The Moon Vanish That Disappeared (Part 1 of 4)

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“If I am in the impossible business, and I am, then I want to go beyond impossible,” David Copperfield claimed in an interview published in The Nation in 1997.

The opening lines of that article described what Copperfield’s “three ultimate illusions” would be. In his own words, “I want to straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa, make the moon disappear, and put a woman’s face on Mount Rushmore.”

Throughout his career, Copperfield mentioned these aspirations multiple times, with references dating back as far as 1993 in The Montreal Gazette, although there are probably even more.

It took him thirty years to finally announce that he was ready to attempt one of these illusions: making the moon disappear. In October 2023, he set a date for February of the following year, creating a significant buzz online among magicians. But the much-anticipated illusion never took place.

As I write this in the final weeks of 2024, I believe that Copperfield’s Moon Vanish would likely have been the most significant event in magic this year—especially for the broader public.

So, while our expectations may have had to eclipse for a time, One Ahead is convinced that this moment offers an opportunity for some end-of-year reflection for the magic community. What would the moon vanish have looked like? Why didn’t it happen? What’s the future of these big illusions? We’ll cover these questions and more.

Spoiler: after extensive research and conversations with people knowledgeable about the subject, I’m convinced the Moon Vanish will happen. When you wait thirty years to make something happen, time becomes relative.

The Simple Spectacular Thing

David Copperfield’s journey into magic began at a young age—he was just eight years old when he started as a ventriloquist. Born David Seth Kotkin, he adopted the name David Copperfield after playing the lead role in The Magic Man, a musical theater production in Chicago. He was 18 at the time.

Copperfield’s deep love for art, performance, and theater fueled his passion for magic. His rise to fame enabled him to host his first TV special, The Magic of ABC, in 1977, followed by multiple The Magic of David Copperfield specials on CBS from 1978 to 2001.

In numerous interviews, he has explained how he was committed from the start to creating magic centered on storytelling and emotion. While today, many people recognize Copperfield for his large-scale illusions, it’s interesting to recall how he first ventured into this style of magic.

For one of my specials, I said, “I’m going to make an airplane disappear.” Okay! And the next day, everything went crazy—it was like breaking the internet before the internet. Everyone was talking about having airplanes disappear. And I said, “Wait, wait, wait. That’s what you like? I’d tell you a story about something like my girlfriend leaving me, and the magic was really hard. The airplane thing was comparatively easy, and people liked that thing?” I realized at that moment the power of the simple idea.

The above reflection, taken from a 2017 interview with Interview Magazine, captures how his relationship with grand illusions began with the disappearance of a Learjet in his 1981 CBS special. As he noted in a recent interview with GQ, “Taking the magic outdoors, putting it in a world that was familiar to everybody, made a big difference.” After the plane vanished, he realized he needed to top it with something even more impressive—this time incorporating a powerful story.

That’s where the idea of vanishing the Statue of Liberty came to life. In 1983, Copperfield vanished the statue and brought it back on television in front of a live audience, in what is recalled as his perhaps most iconic illusion ever. Fifty million people watched that CBS special.

To Copperfield, vanishing the Statue of Liberty seemed a natural next step after the plane illusion. He sought something both spectacular and significant, capable of resonating emotionally with viewers. To craft the story for this illusion, he convinced filmmaker Frank Capra to work together on a script that would highlight the importance of freedom.

This is how the story of Copperfield and big illusions began: with the discovery that people enjoyed big, spectacular events and his desire to embrace viewers on an emotional level with storytelling. So much has happened since then.

More Spectacular Things

Following the vanishing of the Statue of Liberty, Copperfield performed numerous astonishing large-scale illusions for his subsequent TV specials. These iconic illusions propelled him into mainstream pop culture.

In 1984, he levitated over the Grand Canyon in multiple sequences, culminating in a scene where he joined Bonnie Tyler, with her song Holding Out for a Hero as the soundtrack. Two years later, he paid homage to Houdini’s 1914 feat of walking through a brick wall by walking through the Great Wall of China.

In 1987, Copperfield staged an escape from Alcatraz prison in a single, continuous camera shot. Two years later, he escaped from the demolition of a luxurious, iconic hotel in Charlotte.

In 1990, he took on one of his riskiest stunts yet, escaping from a box floating toward Niagara Falls. To mention one more — in 1991, he made the dining car of an Orient Express train disappear, similar to the initial plane illusion.

These are among the most significant illusions that Copperfield performed over the years. It’s easy to imagine the Moon Vanish as part of this list, and it would have carried some of the recurring elements found in his big illusions, too...