Key information
In 1932, a traveling carnival arrived in Waukegan, Illinois, featuring a performer known as Mr. Eléctrico. Seated on an electric chair, the magician allowed 50,000 volts to pass through his body while sparks flew around him.
During the show, a 12-year-old Ray Bradbury was approached by the magician, who touched his forehead with an electrically charged sword and uttered two words: Live forever. This encounter ignited the future author's writing career.
Bradbury later returned to the circus to find Mr. Eléctrico, who introduced him to the other performers behind the scenes. The magician also confessed his belief that Bradbury was the reincarnation of a friend who died in France during World War I.
Investigators have found no records of the supposed magician, and Bradbury's accounts of the voltage fluctuated. Nevertheless, the author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles took the advice to heart and achieved literary immortality.
