Echoes from 1917: The Unsolved Mystery of Madam Zomah

Another page from my WW1 Autograph book

Jul 01, 2025

What a costume!

Another page from my amazing Autograph Book from 1917. It’s packed full of signatures of music hall acts who performed at The Chatham Empire during World War 1.

Meet….Madam Zomah!

I love this picture. Did she design her own costume? Did she have a handy ruler in her bag for optimum presentation of autographs? We’ll never know.

**Zomah** - a name that promised mystery and delivered it, night after night.

The act was fronted by Adelaide Ellen Giddings, a poised and commanding presence on stage. Her husband, Alfred James Giddings, stood beside her in near-total silence. While most magical duos of the time centered the man as the trickster and the woman as his glittering assistant, the Zomahs reversed the trope. Adelaide was the star while Alfred remained in the background, still and enigmatic, offering only the occasional hand or gesture.

He blindfolded her as she sat in an ornate chair, went into the audience, and held up objects that she identified. There was no verbal code.

“Madame Zomah’s powers must be seen to be believed.” Source here.

“Madame Zomah does not claim to read everybody’s thoughts, which is a relief, but those of Mr. Zomah, who acts as a medium in all her experiments.”

From Will Goldston’s The Magazine of Magic (July, 1917):

A Code? You watch for it, listen for it, guess at it. You discover nothing; after a moment’s consideration you reject every guess. The assistant makes no signal to Zomah; he speaks no word to her save the simple request for information and the acknowledgment that the information is correct.’ And goes on to say, ‘Zomah is offering big cash rewards to anybody who can duplicate her performance or can prove that she employs confederates.’

That offer led to a well publicised trial when magician John Clucas Cannell took up the offer in 1933 and published what he thought was the secret in an article “Famous Music Hall Secrets Exposed.” The Giddings sued and went to court in 1935. It was a complicated trial in that Cannell claimed that Mr. Giddings had violated his Magic Circle oath and revealed it to him. This added an additional charge of defamation.

In court Giddings refused to reveal the secret, stating that even when the King asked him to reveal the secret he refused.

The Secretary of the Magic Circle testified on their behalf, along with famous magicians such as Horace Golden and Murray.

Amazingly, despite never revealing their secret, the Giddings won. Mrs. Giddings was awarded £250. Mr. Giddings was awarded £500. Some things never seem to change. They also got business damages, for a total of the equivalent to about $70,000 today. From the trial we also learn what they were making, which was around $190,000 a year in today’s dollars, which is not bad for a Music Hall act. The actual workings of the act died with them.

The Zomahs were a rare example of a female-led magic act, in which the magician’s assistant said nothing at all.

Who Do You Think I Am?

Discussion about this post