Famous Illusionists On 3-D
A twist of fate brought famous illusionists Siegfried and Roy together.
And now Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box follows their life stories in 3-D. CBS News This Morning reports.
Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box is a recap of the lives of these two very wealthy performers and how they overcame the adversity of tough childhoods to make it to the top of the entertainment heap.
"I thought it was a great thing," says Siegfried about creating the movie. "Especially 3-D IMAX, where you experience something more personal. You are actually in the movie and that brings Siegfried and Roy out in the world."
"You know, not everybody can afford to go to Las Vegas. So we go there and they experience it the same way," he adds.
Sir Anthony Hopkins narrates the story of their lives. Siegfried and Roy were born into dysfunctional German families.
Siegfried looked to magic as an outlet from his loveless home, while Roy ran off to the zoo and discovered his bond with animals gave him happiness that his human family lacked.
"It would be a magical journey I wanted to share with them. I trusted them more than I trusted my family," says Roy about the animals.
The two met on an ocean liner when Siegfried was 21 and Roy 15; Siegfried was doing fairly common magic acts and Roy encouraged him to make his pet cheetah Chico appear in place of the usual rabbit. An unusual partnership was born that has lasted 40 years.
Siegfried and Roy have 500 shows a year and perform twice a day, 46 weeks a year.
Steve Wynn of the Mirage Hotel, which hosts their act, says they deserve much of the credit for the success of his Las Vegas hotel, since they draw 15,000 people a week, or 700,000 people a year.
Their act has grossed more than a half a billion dollars over the last nine years, and Forbes lists their estimated earnings as $58 million for 1996-1997.
Siegfried and Roy are also the national spokesmen for the Save the Tigers fund for Exxon.
More than 20 years ago, the two started their own conservation program. They have 58 white tigers and lions in a private kingdom.
The animals rotate between the Secret Garden at the Mirage Hotel and Little Bavaria, the entertainers' private retreat of 100 acres, seen by no one until the movie.
"What we had to do was create a space for the animals to feel comfortable and secure. When you do that on stage, you're educating the audience a little bit," says Roy.
They never accept outside donations for their breeding program; they fund it entirely themselves.
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