Tribute to Marco the Magi Begins

If you look above at the masthead for my blog (above), you'll see I've changed it. This is my first 'tribute masthead' and it will remain there for a while. My friend and mentor Cesareo Pelaez passed away on Houdini's birthday this year. It was just a week ago really and I still can't come to grips with his being gone. For whatever reason, for me he has not gone. I hear him in my head even now.  So over the next few days, and maybe longer, I'll be sharing random thoughts with you about my friend, about the LGD family and about things I learned from him.

His lessons, his guidance, and his kindness are with me everyday. And yes, I DO hear him, still. It's as if he has left me something to do, but I've not yet done it. There were many suggestions Cesareo gave me over the years. I listened to them all and went after many. Some I did not accomplish and others I still plan to do. One right now that sticks in my mind is a book that he suggested I write. But I know Cesareo would not want me to write a book in his words, but to use my creativity to explore the subject. Unfortunately, he did not know, I wrote it. Actually, I wrote the first one, of many. The first version is a children's book which features a young Marco the Magi as a boy. Marco the Magi was the character Cesareo played on stage. The story is part fiction and part truth. I pulled elements from his life story and put them together to write this story.

The one delay was that I had not illustrated the story yet. I did not want to illustrate it all, only a couple pages and then bring it to him to review. Now, however, he will watch over me as I work on the illustrations.

But that is not the task he has left me. I'm not totally sure what it is, but I have a good idea.

Next article: The Magic of Spectacle
http://deancarnegie.blogspot.com/2012/04/lgd-magic-of-spectacle-pt1.html

The Magicians Gravesite Fund

Gravestone of Carter the Great, Illusionist Charles Carter*

As many of my readers known, I'm very interested in locating the graves of our compeers in the art of magic and documenting the location of the graves and trying to keep the graves in decent order. Unfortunately for me, the one grave I put a lot of effort into organizing the clean-up (Robert Heller's grave) which fell through when I got terribly sick on the day of the clean-up. There are additional issues with these clean-ups, the main one being where they are located. In my case, I don't live close to the Heller grave so it's not like I can stop by anytime I want.

Well, I was thrilled to discover that I was not alone in this quest. Richie Magic and his wife Barbara from NYC have been searching out these old grave sites as well. In fact, they've been working with the SAM Parent Assembly #1 to set up a fund for the upkeep and in some cases restoration of various grave sites. In the NY area there are a lot of magic graves. Houdini of course is the most famous and the work on that grave was actually done by the Houdini Museum folks. But there are other graves in NY, like Alexander and Adelaide Herrmann, Bess Houdini, Signor Blitz, Washington Irving Bishop and many others.

Grave of Herrmann The Great*

*The two grave photos above were taken by Richie and Barbara Magic!

Cesareo Pelaez, teacher; created Le Grand David magic show

This is the obituary for Cesareo from the Boston Globe. I'm still in shock over this, yet I know he would prefer we celebrate his life rather than mourn his passing. Personally, I think it's time he receive the Houdini treatment and continue to promote him and build his status to legend. He certainly earned it.

Cesareo Pelaez, teacher; created Le Grand David magic show