Vaudeville was lucrative in those days. It was at Keith’s Million Dollar Theatre in Philadelphia that Jansen switched from manipulations to the larger illusions and by doing this he found new acclamations and steady bookings which took him to Havana, Cuba, where he played the National Theatre for three months, then three months on tour. He toured the west coast several times and was booked by Sid Grauman Sr. into San Francisco soon after the big fire [in 1906].
In 1908 when a second child was due, Harry joined with Halton, in Chicago, to buy the retail business of A. Roterberg who was the leading manufacturer of magical supplies. Opening their own factory which included a nickel-plating plant, spinning lathes, woodworking department and showroom.
Leon DeBiere Jansen was born December 7th, 1908, and named after two good friends and magicians, Leon Leon and Arnold DeBiere.
For the next two years business thrived for Halton & Jansen Co. and another member joined the family, Dorothy Eleanor [Dolly], born on August 21st, 1910.
Although Edna was enjoying having a more settled life, for Harry the urge to travel again was very strong. Made more so by well-known magicians that would stop by the store. Men such as Thurston, DeBiere, Houdini and Nicola.
During this time Jansen did perform a few shows and one of them was for Victor Hugo. He and his brother Charles had managed foreign tours for Carter and Nicola and they were now looking for new talent to follow them.
In April 1911, Jansen left for London, not as a performer but to see what other magicians were doing.
When arriving at Liverpool, he was met by an old friend, Horace Goldin, who was playing Birkenhead with his “Magical Extravaganza, The Tiger and The Pretender.”
In London he saw performances of John and Neville Maskelyn, the English Nicola and David Devant. At the Music Halls he was also entertained by Oswald Williams, Fasola and Karmo.
He must have been strongly influenced by Devant because he always wanted his show to be family entertainment, as Devant did.
Which is why he liked working for the Keith Circuit, in Vaudeville. When B.F. Keith opened his first theatre in Boston in 1894, he established a reputation for family entertainment.
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In Europe
He traveled next to Paris, where DeBiere was playing at the Alhambra then on to Turin, Italy, to see [Servais] Leroy.
His meeting with Leroy was to mark the end of his association with the magic store at the Sherman House, because Leroy became a partner and Jansen was once more free to travel, which he did for the next forty years.
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Back in Chicago, Jansen organized a company and prepared to sail for Honolulu in June 1911, under the management of the Hugo brothers.
The “Great Jansen” left San Francisco with his pregnant wife, two children, five other people and of course, tons of “props.”
But he was almost completely out of ready cash. Never slow to take advantage of every opportunity, he observed the Chinese onboard ship playing “Fan-Tan,” a card game. He asked someone to teach him the game. By the end of the voyage, he had won enough to make all the tips and take care of other incidentals for the company until the opening in Honolulu at the Orpheus Theatre.
After a two-week engagement, the show left for Yokohama with a profit of several thousand dollars.
The review in the Hawaiian Star said, “The biggest audience that ever jammed itself into the Orpheus Theatre, the best conjuring, transformation and novelty performance ever given in Honolulu.”
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The Jansens did not take Leon, which proved to be a big mistake and one they always regretted. Lee was his paternal grandmother’s favorite child and she begged his parents to leave him with her since they planned to be gone only a few months. Expecting to be back in time for the birth of the next child.
But as engagements were extended and return bookings arranged, they were actually gone for three years.
When they returned to America, Leon was six years old and like a stranger. His parents tried very hard to bring him back into the family. But for the rest of his life, Lee said he always felt like an outsider because he was left behind.