga. “The Eden-theatre was there in 1891 from July to the end of October, then in 1894, 1898 and 1899, and in 1899 under a changed name as the Olimpia theatre.
And so. If it is autumn 1891? July will soon be fifteen. Meeting Mr Schenk is very inspiring. For the next two years he learns new tricks, puts on a new show. From Riga, Schenk’s Eden-theatre travels on to Helsingfors (now Helsinki) and will be in St Petersburg in the winter.
We can assume that Julius travels with his teacher. A performance is being made: there is a table on the stage and a skull on it, which the audience can see. Kastorzza deals the cards. After receiving the shuffled cards back, Kastrozza places them in front of the skull, and after a few minutes the Guild begins to speak, naming the cards drawn by the audience.
I would even like to say that he could have been in B. Schenk’s programme in Riga in the summer of 1894. At that time, the advertisement here read: ‘Mokama Tagero – Indian thaumaturges, the only ones of their kind in their speciality’. Thaumaturgy? The supposed ability to perform paranormal miracles. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Bruno Schenk (also referred to as Bruno Shenke in Latvian newspapers) was a true advertising prodigy! But in principle, this is exactly how the newly staged performance could be advertised. And the best-sounding stage name for Julius Skrastinis was still to be found. Only a professional with good humour and a flair for his profession could have come up with the stage name for his future, sonorous name of the picturesque Italian town of San Martino di Kastrozza.
In 1895, J. Skrastiņš – San Martino di Kastrozza meets a rich Dutchman Molenard in Kiev, who helps the young artist to buy special trick apparatus and financially supports the realisation of his new ideas. During this time he also marries Emilie Annette Olli, and knowing that his son Johann David was born in Kiev in 1897, we understand that the artist has been staying in this city for a long time, and that this is where his production is entirely based. Among the new tricks: in front of the whole audience, Kastrozza is tied to a pole, he cannot move his arms or legs. However, a shot rumbles, frightened pigeons run across the stage, water rains over the rim of a previously empty glass… An invisible hand begins to write the text dictated by the audience on a blackboard 15 paces away from Kastrozza. The audience is enthusiastic.
Kastrozza has created a full-scale performance, in which his wife, Miss Iris de Kastrozza, acts with him as an assistant partner; his daughter Helena will join him later. But when, years later, the marriage of Julie and Emilia Annette breaks up, other assistants will be recruited for the attraction.
With Kastrozza, full-fledged, independent performances are given in St Petersburg’s Tauriya Garden. On 7 February 1901, he puts on a play for the poor at the St Petersburg People’s House. This performance is also attended by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his entire court. He liked the performance very much, and “in 1902, Kastrozza was awarded a professorship and appointed court miracle-worker. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich presents Kastrozza with a gold medal and an order from the Tsar.”
In the following years, Kastrozza travelled throughout Europe. He also visited Persia and other Asian countries. He has spoken to both the King of Spain and the Shah of Persia. He is also said to have had a contract to perform in America, but because of illness he never went there. Kastrozza has travelled extensively, but has also performed regularly in Latvia. Here are some of his performances in Latvia.
Between 1910 and 1922, I have found 6 newspaper reports about the magic duo “San Martino and Miss Iris de Kastrozza” performing in various cinema and variety theatre divertissements, including the “Zirkus-Varjete” (as the Salamonsky or Riga Circus was called at the time) in 1920. (Information collected on www.periodika.lv , but not all publications from the beginning of the century are included). In the following years 1923-1928, the daughter also takes part in the performances. The ensemble “San Martino, Miss Iris and M-lle Helene de Kastrozza” is known to have appeared in 10 venues in Riga and other Latvian cities, including Salamonska Circus in 1924 and 1928.
In the 1930-1937 period, “Professor of Magic San Martino de Kastrozza” was advertised alone or with one of his new partners, such as Erna Brahmann or the young Miss Salton. This is the case for 8 venues, including the Salamon Circus in 1936 and 1937.
For almost the next ten years, there is silence in Latvian news. And then the emigration newspapers “Latvju Ziņas” and “Latvijas Balss Austrlijā” on 31 August and 14 September 1946 respectively announced the passing of San Martino de Kastrozza.
Was San Martino de Kastrozza famous in Latvia? Undoubtedly. One of the proofs, of course, is that he is judged by those who have probably never even seen him. In the October-November 1927 “Stenograms of the Saeima” we read that the case of the Valmiera secondary school headmaster and teachers was “gutted” during the sessions of the Saeima. In three (!) sittings on 14, 15 October and 8 November, the name of de Kastrozza was raised, with the question of whether a physics teacher had the right to talk in class about “the fact that the laws of physics were being used by some magicians. This is now brought against the teacher as an insult. /…/ …this Puriņš is said to have allowed conversations about all sorts of things in the classroom and even talked about the magician de Kastrozza. Perhaps it is a subject that does not belong to school subjects, but if it comes up in conversation about such artists, then there is no sin, because if the matter is taken so seriously that the teacher is dismissed for it, then it is a bit far-fetched…”
Information about the relatives of Jūlijs Skrastiņš is well summarised in the material by Antra Grūbe in “Talsu Vēstis”: “Jūlius’ wife was an Estonian, Emilia Anete, who went by the name of Miss Iris. The eldest son Johannes and daughter Helena were born in Kiev in 1897 and 1907. The son was killed in the war in 1917 and the daughter, who was also her father’s assistant, died in 1930. The youngest son, Alexander, came into the world in 1911, lived in Germany after World War II, where he died at the age of 60. His mother, whom his father had divorced in the 1930s, moved to the USA, where Alexander’s family went: his wife Annette Leontine (née Saviauk) with their children Lieselotti (born 1928) and Ilmar (1932-2014) de Castroca. It is his descendant who is most likely to be the owner of the unique surname most often found on the Internet, the professional ice hockey player David de Kastrozza, son of Kalev, born in 1986. David was the first name of Skrastinis’ father and the middle name of his prematurely lost son Johannes.”
This article by A. Grūbe uses Anšlavs Eglītis’s memoirs of Kastrozza’s guest performances in the 1930s and is the richest description of the magic tricks he saw. For example: ‘In a not very good-sounding but gratingly loud voice, which could be heard as well in the first row as in the last, he leisurely, as if lecturing foolish children, explained everything he was saying to the audience so clearly that even the most pedestrian scoundrels could understand even quite complicated things. /../
He began his sessions by walking round the audience. Jokes and jibes were exchanged, and he grabbed one of the other guys by the nose with two fingers and “sniffed” out a silver rouble, which he soundly dropped into his gardiben, the “drum” he held in his other hand. For the more dignified-looking people, he took rubles from waistcoat pockets, skirt lapels, from his ears, from his hair, from his wristbands and, if he saw he could afford it, also from his corset. Little by little he would throw in money or half a capful and cheerfully jingle it, laughing at how easy it was to pick up the money that was being thrown around. /../
For example, valuables disappeared from the “stage safe” to be found in the overhead storage. “It was wrapped with a thick chain and locked with several padlocks, which de Kastrozza solemnly unlocked one after the other. From the large box he took out a second, slightly smaller chest, also locked. And so, gradually, smaller and smaller boxes, all locked and corded. From the last one, with a proud gesture, the artist took out the bundle of things he had collected. With a joke, a noble movement and a royal smile, he distributed it to its owners, remembering perfectly from whom he had taken what. The effect was devastating. When I cast my eyes over the many magicians I have seen in Berlin, Paris, Las Vegas and elsewhere, I have to say that I can’t remember anything better than what this robust, smiling San Martino de Kastrozza gave. /../
Standing at one of the many tables with a box of drapery in the middle of the stage, de K. takes a white sheet of paper and makes a “tutu” according to the shopkeepers’ model. Then, weighing it with his hand, he fills the ‘tuta’ with nothing in the air. After this, he sticks his hand to a box of cloth and takes out a large number of coloured roses. Repeating this, de K. fills the rag-box almost full of flowers.
“This trick was followed by another, with an assistant from the audience. A boy assured us that a piece of cotton wool had been dropped into the silver vessel, which, after being set on fire, covered with a lid and the magic words spoken, turned into fragrant coffee, which was poured into cups and poured over the people in the hall.”
In 2023, we celebrate the 145th anniversary of the most prominent figure in the art of illusion with the most sonorous name – San Martino de Kastrozza! May the aroma of wonderful coffee surround our memories and thoughts of this artist!
