American Tricksters

Official trailer for the first season of Smoke and Mirrors. True stories of magic from the front lines of the secret war. Forget everything you think you know about espionage, because the truth is a wilderness of Smoke and Mirrors.

In our final episode of the season, we take a trip around the world and through time as we examine how zealotry and mysticism combined to lay the foundation for the modern relationship between magic and spycraft.

In CIA culture, reverence for magicians and respect for "the magician's code" runs deep. And for good reason: From disguise to sleight of hand, secrets of the illusionist's stagecraft are also secrets of the spy's tradecraft.

From Bond to Bourne, Hollywood’s obsession with spies is well known. But the reverse is also true: Intelligence agencies have long looked to the silver screen as inspiration for the development of next-generation gadgets, technology and disguises.

Rising paranoia, increasing opacity, and loosening ethical standards among intelligence services combined to make a perfectly fertile environment for some of history's most outrageous spy initiatives, including the notorious MKULTRA.

One of the most influential figures in the Cold War-era CIA wasn't a spy, soldier, or scientist. He was a magician. Get to know John Mulholland – the enigmatic figure at the center of some of the Agency's most controversial initiatives.

In the paranoid, hyper-competitive context of the Cold War, no tactic was off the table for American or Russian spy services – not even the use of "psychics." Most efforts were dubious at best, but a few raised the eyebrows of even the most hardened skeptics.

From hiding the Suez Canal from the Luftwaffe to fabricating entire ghost armies to divert the enemy on D-Day, the front line Allied magicians of World War II made a historic impact.