elen Dorn Vanishes

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

A famous magic show was coming to Lilliland and one of the outstanding acts was to make a person from the audience disappear, so the announcement claimed.

The magic show arrived and the stage was set. Mandell, the Magician, walked onstage in the Lilliland Theater and asked for a volunteer from the audience who he claimed he would make disappear right before the eyes of the large audience, never to be seen again.

A volunteer was selected and the magician asked her name to which she said, “Helen Dorn, a visitor to Lilliland.” Helen was about 25 years old, visiting friends in Lilliland. She was very pretty and said she was from London, England.

The magician escorted Helen behind a large black screen and then waved his magic wand. There was a puff of offstage smoke, the curtain was opened and Helen was not there – she had vanished. The magician said that Helen was gone forever, never to return again. Everyone in the audience was stunned and wanted Helen to be returned, but the magician said no, and left the stage saying the magic show was over.

People rushed the stage to find the magician was gone. Then everyone looked all over the theater but they could not find Helen anywhere. Days later, the magician was found in France and said that he had done nothing wrong. He just announced that the show was over and he left the stage and Lilliland that same evening.

Baron Von Lodge was very concerned about the missing woman, Helen Dorn, and asked his chief advisor, Professor Hamblin, what to do. The Professor investigated the missing woman situation. A colleague in London was consulted. It turned out that the person known as Helen Dorn was not a real person, but a paid actress with the magic show who would go to the town a few weeks before the scheduled magic show’s arrival and blend in with the citizens of the town, then pretend to be a real member of the audience chosen to go onstage. Once behind the curtain, she would change into a disguise and blend in with the crowd, pretending to search with everyone else. Then she would leave the theater and go to the next town in advance of the magic show to do everything all over again.

Since there was no real Helen Dorn, she never vanished, but it was all part of the act. Everyone in Lilliland was relieved about the outcome.