The story of Nashville's Black magician, who played for segregated schools, troops

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — On this first day of Black History Month, we're remembering a master of his craft who performed with legends.

He brought a form of entertainment to crowds who may not have seen anything like it before. His name was Fetaque Sanders, a prominent magician of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

Magician Scott Humston was getting ready to perform a show at a house in Mount Dora, Florida when NewsChannel 5 arrived to talk with him. Scott said every one of his Mind, Myth, and Magic shows carries the influence of his friend, Fetaque.

"He was definitely the leading African American magician in the country at that point, bar none," Scott said.

Fellow magician and magazine editor Samuel Patrick Smith has many of the props and ads used by close friend Fetaque.

"All of these things he laid out himself and designed," Samuel said, flipping through a scrapbook of old ads.

Someone else very close to Fetaque is Carolyn Syphax-Young.

"Fetaque Sanders is my father," she smiled.

Let's go back. By 1933, Fetaque, a young man from Nashville, was traveling and living life on the road.

"He was doing tours and performing to segregated schools during part of the Depression," said Samuel.

"Course, they were all Black audiences," said Carolyn.

"He had his own vehicle and his own travel trailer," Scott added. "He'd pull that with him."

Ads for Fetaque read; "The strangest mysteries ever seen by human eyes!" "A night of enchantment!" "Fetaque Sanders. Master Magician. In-person, not a moving picture."

"The kids were going nuts!" Samuel said of the shows Fetaque would perform in segregated schools. "They'd never seen anything like it before. They went wild! He would drive them to hysteria. He would come out and say, 'Magic is mystery and mystery's confusing. Look out 'cause I'm gonna make it amusing.' He would advertise [portrayals of] shrinking the head of a living boy, chopping a girl's head off. That was the feature. Show for the whole family!"

For anyone who approached, Fetaque could always perform a little coin magic.

"Fetaque would have made that coin disappear and come back just like that," Scott said reenacting one of Fetaque's old coin tricks.

Alongside Pearl Bailey, Fetaque performed to Black troops during USO shows in World War II. He did table magic at nightclubs featuring Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway.

"I've got a great picture of [Fetaque and Cab] standing outside a nightclub," Samuel said. "Fetaque had his usual flair!"

Still, there was no one Fetaque would have rather shared a stage with than daughter Carolyn.

"That was special," Carolyn remembered of her childhood. "If he'd go cross country, I'd be on stage with him."

One of Fetaque's favorite routines was making a box of Wheaties vanish and suddenly appear in a portrait of Carolyn.

"He made a little girl feel like she was a princess all the time," Carolyn smiled.

After a stroke in 1958, Fetaque retired from performing. By the 80s, he was befriended by two young magicians, Samuel and Scott. He'd sip coffee with Scott at a McDonald's in downtown Nashville and write notes to Samuel on whatever he could find.

"This would be a McDonald's placemat," Samuel chuckled as he pulled it from a box of letters Fetaque sent him.

"I've always told people, that instead of taking young ladies out on dates in college, I took Fetaque to McDonald's!" Scott laughed. "That's what I did. It just meant the world to me that he spent time with me."

While Fetaque showed a brave face to everyone, Scott and Samuel noticed he remained affected by those years traveling the country during the Jim Crow era.

"He couldn't find a hotel that would let Blacks stay," Samuel said.

"That's how we lived," Carolyn added.

"In 1989, he said, 'Now, can you and I go to a restaurant together?'" Samuel remembered. "He was concerned what he experienced in the 40s would still be in place."

By 1992, Fetaque was in poor health and at the end of his life. Carolyn and Samuel paid him a visit.

"I asked him to do a trick for me, the coin trick," Carolyn said, thinking back. "Could he still do it? He did it, and I said, 'Look, Sammy. He hasn't lost his magic.'"

With a crowd walking into the house in Mount Dora, it was nearing time for Scott to perform.

"I carry a bit of Fetaque in all my shows," Scott explained. "He's a part of my show 'cause he's a part of me."

Scott's not even necessarily talking about magic. What he learned from Fetaque was the power of human connection, whether that's in front of a crowd, whether it's in creating forever memories with a box of Wheaties, whether it's in a McDonald's placemat.

"He loved the art of magic," Scott said. "He loved people."