Dante

Welcome to the Magic Poster Tour at Poe’s Magic Theatre, inside the historic Lord Baltimore Hotel.

This stop features The Mysterious Dante, a mid twentieth century piece billed as “The World’s Greatest Mystery-Spectacle.”

The design makes Dante and a red devil the two dominant faces. The yellow, green, and scarlet lettering frames the pair like a comic confrontation, while ‘his own big American company’ and ‘mystery-spectacle’ promise a full evening rather than a single trick.

The devil here is a familiar advertising companion, part menace and part straight man. Dante’s portrait stays composed while the creature mugging behind him does the shouting. That split lets the poster sell danger without losing the reassuring presence of the star.

This glare-free digital restoration is based on the framed poster photograph at Poe’s Magic Theatre; small details obscured by reflections have been reconstructed.

Dante was the stage name of Harry August Jansen, a Danish-born American magician and producer. Before becoming Dante, he toured as the Great Jansen. His productions later traveled internationally under a name and stage character designed to work even when language did not.

His best-known stage cry was ‘Sim Sala Bim,’ a phrase that became part of the show’s identity. The poster’s devil and oversized title make the same argument visually: Dante is not merely presenting tricks, he is inviting the audience into a world with its own noisy rules.