LONDON: Over 30 years after Britain’s elite Magic Circle expelled a woman for posing as a man to gain admittance, the formerly male-only society is to welcome her back as a full member.
The London-based international magic organisation ejected Sophie Lloyd after she masqueraded as a male in 1991 to win membership.
But after her story came to light last year, the society’s first female chair Laura London launched a search to track down Lloyd and apologise.
She was eventually located living abroad and will later on Thursday be presented with a membership certificate at a special ceremony at the organisation’s London headquarters.
“It is so exciting after all these months tracking Sophie… I can’t tell you how happy we are as a society to welcome her back into the fold,” London told BBC radio.
Lloyd posed as Raymond Lloyd for 18 months before unmasking herself as a woman.
But members, who voted to admit women in September 1991, were so angered by her “deliberate deception” that they went ahead with her expulsion.
The deception was in fact a two-person act involving the late magician Jenny Winstanley, who recruited Lloyd to help her prove that women magicians were just as good as men.
“I did a 20-minute show in front of 200 people, three examiners, and spoke to the examiner for an hour-and-three-quarters afterwards,” Lloyd said, recalling how she managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
After the Magic Circle changed its stance on allowing women in, Winstanley, who died in 2004, phoned the society to explain.
“Two days later we got a letter to say Raymond’s been expelled,” said Lloyd.
“We couldn’t get our heads round it. We just thought, ‘come on it’s funny, it’s amusing’ but they didn’t think so and Jenny was completely snubbed, unfortunately.”
After the expulsion, Lloyd continued to perform magic for 11 years in an anti-bullying variety show before eventually moving overseas.
She said the Magic Circle had changed out of all recognition in the 30 years since she was thrown out, adding: “This is for Jenny really, Jenny would have loved it.”
London said Thursday’s ceremony would also be a chance to recognise Winstanley both for her contribution to magic and her audacious trick at the Magic Circle’s expense.
“I just think she’s a wonderful woman and I know she’d have loved to be here and I just wish more than anything I could have met her myself,” she said.
The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 by around 20 magicians at a restaurant in London’s Chinatown district.
Members must vow never to give away the secrets of magic.
Although women have now been admitted to the Magic Circle for over 30 years, they still make up only around five percent of the society’s 1,700 membership.
The body says, however, that increasing numbers are now coming through in the 10-18-year-old age group.
