The Magicians: Armstrong Family

An advert featuring the Armstrong Family: left to right Ellen Armstrong, John Hartford Armstrong, and Lille Belle Armstrong.

One of America’s foremost early 20th-century African-American magic acts. J. Hartford Armstrong, his wife, Lille Belle Armstrong, and eventually their daughter (Lille's stepdaughter), Ellen Armstrong, performed feats that included mind reading, slight of hand, and card tricks. At times they were joined by J. Hartford Armstrong’s brother and by members of the Jordan family. They were lauded by one newspaper reporter “as being the most royal colored entertainers of the century, as magicians,—artists of the highest type.”

The Armstrongs performed along the Atlantic seaboard from Key West to Philadelphia and are reputed to have toured in Cuba and Europe. According to the many newspaper accounts and handwritten endorsements included in their scrapbook, the troupe received widespread and enthusiastic audience acceptance. They performed before African-American audiences in churches and schools. They also gave performances for white audiences and, depending upon the location, for mixed audiences, in theaters, churches, schools, and opera houses. An advance publicity news clipping advertising their forthcoming appearance at Newport News, Va., asserts “The Armstrongs will tickle your shoe strings and make your big toe laugh. They will not pay doctor’s bills if you faint from laughter.”

An undated newspaper clipping publicizing an appearance by the Armstrongs at the Columbia Theatre notes “These artists have been before the American public for the past 23 years, and have never failed to entertain their audiences with their magic, mirth, and mind reading mysteries. They have appeared in the largest cities of America and come well recommended.”

John Hartford Armstrong
Was one of the few black magicians who performed in the time span from 1900 to 1930. From 1901 through 1909 he toured with his brother Joseph (or Thomas) as the “Armstrong Brothers." Early 1901 he teamed up briefly with a magician named Jordan as "Armstrong and Jordan." After he married Lillie Belle he teamed with her as the “The Celebrated Armstrongs” also known as the “Armstrong Company."

Lille Belle Armstrong
When her husband died in 1939 both she and her stepdaughter Ellen continued his tradition, performing magic for the African American community. Lille Belle died in 1947.

Ellen Armstrong
She was the daughter of J. Hartford Armstrong and his first wife Mabel. Her mother died shortly after she was born. Along with her new stepmom (Lille Belle) she was soon integrated into the show. When her father passed away both she and her stepmom continued the act.

After the death of her stepmom, Ellen continued her family's act becoming the first and only African American female magician touring with her own show. For thirty-one years, she continued to perform the Armstrong show up and down the East Coast, mainly at black churches and schools. Her tricks were common magic fare where she featured her own tricks and illusions of her father, such as "The Miser's Dream" and "The Mutilated Parasol." As time went on, she focused more on the drawing ability, billing herself as "Cartoonist Extraordinary." She retired in 1970 and spent her final years in a nursing home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her date of death is unknown.

An excellent account of Ellen's life story can be found in the book, Conjure Times: Black Magicians in America by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson.

Sources: magictricks.com; South Carolina Digital Archives/University of SC/Armstrong Family Papers