In 1991, Sophie Lloyd was expelled from the Magic Circle, a London magic organization. She has not been found since.
Where did Sophie Lloyd go? The Magic Circle, a famous magic organization, is looking for this woman, excluded from this body more than 30 years ago for having pretended to be a man in order to be admitted. The London-based organization is hoping to track her down and apologize, but its efforts to locate the woman, whose real first name may actually be Sue, have been unsuccessful. “Has she disappeared? Who knows why we haven’t found her? For the moment his disappearance remains a mystery.explains Laura London, first female director of the Magic Circle, to AFP.
In order to be admitted to the organization, Sophie Lloyd had managed to pass herself off as a man for eighteen months, calling herself Raymond. She revealed her true identity in 1991 when the Magic Circle opened to women. Annoyed by what she called a “deliberate deception”the organization then decided to exclude him. “The more I learn about this injustice, the more I want to repair this mistake”assure Laura London. “At a minimum, we would like to apologize as an organization for the way we handled the situation at the time”she adds.
A still very masculine environment
Sophie Lloyd was not alone in organizing this “deception”. She had done it with the complicity of another magician, Jenny Winstanley, who had recruited Sophie, then an actress, to prove that women were as gifted at magic as men. Jenny Winstanley died in a car crash in 2004, taking with her any information she may have had about Sophie Lloyd. Laura London wishes she could say «merci» to the magician. “That in itself was an extraordinary feat and she succeeded”.
Although women have been able to be members of the Magic Circle for more than 30 years, they still only represent around 5% of its 1,700 members. But “times have changed”assures Laura London, who would like to write a book to tell the story of Sophie Lloyd and see a film about her journey. More and more young girls are training in magic and “the organization is incredibly inclusive now”she assures.
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