Wednesday, March 23, 2016

A Magical Day of Rememberance


Today marks the 142 Anniversary of the birth of Harry Houdini. It also marks a more solemn event, the 4th Anniversary of the passing of my friend Cesareo Pelaez from the Le Grand David Magic Show in Beverly MA. Interestingly enough, as I type this there is a special 'Birthday Auction' going on over at Harversat & Ewing Auctions. The auction runs till later today March 24th. And on April 10th, there is the Le Grand David Auction II happening online and in Beverly through KaminskiAuctions.com

A couple of days ago, I recorded a brief spot, along with David Bull and Rick Heath about the LGD Auction. You can hear the interview online on SoundCloud. The interviews were conducted by Michael Stroud on his Majinga Over The Edge Broadcast https://soundcloud.com/michael-stroud/le-grand-david-and-his-own-spectacular-magic-company-round-two

Please check out the interview. If you're like me, it never gets old hearing David and Rick talk about their days with Le Grand David. If you listen closely you'll hear some of the audio from one of the performances at the Cabot St. show in the background.

And don't forget the Potter & Potter Auction of Houdini and Davenport items on April 9th.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

It's HERE It's HERE!!!! The new Potter & Potter Auction Catalog!


Potter and Potter has an auction of many Houdini items on April 9th. Their catalog is now available to download. I've ordered a printed version too, but if you just want to download and see what is available, now is your chance! http://www.potterauctions.com/auctions/upcoming

In addition, Haversat and Ewing is having a Houdini Birthday Auction on March 23-24. You can view their items here https://haversatewing.hibid.com/catalog/73383/houdinis-birthday-auction/ 

Lots of incredible items up for auction. Be sure you're registered so you can bid the day OF the auction.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Houdini's Right Hand Man Jim Collins Died Today, in 1942


Here is Jim Collins death certificate from 1942. It contains all sorts of amazing information. For example, he died in Philadelphia, but according to the death certificate he was to be buried in New York. Try as I might, I have not been able to locate the grave, yet. I'll have more to add about Collins at a later date.

Sorry, been swamped with gigs right now, so The Magic Detective is behind, but I'll catch up shortly!

Monday, February 15, 2016

Le Grand David Auction, Round 2


I just received word from Rick Heath that the folks at Le Grand David along with the Kaminski Auctions will be holding a second auction of rare and collectible items from the longest running magic show in history.

If you followed the previous auction you might be wondering, 'what's left?'. Well, for the keen observer, there were a number of things that did not sell. And there were a number of things that were not part of the previous auction. I also imagine, there were items that were discovered since that last auction took place. So you'll have another chance to pick up something if you are a LGD collector.

The auction is April 10th starting at 10am. You can bid in person or online. There will be several days of previews where you can go and actually view the items. You can read a bit about the previous auction here: http://www.themagicdetective.com/2014/02/legrand-david-auction-is-now-history.html

There will be a catalog of the items online soon. They are currently photographing everything. As soon as that become available, I'll let you know.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Harry Kellar Poster


Harry Kellar is definitely one of my favorite magicians. He was one of the most beloved magicians of his time, though I think the Maskelynes' might disagree. His posters are highly sought after and they are always gorgeous. I honestly, never imagined I'd own a Kellar poster, but the photo above is MY Kellar poster!

This is a three sheet Strobridge Lithograph poster (84x40). I'm uncertain of the true date of the poster however. I have seen it listed online and in books as 1900 and 1903. And yet there is another poster, very similar to this one, where he is clearly younger, and that poster has dates of 1900 and 1907. I think that this poster to the left is likely 1907 as it looks like Kellar much later in his career.

It's kind of funny, most of the Kellar posters are filled with devils and imps and I get one of the few that doesn't include that iconic imagery, lol. But I've decided to include the imps just the same. How you ask?  I have been quietly collecting little devil figurines which I'll put on display right next to this enormous poster. I've got to get it framed and I can only imagine what that will cost. But it's going to look so incredible.

I don't have a huge poster collection, but I do have a few. I have a Fu Manchu, a Levante poster, one or two Virgil posters, a Kassner poster, two KIO posters from Russia, two George posters, and a few others that I can't think of off the top of my head. I also have a ton of modern day posters, all but 2 of the Le Grand David posters, Doug Henning posters, Copperfield and the like. But it's the lithos that are the most desirable. This Kellar is just breathtaking in real life!

UPDATE: Just an interesting aside, today at the Potter & Potter Auction, a signed photo of Harry Kellar's wife sold for $4800 and a Kellar In the Woods Poster sold for $13,000. AND there are a bunch of Kellar Posters among the Nielsen Collection which gets auctioned off in June.