Sawing women in half started as a box trick

You can thank P.T. Selbit in 1920 for deciding that audiences really wanted to see a woman violently divided. The original illusion didn't use a sleek, transparent table, but rather a completely enclosed wooden crate where ropes were tied to the assistant's wrists and ankles. It was less about elegant magic and more about simulating a gruesome lumberyard accident for paying crowds.