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The hall was rented for a period of only three months, but so successful was this magical combination that both stayed until 1904 when because of rebuilding of the hall, they had to leave. During this period, the British public had seen new life put into magical performances. There had been the birth of the "levitation", some wonderful automata including the whist player, "Psycho" and more than that, the visits of other famous magicians, including famous French magician Buatier de Kolta, inventor of such well-known tricks as "The Vanishing Lady" and the "Vanishing Birdcage". Above all, there was David Devant, who, with personal charm, stage presence, and his inventiveness, stands out as the greatest magician Great Britain has ever produced. No one who saw him will forget such masterpieces as "The Artists Dream" or the "Golliwog Ball".
In 1905 the new abode for Maskelyne was St. Georges Hall but Cooke suddenly died and Devant was to become the new partner.
The turn of the century came and passed, and for two decades there was the "Golden Age of Magic". There were many changes; digital dexterity had arrived and with it, artists like the American Thurston and, in particular, Downs, specializing with cards and coins. There too was Fowler, the "Watch King", using only watches and clocks and adding novelty in the variety theaters were the inventors of stage illusions, Servais le Roy, De Kolta, Oswald Williams, Owen Clarke, Walter Heans, Louis Nokola, and supreme among this company Percy Selbit, who, during his lifetime had no equal in the field of magical invention. In thinking of him one calls to mind such great feats as "Sawing through a Woman", "The Elastic Lady", "The Human Pincushion", "Through the Eye of a Needle", and "Crushing a Woman".
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