How does a great illusionist make an elephant disappear?

Question:

How does a great illusionist make an elephant disappear?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Depends on where it's done. I suppose if it's done on stage, as I believe Houdini did it, then you could use the Black Magic technique (I believe that's its proper name). Basically, the background of your stage is a large pure black cloth. The elephant walk out and a screen is put in front of it. What happens next is *another* black curtain is lowered down from the catwalk above the stage, between the elephant and the screen. The audience doesn't notice it because both the new curtain and the stage backdrop curtain are pure black. That and any fancy lighting that may be going on combined with the magician doing his bit of misdirection. The magician, screen and assistants are, of course, standing in front of the new black curtain and behind it is the elephant, quietly being led off stage by stage hands. Once the elephant is securely off stage, the magician removes the screen and shows that the elephant has "vanished."

There are, I'm sure, other ways to accomplish this illusion but I believe that to be the original technique. Then again I'm not a magic historian but I do think the "Black Magic" technique was popular early on to make things appear and disappear on stage.