The world woke up a little less magical than the day before on January 14th, 2021, after
news broke that Siegfried Fischbacher — one-half of the legendary Las Vegas magic show act
Siegfried and Roy — died at around midnight the night before. The New York Times reported
that the 81-year-old entertainer died of pancreatic cancer. His lifelong business and domestic
partner Roy Horn died in May 2020, one of hundreds of thousands of Americans to succumb
to complications of COVID-19. Siegfried released a poignant and prescient statement after the
loss of his life partner:
"The world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend. From the moment
we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried
without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried."
Siegfried and Roy stood out as pioneers in the world of Las Vegas showbiz. Their shows,
which featured mind-boggling magic tricks accompanied by spectacular visual effects
like lasers, smoke machines, sequined everything, and, of course, exotic animals like cheetahs
and white tigers, captivated audiences throughout the 1990s. It was abruptly stopped after Horn
was attacked by the pair's white tiger Mantecore in October 2003. Now that both Siegfried and
Roy are tragically no longer with us, let's take a look at the sensational life the two
led together, an adventure on which they took hordes of adoring fans along for the ride.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Siegfried and Roy's star-studded relationship
began when they first met on a cruise ship in 1957. Siegfried was working as a steward/magician,
Roy a waiter. Roy offered to assist Siegfried, then suggested that the two amp up their act
with some animals a little wilder than rabbits and doves. When Roy told him that disappearing
a rabbit was "ordinary" and asked him if he could make a cheetah vanish, Siegfried responded:
"In magic, anything is possible."
So Roy snuck a cheetah on board the ship and the two took the first step on their path
to revolutionizing the magic show. Siegfried said,
"In show business, in order to be successful, you have to be different. And when Roy showed
me that cheetah, it made all the difference."
The show was a huge hit on the high seas, and after finding success on cruise ships,
the two took their act on land, showcasing in European nightclubs, cabarets, and theaters,
including Paris' famous Folies Bergère cabaret music hall. But they had bigger and better
things in mind, and in the late 1960s, they set their sights on that bastion of glitter
and illusion: Las Vegas.
The sensational duo moved to Las Vegas in 1967, getting their first gig at the Tropicana.
But Vegas back then was a much different town. It has grown into a family-friendly escape
into an outsized simulacrum of actual culture today, but in the 1960s, it was still, as
Siegfried told Vanity Fair in 1999, "a gambler's town, pure and simple."
"The Rat Pack was in charge — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainment
was no more than just a rest period between gambling sessions — you know, bring on the
scantily clad showgirls, strike up the band, tell some jokes, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-boom, you've
got a show."
It took them a while to fundamentally alter what audiences expect from Vegas shows, but
they eventually did. They worked as a side act in various shows around town throughout
the 1970s, and finally got the chance to headline their own full-length show in 1981. Beyond
Belief ran for seven years at the Frontier, then in 1988, hotel magnate Steve Wynn built
them a 1,500-seat theater at his latest hotel, The Mirage. From their first show there in
1990, they went on to sell out 5,750 performances that completely reimagined what could be done
on a Las Vegas stage.
Siegfried and Roy's magic spectacle fundamentally changed what Las Vegas visitors expected from
a floor show. Alan Feldman, head of The Mirage's PR department during that time, told the Las
Vegas Review-Journal that it didn't just transform the idea of the magic show, it "had a broader
impact on the Las Vegas show, period." The act's production cost a whopping $30 million
— an unheard of amount in those days — and employed a cast and crew of 267 people. Feldman
said,
"They were the first of anyone, really, to bring leading Broadway and West End designers
and directors and choreographers into a Las Vegas setting to help stage a show. The creative
team that was around 'Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage' was practically a who's who ... (of)
incredible people who had an incredible list of credits."
In addition to leaving audiences awestruck, it also broadened the scope of who could go
to a Vegas show, leaving behind the risqué cabaret-style shows for a more family-friendly
model of visual entertainment.
He and Roy made their final on-stage appearance at the Bellagio in February 2009, after Roy's
long recovery from the 2003 tiger attack.