Hadji Ali

Hadji Ali (; – November 5, 1937) was a vaudeville performance artist, thought to be of Egyptian descent, who was famous for acts of controlled regurgitation. His best-known feats included water spouting, smoke swallowing, and swallowing nuts and handkerchiefs before disgorging them in an order chosen by the audience. Ali's most famous stunt, and the highlight of his act, was drinking copious amounts of water followed by kerosene, and then acting by turns as a human flamethrower and fire extinguisher as he expelled the two liquids onto a theatrical prop. While these stunts were performed, a panel of audience members was invited to watch the show up close to verify that no trickery was employed.

Although he never gained wide fame, Ali had a dedicated following on the vaudeville circuit in the United States. He performed for heads of state including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Judy Garland named him her favorite vaudevillian and David Blaine identified Ali as his favorite magician. Portions of his act were captured in the short film Strange as It Seems (1930) and in Politiquerias (1931), the Spanish-language version of Laurel and Hardy's Chickens Come Home. Two documentaries contain footage of Ali taken from Politiquerias: 1977's Gizmo!, and 1999's Vaudeville. Ali's unusual gastric abilities led to rumors that the Rockefeller Institute had offered a large sum of money to obtain his stomach post-mortem. After he died in England, his body was offered to Johns Hopkins University for study, though the offer was declined.

Background Hadji Ali was born into a working-class family in approximately 1888 or 1892, Ali became aware as a child that he possessed an unusual gastric ability. He explained in response to audience questions at a performance held at St. Mary's Hospital in Niagara Falls, New York, in May 1926, that while swimming in the Nile as a ten-year-old boy, he naturally discovered that he could swallow a large amount of water and blow it out like a whale spouting. He continued to develop and refine the ability as he grew older. A more dramatic version of these events was provided by Ali's daughter, Almina Ali, in an interview in England after his death. She stated that his abilities were first learned through a single incident: while bathing in the Nile, he inadvertently swallowed a fish and an ample volume of water. Instead of dying, as those present thought he might, Ali simply regurgitated the liquid and the fish without ill effect. Almina played the part of assistant in her father's act, billed in his shows as "The Princess". "The Amazing Regurgitator", "The Egyptian Enigma", "The Human Aquarium", "The Human Volcano" and "The 9th Wonder of the Scientific World". Ali has been described as a "large, barrel-chested and bearded man ... [that cut] an imposing figure in his Arab costume."

Although Ali spoke a number of languages it was reported that Almina acted as his interpreter in the United States and other places, as he did not speak English and was illiterate. Once he had gained some notoriety, Ali took on as his manager Hubert Julian, Although he developed a significant following, even being named Judy Garland's favorite vaudevillian, Ali "remained more a sideshow curiosity than a true vaudeville headliner" according to at least one source. he spouted the water in a continuous stream for a sustained period of time, sometimes approaching one minute. Another common trick was to swallow 30 to 50 unshelled hazelnuts (although one of his posters advertised 40 pecans), followed by another nut of a different variety, such as an almond. Ali then brought them up one by one with the odd-nut-out produced at a mark called out by the audience. In another trick, Ali swallowed three to six handkerchiefs of different hues and then produced them in a color order requested by audience members. Ali also swallowed live goldfish, watches, coins, costume jewelry, paper money, peach pits, stones, live mice, buttons, pool balls and other odd objects. In another standard performance segment, he placed eight or more lit cigarettes in his mouth but instead of inhaling, he swallowed the smoke and, after a significant time had passed, issued it forth in a steady stream like an erupting volcano.

At some performances, a panel or "jury" from the audience was invited on stage to verify that no trick mechanism was being employed—that he was actually swallowing the items in question and delivering them back through acts of regurgitation. One newspaper reported that Ali's feats, essentially controlled vomiting, were performed in "a manner without the least bit of unpleasantness or anything bordering on repulsiveness." Not everyone felt the same: at least one of Ali's engagements was cut short once the proprietor realized that the nature of the act "was killing their supper shows".

The abilities of Ali fascinated the public and medical authorities. As reported in a 1928 Sheboygan Press article, at one of Ali's performances a number of doctors attended and thoroughly examined him during the performance. They came away satisfied that he was actually imbibing and regurgitating the material and objects as claimed, but remained "mystified over his extraordinary performance." Two documentaries contain footage of Ali taken from Politiquerias: 1977's Gizmo!, and 1999's Vaudeville, a documentary produced by KCTS-TV that exhibits 90 vaudeville acts over a two-hour running time. The documentary has since aired on the Public Broadcasting Service's American Masters series numerous times.

Death Ali died on November 5, 1937, in Wolverhampton, England, from heart failure during a bout of bronchitis. Even before his death, a rumor had circulated that the Rockefeller Institute sought to procure Ali's stomach upon his death and would pay as much as $50,000 for it. This claim appeared in a poster advertising Ali's impending appearance at a theater during his lifetime. After Ali's death was reported, the rumor resurfaced as an active offer of $10,000. However, The Afro-American newspaper reported on December 11, 1937 that Johns Hopkins's officials had declined the offer.

He was eventually buried on December 9, 1937, at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.