It’s 106-degrees in Las Vegas, a scorcher of an August day, yet Siegfried Fischbacher looks uncannily fresh as he strolls the outdoor Secret Garden at the Mirage Hotel.
At 77, the famed illusionist has a full head of hair, still dyed his signature blond. He’s wearing crisp white pants and a dress shirt – the collar turned up rakishly – and a black and white blazer. Gold chains glimmer around his neck.
Two fans, looking hot and sweaty despite their sleeveless shirts, flank the entertainer and ask him to pose for a photo. In the image, posted to Twitter with the caption, “Look who we bumped in to @TheMirageLV secret garden” – Siegfried perspires not a single drop. It’s as if he has a trick air conditioning unit up his sleeve.
An illusionist is a master entertainer, performing slights of hands and feats of magic and Siegfried has been one of the most celebrated on the planet since opening a Vegas show with partner Roy Horn in 1967. One of his most famous tricks was an act where he would mysteriously turn Roy — on stage inside a plexi-glass container — into an enormous, roaring tiger.
But on Aug. 1, as Siegfried made his solo rounds at the zoo-like animal sanctuary — whose official name since it was founded in 1990 has been the Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat — plenty of tigers were there yet Roy was nowhere to be found.
Roy’s disappearance from the public eye is no act: A source tells The Post the 71-year-old now rarely ventures outside the pair’s palatial 100-acre compound known as Little Bavaria, located miles north of the noise and bustle of the casinos on the Strip.
Until recently, Roy would show up occasionally in his motorized wheelchair at the Secret Garden or for dinner at the Mirage, but the source says those outings are increasingly rare.
“Roy’s become a bit like Greta Garbo, he wants to be alone,” said a dancer who once worked with Siegfried & Roy.
There have been stories about Roy’s amazing recovery since a horrible stage accident in October, 2003 when a male tiger, used in the show hundreds of times, sunk his teeth into Roy’s neck and triggered a stroke. Roy not only survived, he regained partial ability to walk and talk.
Siegfried and Roy clung to the hope Roy would recover enough to resume the show. The friends tried several times to revive it — the act had been one of the most successful on the strip for years, with 12 to 14 packed shows a week 48 weeks a year — but it wasn’t mean to be.
Good magicians need speed and reflex, and Roy could barely walk without a cane.
“Roy was injured and he couldn’t keep up,” said the source. “Siegfried hated that people bought tickets to their shows just to check out Roy. He hated they were being pitied. Siegfried didn’t want to go out like that.”
In 2010, Siegfried and Roy drew the curtains on their stage show, announcing they were retired for good.
The two haven’t been lovers for decades, but they remain devoted friends. They both live on their Little Bavaria estate, but in separate quarters.
“They were together when they first met, but that was a long time ago,” said the source. “They date other people. They’re still close, but like brothers.”
While Roy may be out of sight and neither of their names no longer blaze on any marquis, it appears that Siegfried and Roy still have a final rabbit to pull out of their collective hat.
Live shows are terrific, but ask anyone with a Netflix subscription about the power of a mini-series.
Proving they’re still in the game, Siegfried and Roy announced in June they’ll be starring in a new mini-series — about themselves.
Part documentary, part drama, the entertainers are sinking $150 million of their own money to executive produce the series. They chose Philippe Stolzl, director of The Physician, to write it and Nico Hoffmann to direct. Germany’s increasing international UFA Fiction will get first rights to air the series. Pixomondo, the VFX outfit that works on Game of Thrones is handling the visual effects
Siegfried & Roy spokesman Lynette Chappelle told The Post the entertainers weren’t ready yet to publicly speak about the production, which is scheduled to be released next year.
There is plenty of documentary footage that will make for fascinating viewing and open a window to how their story started in 1959, when the two German-born young men met aboard a cruise ship.
Siegfried had been entranced by stage magic since he was a boy and although he was hired on the ship as a steward, he eventually appeared on stage with his magic act.
While Siegfried was motivated by sleight of hand tricks, Roy was obsessed with animals. As a child, Roy developed a rapport with a cheetah he met at a zoo and somehow liberated him, making the big cat a pet. He was also offered employment on the same cruise ship as Seigfried, as a bell-boy.
The two first teamed up on the day Seigfried asked his ship-mate if he could assist him with his stage routine — and Roy offered up a suggestion that would cement the duo’s future in entertainment.
“He said to me, what you just did with a rabbit tonight, could you do it with a cheetah? I said, of course, in magic anything is possible, not realizing he had a pet cheetah,” Siegfried told 20/20.
Chico the Cheetah, became a part of the act and when the pair eventually returned to land, they played in nightclubs and cabarets throughout Europe. In 1967, they landed in Las Vegas.
Unlike Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley, who arrived on the Strip as well-known stars, Siegfried and Roy were still developing their performance skills when they started a three-month gig as a specialty act in the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana.
Their act became better, bolder and more glittery and it was soon booked at the Stardust and then at the MGM. In 1981, they were offered their own very own production called Beyond Belief, at the Frontier.
Enter Las Vegas honcho Steve Wynn who, in 1989, offered the pair their own show and a $57.5 million contract at his new resort, The Mirage.
With its 250 cast and crew members, 75 tons of scenery — including a mechanical fire-breathing dragon — and trained jungle cats jumping through hoops, the show became the most popular ticket in town.
“The wonderful thing about Siegfried and Roy’s show is that you didn’t have to be over 21 to watch it,” Wynn said in 2009. “It wasn’t salacious or erotic. It was big and sensual, but you can take anybody to it and, more importantly, since 15 percent of this town was foreign visitors who don’t necessarily speak English, we got all of the international trade.”
The mini-series will also likely include the dramatic footage of the shocking end to one of the most successful live shows in history — the night Mantecore, the seven-year-old white tiger pounced on his master.
“He (Roy) looked like a rag doll in his mouth,” an audience member told CNN at the time.
Trainers rushed the stage to subdue the tiger but by the time emergency officials arrived, Horn had suffered massive blood loss. He also suffered a stroke and required two surgeries.
It was a disaster for Roy — and the show.
Still, Siegfried defended the tiger, who would live the rest of its days at the Secret Garden until it died in 2014. “Listen, I say it was an accident,” saying if Mantecore wanted to kill Roy, “it would (have happened) in no time.”
Siegfried also admitted he was in shock because it meant the show would be over — just like that.
He admitted being hit with an overwhelming sadness. “I was so alone and I was so lost,” he recalled.
“The depression was more for the show because it was over, without realizing it,” he said. “I went through this crazy time, I went and did a lot of crazy things.”
Besides hiking and travelling through Europe, Siegfried said he also spent time living with monks so he could re-discover peace of mind.
He admitted he loved show business so much, there would never be a perfect time to bid “au-revior and auf wiedersehen” to fans.
Perhaps with their planned mini-series, they won’t have to.
Instead, via the small screen, Siegfried and Roy can say “abracadabra” to the world once again.