GUSTAVE FASOLA (Fergus O'Conner Greenwood)

[Peter Reeve]

Hi - I'm researching stage magician 'Gustave Fasola' and I've hit a dead end. Fergus O'Conner Greenwood was born in Clayton-le-Moors in Lancashire in April 1875, and, as a youth, he worked as a magician (and petty thief !) under the name 'Professor Greenwood" until he eventually styled himself as ‘Gustave Fasola’ and became quite famous throughout GB and Australia.

I think I've found everything that Ancestry, FindMyPast, the BNA and Trove have to offer, but things seem to 'go quiet' as regards his life and career from the early 1920s onwards. I understand that he tragically hanged himself in London in 1929, but I cannot find any confirmation of this. If possible, I'd like to get some clues about what may have lead to his suicide and also where his final resting place might be.....or anything at all about his life that isn't leaping out from the usual sources.

Cheers and thanks. Peter Reeve

[groom]

Here is his death

Deaths Mar 1929   
Greenwood    Fergus O    53   
Lambeth    1d   584

At the moment you can order an on line copy of the death certificate from the GRO for £6 rather than the usual paper copy at £9.50 - you'd get it in 5 days. That would give you the cause of death.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

[Peter Reeve]

Thanks, Groom - I didn't know the GRO was having a 'sale'!Cheers.

[rosball]

This article in 1937 claims that he is alive and on a world tour
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55071341. (6th column).  Actually this article appears in various papers in various years so probably not to be trusted - a filler.   Here it is again in 1941
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146371136

This one in 1936 mentions he is appearing at the Theatre Royal
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70352147 (3rd column). It says he is Indian but mentions his famous lion act.

Well hopefully they are of interest...

Ros

[groom]

Wow, if that is his death in 1929 and with a name like that it would be quite a coincidence if it wasn’t, he certainly was a great magician performing years after his death. 

[rosball]

I guess someone could have stolen his act  .   He was said to be heavily made-up and dressed as a Hindu so not difficult to assume his identity - if you knew his tricks ...?

[Peter Reeve]

Thanks, Rosbal - on reading the 1936 article in full, it could be referring to/reviewing a show that took place in 1911 - I guess the old jokes about Australia lagging many years behind the rest of the World are true! Either that or journalists were playing fast and loose with the facts for the sake of a story - who'd have thought it?!!

I've applied for the death certificate, although I'm not sure where it will take me. I find it very odd that I can't find any contemporary press items at all that refer to his death (suicide?) - no inquest report, no obituary, no announcements in the personal columns or in show-biz magazines. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd be suspecting a Govt. 'cover-up'!   

[groom]

It will be interesting to see what the death certificate gives as the cause of death. Maybe it wasn’t suicide, we all know how stories get twisted. I would have thought that if it was, as he was famous, that it would have been reported. However, I believe at that time, suicide was covered up as much as possible. Please let us know when you find out.

[rosball]

Did he have a son Fergus Greenwood born ca 1912 who travelled with his father on his tour to New York,  both returning to England in 1928.  Could his son have been assisting/learning the tricks and taken over the act?