D.C. Magic History Conference UPDATE

I received a very nice email from Ken Trombly the main organizer of the Washington Symposium on Magic History that takes place April 25-27, 2013. He has just added two speakers to the list of an already superb line-up.

(screen shot of David's blog The Houdini Files)

David Saltman is going to be speaking about Jerry Andrus. David will also reveal some details about his new book 'The Escape Artist' which deals with Houdini's time in Russia. I'm very excited to hear about both of these topics. David also runs the blog Houdinifile.com which I have now put up a permanent link here on the site, and I'm sorry I didn't put it up before, I dropped the ball on that one. Not only does David cover some great historical items about Houdini and Magic History he also includes BATMAN! You can't get better than that!

Next we have the author of the new book 'Metamorphosis', Bruce McNab. This is the book about the early years of Houdini while he was in Canada. According to several of my trusted Houdini friends this book is a must read. I have not yet gotten a copy of the book, but I know it's going to be fantastic. When they put a quote on the cover by John Cox, you know the book is going to be good.

There will be plenty of other talks at the conference as well covering topics like Alexander Herrmann, the 1970 close-up magic scene, the magic of North Korea with film footage, Charles Bertram and still more! In addition the conference will honor Carl Williams and Nick Ruggerio. The last time I saw Nick, he gave a talk for our SAM group in Northern VA and we surprised him with a special appearance by Blackstone Sr.! Hmm, I've never written about that before, I guess I just found another article to write about :)

This will be my very first magic history conference and I can't tell you how excited I am. For one, I know I'll be meeting a bunch of the folks who read my blog and the many folks I've been corresponding with for quite some time. I may even have a booth there with my artwork. Here is the link for the conference! I hope to see you there.

Oz, The Great & Powerful...Magician

A new movie debuts today called 'OZ, The Great and Powerful' and is a prequel to the popular movie The Wizard of Oz.  The story began as a book, The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (1900) by Lyman Frank Baum.

L.Frank Baum was born May 15, 1856 in Chittenango NY. He had been a life long lover of theatre and tried unsuccessfully to have a career in theatre. His writings did much better for him, though he did take his story The Wonderful Wizard of OZ and turn it into a theatrical play called The Wizard of OZ.

In the original story, the Wizard is a traveling magician who works for a circus. Through a freak accident on a balloon ride, the wizard finds himself in the land of Oz. His full name was Oscar Zoroaster  Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs which abbreviated spells out
"O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D", he shortened it further to simply OZ.  He becomes the ruler of OZ probably because of his magical abilities and his name OZ written across his hot air balloon.

During the same period of time, the preeminent magician in the United States was a fellow named Harry Kellar. He had been a world traveling magician, but after the deaths of the English magician Robert Heller and the European magician Herrmann the Great, Kellar had the title all to his own.

Heinrich Keller (Harry Kellar) however was born here in America, in Erie PA on July 11, 1849. He was not a circus magician, but he certainly was a traveling magician. He apprenticed under the Fakir of Ava, then went out to manage the famous Davenport Brothers. He left the Davenports and took William Fay with him and they started their own act, traveling through Mexico, South America and beyond. However, on their way to Europe, the ship they were on hit rocks and sunk, taking all the money Kellar and Fay had made on their trip, as well as their costumes and props for their show and leaving them at the bottom of the sea.

Bad luck would not plague Kellar forever and he eventually came into his own. In 1900, the year the Wonderful Wizard of OZ was published, Kellar was the #1 magician in the country.

I've heard it said that Kellar was the inspiration for the character of the Wizard of OZ. Mike Caveney, the well known magician and magic historian has said this in interviews. But I checked his book called "KELLARS WONDERS" and I didn't see any reference to it (though it's possible I missed it).

The connection is mentioned in the Gail Jarrow book on Harry Kellar called "Harry Kellar Great American Magician", although she says that readers of the book 'The Wonderful Wizard of OZ' will recognize the wizard as being like Harry Kellar.

I recall watching the movie 'The Wizard of OZ' as a kid and remembering fondly the character played by Frank Morgan, the Professor Marvel character and later the Wizard. The movie character always stuck with me and when I later got interested in magic and came upon Harry Kellar, I wondered if Kellar was like the Professor Marvel/Wizard character that I had seen in the movie. But honestly, Frank Morgan while in the character of Professor Marvel in the movie looks more like the magician Dante (and Dante was a very popular magician at the time the movie was made).

I am not sure where this idea that Kellar inspired the WIZARD character came from. Though I vaguely recall the idea of the connection was attributed to Martin Gardner. I think it's highly likely that Kellar could have been in the inspiration based on the fact that Baum was a huge theatre buff, Kellar was the big name at the time and the illustrations by William Wallace Denslow are a dead ringer for Kellar. If nothing else, perhaps the illustrator Denslow was inspired by Kellar and that is why the pictures look so much like him. I even have a photo somewhere of Kellar wearing a white jacket like the one on the Wizard illustration, but I can't seem to find it right now. I do believe that Kellar figured in there somewhere during the creation of the original book.

There is one other thing to consider and that is the word WIZARD. Magicians of that time were calling themselves: magicians, conjurers, manipulators, illusionists, escape artists, professor, and similar names. The word 'Wizard' was more commonly used in the mid 1800 with folks like John Henry Anderson known as The Great Wizard of the North, and John Wyman Jr. known as Wyman the Wizard. In the 20th Century there was one wizard that I can think of, Germain the Wizard. Perhaps one of these men also played a part in the inspiration of the character!

Finally, look at the poster below, it kind of looks like something out of the Wizard of OZ with flying monkeys and munchkins!

UPDATE: WildaboutHoudini.com has an article on the Houdini connection to the OZ movie which is excellent as always.

Wyman the Wizard...MORE

Wyman the Wizard

I wrote a blog article about Wyman the Wizard back in August of 2011. In that article I mentioned that 'the hunt was on for his grave'. Several magic books mentioned where he died, but there was no mention of where he was buried. I'm glad to report it's been found, sort of. I had narrowed down the cemetery to one in Fall River Mass, called Oak Grove Cemetery. There were several in that area and I had a hunch this was the cemetery, though I could not get definitive proof. I tried contacting some govt. officials in that area with no answers. And then I received an email from fellow magic historian, Gary Hunt. He had discovered a paragraph in an old Sphinx Magazine, which gave the exact location of the grave and sure enough it was in Oak Grove Cemetery! So now, I've got to travel up to that area later in the Spring and get a photograph of the grave so I can post it over at my deadconjurers blog. A HUGE THANK YOU to Gary Hunt for sending me the article with that information!

(from John Hopkins Unv. Library)

But I wanted to write more about Wyman and I began digging again. Milbourne Christopher mentions in the book Panorama of Magic that there were at least two songs dedicated to Wyman the Wizard. I just found one of them and it's called "Keemo Kimo Schottisch" by James Bellak and according to the cover was composed and dedicated to Wyman the Wizard. I do not play music, but if there is anyone interested, the entire sheet music is downloadable here https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/2534

 Wyman seems to be a man of firsts. MAGIC-A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theatre says that Wyman was the first Americian born magician to do a full evening show of magic. The book, Annals of Conjuring says that Wyman was the first U.S. born magician to attain prominence. And the Illustrated History of Magic says that "he was the biggest money maker of the period.". Those are pretty decent accolades.

Peale's Baltimore Museum (photo by MKelly1990)

He apparently began his professional career performing at Peale's Baltimore Museum. From there he played a lot of small town school houses. His act consisted of marionettes, ventriloquism, memory feats and magic. The magic included the Aireal Suspension & Gun Trick he purchased from John Henry Anderson, the Inexhaustible Bottle, Egg Bag, Coin Magic, the Sphinx illusion and many other popular magic routines of the day. 

Wyman performed what were known as 'Gift Shows', which meant after the performance everyone in the audience was to receive a gift. He was known to provide nice gifts. No bait and switch for Wyman, if he promised a nice item, that is what he gave out. I'm wondering if one of the smaller gifts he gave was a 'Wyman Coin' because I have seen several images of his coins on the internet now.

Some books mention that Wyman only played 'small dates' but I'm not sure he could have become the biggest money maker of the period, only playing small towns. In fact, I know he played Richmond VA, Charleston S.C., Boston MA, NYC, and Washington D.C. among many places. So he clearly played all over. But he was around before the days of Vaudeville, so the types of venues would have been somewhat different.

Born January 19, 1816, John W. Wyman Jr. was known as Jack by his friends. He apparently wrote several books, one of which was called "Jokes & Anecdotes of Wyman, TheMagician & Ventriloquist" which was published in 1866.

His performing route consisted of areas east of the Mississippi River and also into Canada. I've seen a number of newspaper articles on Wyman that appeared in Virginia papers, so he was well known in the South as well as the North.

He died on July 31st 1881 and was buried in Fall River Massachusetts in the Oak Grove Cemetery.  I will post a photo of the grave later in the Spring.

Magician Statue 1

Among the many things I collect are statues of magicians. The one in the photo is a reproduction of a popular statue. I'm not sure of the originator, nor am I really sure about who did the reproductions. I just know that Bill King told me the way to spot an original versus a reproduction was the shape of the bottom of the hat. The originals had a slightly rounded bottom on the hat, whereas the reproductions have a completely flat bottom to the hat. Otherwise they are identical as far as I know.

Mine arrived unpainted, and truth be told, my first one arrived in about a thousand pieces thanks to U.P.S.. but luck was on my side and I was able to get it replaced. It arrived unfinished in an unpainted state.

I don't have any photos of it in the unpainted stage, but as you can see, I took it upon myself to paint it. I've seen several others and most of those have the magician wearing a black coat. But I wanted to give the statue a unique look so I went for browns and earthier tones.

In his left coat pocket he has a bouquet of flowers and in the right pocket are several silk scarves. There are also two cards sticking out from his vest which are difficult to see in the photo.

I'm not sure who the magician is modeled after, perhaps Charles Bertram. But I think he looks more like the actor John C. Reilly.

By the way, there is one of these statues available on ebay at the moment, though there is only 18hours left on the auction. Act fast!

Cruising with "Houdin"

I couldn't resist. John Cox over at the fantastic Houdini blog, WildaboutHoudini.com just put up a piece called "Cruising with Houdeni" and it shows an old custom plate from a car he used to have. Well, here is MY current plate. You'll notice it says "HOUDIN" not Houdini. The wonderful state of Virginia wouldn't give me the 'I', even though other plates have more than six letters. I have to laugh though because 95% of the people who notice it think it says HOUDINI. But I figure I'm just driving around with the plates for the Father of Modern Magic, Robert-Houdin!

The car is a Honda Element. I got it to replace my Van which was costing me so much in gas I wasn't making any money anymore. So the Element did great on gas....until the price went to $4.00, and now I'm almost back to where I was. Plus, I miss my van! Such is life. Oh, and John has the cooler car by far!

Auction Price for Houdini Poster

Ok, I had to stay around for the Houdini King of Cards Poster Lot 1889 which had a estimate price $800-$1200 . It just sold for $7000au, which I think is about $7221.65 US. There were other Houdini items, but they sold before I got on so I missed them. Pretty fun to watch. Go over to John Cox's website WildaboutHoudini.com for the other prices on Houdini stuff.

Max Malini Memorabilia

I was just online watching the auction from Australia for Houdini and various other magicians memorabilia. I was planning on bidding on an item listed as 'magicians clothes'. I knew they were not 'magicians clothes'. What they had there was Max Malini's clothes AND something else. But before I tell you what that something else was, let me tell you about the item before this which was a cigar holder that belonged to Malini with sold for something like $8000. CRAZY!

By the way, the lot was recently corrected to say "Max Malini's Magician's Outfit" Ok, now to the 'something else'. Amongst the items was a little cloth bag and two wooden eggs. Max Malini's egg bag was IN THAT LOT and not even LISTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A piece of cloth from Signor Blitz's egg bag sold for $2000. This lot, with Malini's pants, gloves, walking cane, shoes and his egg bag and eggs, sold for $5000. Three thousand dollars less than the cigar holder and a way bigger bargain. http://www.lawsons.com.au/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=7919A+++1863+&refno=31006282&image=0

The auction estimate was $300-$600. I was willing to bid in that range, but the auction opened at $3000. So I was out pretty quick, lol. Some of the books have been selling quite low, can't imagine what will happen with the Houdini items, the auction estimates on those are pretty low, but I imagine they'll go through the roof.

Happy Valentines Day with A Little Magic

I actually wanted to post a video of David Copperfield doing this trick, but I couldn't find it! I have it somewhere but not handy. Still, Jansenson does a fantastic job with this trick, in fact he has an added twist to it that was not in the version that Copperfield did.

For the magic history buffs, this dates back to Nate Leipzig and was not originally done with paper hearts. Enjoy!

We Still Miss Doug Henning

It's been 12 years since Doug Henning passed away. If you're a younger reader to my blog, you might not be totally aware who Doug Henning was. He is credited with bringing about a rebirth of interest in magic in the 1970s. His MAGIC SHOW on Broadway was a big hit and it was quickly followed by several years of annual 'Doug Henning's World of Magic' TV Specials on NBC. He was only 52 years old when he died on Feb 7th, 2000, the same age as Houdini.

His magic was mostly old school presented in a modern way. He didn't dress like a magician nor did he act like any magician that modern audiences had seen. He was young and vibrant and most of all enthusiastic about his art. He constantly said words like 'wonder and illusion' like they were candy and they became synonymous with him.

Even though he did tricks for a living, Doug always seemed to believe there was real magic out there, somewhere. An incident that happened to him in 1971 appears to be a turning point in his career. He was booked to perform in an area several hundred miles from the North Pole. It was a tour for the Canadian Armed Forces who were stationed in the frigid arctic region. During the tour Doug also did a show for a group of Eskimos. Who didn't respond at all during or after his show. No clapping or laughing or anything. They paid attention but gave none of the usual reactions that Doug was used to getting from his magic.

After the show Doug spoke to one of the Inuit Eskimos and asked about how they liked the show and it was clearly some sort of misunderstanding. They did not understand why he did magic when in their view magic was everywhere. Doug tried to explain his various tricks were magic in his eyes. The group spoke amongst themselves and told Doug they understood why he did magic, they said "It's because your people have forgotten the magic and you do this to remind them that there is magic in the world"*

That was Doug's mission after that, to bring 'wonder and magic' to the world. He inspired so many of us that are around today. Now in the 21st Century, magic has changed a lot. Attitudes and styles and techniques have evolved. Doug's magic seems a little dated by today's standards, yet the real magic of Doug Henning had nothing to do with the tricks, it was the man himself.

By the way, I want to point you to an article on another blog that is about Doug and one of his props and his influence on the life of a female magician. http://ariannblack.blogspot.com/2012/04/doug-henning-blue.html

Oh, and in case you're wondering if Doug had any influence on me, take a look at the photo below.

*I found this story on the Magicpedia page on Doug Henning. It's very possibly from the book by John Harrison, but I don't have that handy to check it.

The Hat of Robert Heller

A short time ago I had been contacted by an auction house who had acquired a top hat said to belong to a once famous magician. They contacted me because of my many articles about this magician on my blog. The hat belonged to Robert Heller.

It had remained in his family all these many years, but for whatever reason the family felt it was time for the hat to have a new home. I will tell you, the hat sold for more than I expected, but having said that in my honest opinion the hat is priceless. There are precious few artifacts from Heller's life that remain and this item, though not part of his performing act, is still a wonderful piece.

Heller deserves a much more prominent place in the minds of magicians, but today is mostly forgotten. I have tried as best I could to get the word out about him. In fact, I will continue to write stories and articles about Heller in the future.

I don't know who won the hat, but I hope you cherish it for the rare piece of history that it is.

For those who missed my previous articles, please check out this link to the many stories I wrote about William Henry Palmer, known professionally as Robert Heller.

Trivia Questions & News

I'm currently working on a number of history projects, but they are all behind a bit because work has shifted into high gear. I'm putting together some articles on other magic theatres and places devoted to magic performances. If I can find the time, I've got another magic grave to scope out and trip to investigate some rarely seen magic artifacts.

And I have two trivia questions. The first, "which famous magician owned this hat?" There is a very cool story that goes along with the hat and I'm going to be doing a blog article about it in the future, but I wanted to see the variety of guesses that come in.

The next trivia question. Who referred to himself as "The first authentic historian of magic?"

If you'd like to take a guess at the trivia questions, just post your answer in the comments.

UPDATE: The answer to question 1, the Hat was owned by Robert Heller.
 The answer to question 2, Harry Houdini referred to himself as the first authentic historian of magic in an issue of Conjurers Monthly Magazine.

The Magic Theatre Series Pt 2 The UMT

First Studio (before)

After writing the article on The Cabot Theatre recently, I got to thinking about other magic theatres and venues strictly devoted to magic. There have been a number of them, some more successful than others. I was actually involved with a theatre of sorts with two friends of mine.

First Studio (after)

It started back in 2000, my friends Ralph Metzler and Adam Burger and I were looking for a place to store our props and possibly rehearse. After much searching we came across an odd place in the back of a shopping center. It was a very narrow space but deep and with high ceilings. We snapped it up, built an office and a loft and hung mirrors to rehearse. It was a really cool place to work and rehearse but it had some drawbacks. For one, there was no air conditioning in the place and in the summer it could get brutally hot. Two, there was no bathroom. Three parking was less than stellar. So even though we liked our spot we kept our eyes open for something else.

As fate would have it, another unit in the back would eventually open up. This unit was 5 times the size of the space we were renting, it had an office that was air conditioned and more than enough room for storage, rehearsals and a bathroom! So we snagged it.

This new unit was also in the back of a shopping center. Coincidentally, in the front of the shopping center was an old movie theatre that had recently shut down. The new tenants wanted to renovate the place and they knew that I had done some shows there in the past and offered to GIVE me as many seats as I wanted. So my two friend and I loaded up 100+ cast iron seats and lugged them to our new location. It was back breaking work and we only did it because Ralph and I had this crazy notion of fixing them up and selling them on eBay!  As it was, our friend Adam suggested taking some of the seats and putting in a theatre. I'm not sure how keen we were on this idea at first, but he kept bringing
it up, so in the end, it was really his idea to have a theatre.

Installing Chairs only days before First Show at Theatre

That is where things begin. But now it was a matter of transforming what was essentially a warehouse spot into a theatre. We wanted to keep the warehouse look, but 'clean it up'. And we had a tight budget....practically no budget really. So we painted the walls black. We purchased industrial looking lights that we could hang down from the ceiling. There were probably 25 or more lights. We put our old mirrors back up at the back of the area that would be the theatre. And to show just how devoted to the concept we were, we only installed 30 seats. Eventually we would install 50 seats.

The walls were decorated with vintage magic posters and various pieces of memorabilia. The theatre area itself was covered with my magic paintings. Along the wall as you walked into the theatre were large scale magic illusions on display.

When we were working or rehearsing in the space we always used the florescent lights that were part of the unit when we moved in. But when it was time to transform the place, we turned off the florescents and turned on the hanging lights. The first time we did it we were stunned at how cool the place looked. I had come up with the name 'Underground Magic Theatre' (UMT). And we were the 'first' to use the underground name, before Mark & Jinger's Magic Underground, and before others as well.

Though having our own theatre was our friend Adam's idea, he actually didn't want us to install the seats. He thought folding chairs would be better. But the inspiration for what it would become came from two sources, the Larcom Theatre in Beverly MA and Robert-Houdin's Theatre in Paris. At the Larcom, which is the sister theater to the Cabot, they have a huge room upstairs with a gallery of magic posters on display. In the basement is another gallery of all their props and illusions that have been used over the years and were retired from the show. The way this looked inspired what would become known as the 'magic museum' area of our space. The intimate theatre was really from Robert-Houdin and just as he did everything from stage magic to illusions, so would we.

We did not have a raised stage, it was floor level. And the front row was actually part of our performing area. There was an isle down the center dividing the chairs into two sections. My friend Ralph sewed the fabric of what would become the theatre curtains for the entire run. And though I helped, Ralph also drilled 99% of the holes in the concrete so we could install all the cast irons chairs!

We used the space for rehearsals, video taping segments of our shows, magic lectures, magic workshops, birthday parties and field trips. In the summer months, I offered field trips to Summer Camps to visit 'The Underground Magic Theatre'. Not really sure how it would play, it became a surprise to everyone involved that the concept took off! During the first show, the audience was so into things, two boys in the back of the theatre were heard saying "This is awesome magic" and his friend replied, "NO, this is UNDERGROUND magic!". As part of the field trip, the campers saw an hour long show and were taken on a guided tour of our magic museum. First year, we also offered a magic class, but we discontinued that after year one.
We found the show and tour of the museum was more than enough value as people would contact us saying "this was the kids favorite field trip of the summer". Oh, and we did not do a 'kids magic show'. We presented a theatrical magic show with stage magic and illusion and music and costumes. In fact, one evening we opened the theatre up to adults and they loved the show as much as any camper that had come through. It was never designed as a kids venue, it was designed to impress all ages.

My friend Ralph used the theatre to present birthday parties. It was so cool because he could do a much larger show, then set up tables and chairs for the party. We never advertised the parties yet stayed pretty busy with them.

 The theatre also became a 'hang out' of sorts for magicians who were passing through the area. Of the magicians who stopped by at one time or another, they included: Bob Sheets, Bob Fitch, David Kaye, Ken Scott, Mark Daniel, Tim Hannig, Jozo Bozo from Croatia, Joe Romano, Bruce Bray, Scott Humston, Joe Holiday, Dave Risley, Trixie Bond, and many others.

The theatre ran until the end of Summer 2005. At that point, my friend Adam had already moved away. My friend Ralph had decided it was time for him to move as well and he moved out west. The theatre didn't seem the same without my friends, so I closed it down and regretted the decision off and on for years.

It's now 2013, and for the first time since we closed the UMT, I've decided to take a version of that show back on the road this summer. I call it 'The Traveling Underground Magic Theatre Show' and basically taking the best parts of the theatre shows and creating a traveling version. There won't be any illusions, at least not as of this date. But the show will be about the 'history of magic' so it will be fun and educational at the same time. It will pay homage to the original venture, but this will be something unique in it's own way.

Below is a video of what the place looked like with the florescent lights up. It was not the look that theatre goers saw however. But it's still pretty cool looking back. Coming Soon: Part 3 The Magic Salons

The Cabot - A True Theatre of Magic

Fu Manchu/David Bamberg had a dream. His dream was to create a resident magic company (show) in Argentina. Unfortunately, that dream never happened. But somehow, that dream was passed to a young boy who was inspired by FuManchu, that boy was Cesareo Pelaez. He would grow up to be the founder and director of the Le Grand David Magic Spectacular in Beverly Massachusetts.  But before there was a show, the ragtag group of future performers purchased a run down theatre known as the Cabot Street Cinema Theatre.

EARLY HISTORY

The theatre was originally known as The Ware Theatre and it was designed to be a silent movie and vaudeville house.  It opened on December 8, 1920 and was managed by Harris and Glover Ware, two brothers and former vaudeville performers from Marblehead Mass. This was their second theatre in Beverly Mass, the first was the smaller Larcom Theatre a few blocks away. Today it's known as the Cabot St. Cinema Theatre and it has spacious seating on the lower level and has upper balcony seating as well, a total of 750 seats in the auditorium. The stage is enormous with plenty of wing and fly space for curtains. The dressing rooms are in the basement below the stage. The original stage included an orchestra pit for musicians.

1970s HISTORY

The members of what would become the Le Grand David Magic Show purchased the run down Cabot Theatre in 1976. The first thing they did upon being able to occupy the building was do a floor to ceiling cleaning of the place. They reopened the theatre 48 hours later showing movies. However, they didn't show movies the current run movies. Their idea was to show 'Films Worth Seeing More Than Once'. The movies were selected by Cesareo and included such gems as Lawrence of Arabia, Camelot, It Happened One Night, Yankee Doodle Dandy and other classics. The theatre lobby always had fresh cut flowers and the doormen wore tuxedos (they still do today). Often members of the company dressed up in costumes that reflected the movie that was showing. Every movie became an 'event'.  If that wasn't enough for new audiences to enjoy, they would have been amazed to know the flurry of activity taking place after hours and often into the wee hours of the morning.

For six months they worked building illusions, magic props, painting scenery, sewing costumes and redecorating and restoring the theatre. Once the items were built, then they had to rehearse. All this took place after the regular movie showing hours.

On February 20th 1977 the debut performance of 'LeGrand David and his Magic Company' took place on the Cabot theater stage. The name would be altered slightly over the next year to become 'Marco the Magi presents...LeGrand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company'.

MORE

The Cabot St. Cinema Theatre also has several store fronts and a second story above the store fronts. The entire building is owned by White Horse Productions, which is the actual business name for the Le Grand David troupe. The storefronts serve as offices and storage/display areas. The rooms on the second level include a painting room and a sewing room where most of their wonderful costumes were created over the life of the show. 

The LeGrand David show ran for 35 consecutive years. Over the years they had a number of milestones, one of which was purchasing a second theatre, the Larcom. The Larcom theatre was the first theatre built by the Ware Brothers and now both theatres are again owned and managed by the same company. The Larcom is a smaller theatre and the restoration to that property is quite amazing. It is truly a treasure all its own.

These two theatres were home to the LeGrand David troupe. However, they did venture out on several occasions to perform elsewhere. They performed at the White House in Washington D.C. on numerous occasions at the invitation of President Reagan. I believe they did an abbreviated version of their show at the Magic Castle at some point. And there may have been one or two other 'off location' showcases that they took part in. But the bulk of their work, thousands of performances, took place in Beverly Massachusetts. 

Inspired by Richiardi

A recently wrote a blog article about the Richardine Family and the Richiardi Family. I had never heard of the Richardine until I stumbled upon them via AskAlexander.com. It was an eye opening bit of research. In the article I mentioned something about Aldo Richiardi's unique take on the Broom Suspension.

I tend to think a true artist is never satisfied and is always striving to improve and make their performances better. Richiardi changed his Broom Suspension in various ways over the years. One of the incarnations was a story based routine in which Richiardi apparently discovered a handicapped boy and caused him to float in the air and then walk on his own. A powerful visual story and one that he apparently passed on over time in favor of a much faster, more direct presentation.

Imagine my surprise to discover that a version of that story routine found it's way into one of my favorite magic shows, the LeGrand David Magic show in Beverly Ma. I was watching a video of the show that Cesareo had given me years ago and there it was, Webster Bull narrating the story of Marco the Magi seeing David for the first time, but David was unable to walk. This led into the Broom Suspension illusion just as it had with Richiardi's routine. I had seen them perform this many times and loved their version but never knew it's roots were with Richiardi.

I remember sitting in the theatre of the Cabot St. Cinema Theatre one day talking with Cesareo. It was a Saturday when the company was busy in rehearsals and he was telling me about seeing Richiardi Sr. and how he recalled this curly haired boy that used to run around the theatre during intermission. That curly haired boy was a young Aldo Richiardi.

I also knew that Cesareo was greatly inspired by David Bamberg, who was known as FuManchu. But it's clear to me now that Richiardi's magic had also inspired Cesareo. Within the LeGrand David Show there were several routines that were Cesareo's take on what Richiardi had done. They included, The Broom Suspension, the Toy Car Levitation and the Dekolta Chair with tip over trunk.

The Le Grand David Company were not the only one's who carried on Richiardi's magic. Scott Alexander, who was a recent contestant on America's Got Talent, does a fantastic job with the Richiardi version of the Lemon, Egg, Canary effect. I've seen the DeKolta Chair/Tip Over Trunk combo in several different magic acts. I saw the Masked Magician of all people do Richiardi's Buzz Saw on a Talk Show (and he did not reveal it). And yours truly performed Richiardi's version of the Rice Bowls for a time. More than any particular routine though, I think Richiardi's charasmatic style can be found in numerous acts, including Jonathan Pendragon and Joaquin Ayala.

Let me say, I don't think it's right to copy living performers, but I don't think there is anything wrong with reaching back into history and bringing back some of the fantastic magic that these icons made popular. The magic of Richiardi, Le Grand David, Thurston, Houdini, Dante, Blackstone, Doug Henning and so many others deserves to live on for modern audiences to enjoy.

David Bull, One of the True Masters of Magic

There is a magician who in my opinion is one of the great performers of the 20th and 21st century. But he is often overlooked and that is a shame. His name is David Bull, but you probably know him better by his stage name Le Grand David. He was the star of the Le Grand David Magic Show in Beverly Mass, along with Marco the Magi and a big cast of fantastic fellow performing artists.

The Le Grand David Show was the longest running resident magic show in the United States. They began back in 1977 and ran the show every year until June 2012. This fall was the first time in the history of the company that they did not return for a new season. The patriarch of the company, Cesareo Pelaez passed away in 2012 and it's clearly been hard on the members of the group. And frankly, they more than earned a break.

But it's David Bull I want to talk about. Here is a fellow who got into magic basically from a conversation he had with Cesareo. Now Cesareo would later become his mentor, but it's David who put in the hours and hours of practice and rehearsal to develop incredible magical skills. I think he's one of the best, if not THE best manipulator I've ever seen. His skill with Billiard Ball manipulation is breathtaking. But he's also just as adept at coin manipulation and dove productions and his Linking Ring skill is among the best there is. Then there is David's take on the Zombie Ball, I mean what can you say really, it's perfection.  He handles apparatus magic better than anyone out there and his skill as an illusionist is first rate. He does it all with a style that is rarely seen today.

I remember trying to put my finger on David's style a few years ago. I ran down the list of attributes and then it dawned on me, David exhibited from the stage pure confidence. Not arrogance, not a prideful or boastful attitude, just plain confidence and he was pleasant and friendly the entire time. There was also a playfulness about his on stage character at times and other times a seriousness to his performing. He commanded the stage when he was on it but could easily share the stage with fellow artists and performers and had no problem with letting their light shine as well.

As I mentioned, Cesareo Pelaez was David's magic mentor and he was also the creator of the show as well as director. I often wonder if Cesareo had someone in mind that he wanted David to be like when he was helping David along, or if he just showed David what tools he needed and let David himself shine. Ah, and there is the answer, Cesareo was letting David's personality shine on stage!

It appears that one chapter of the Le Grand David saga is over. I was fortunate to watch that first chapter unfold. A new chapter awaits. The pages are blank and I hope that David returns to the stage, along with his fellow artists and performers. Who knows what the future holds for them?  For over thirty years they did what countless others only dreamed of, they did miracles. I think whatever they decide to do, it will be enchanting!

Carnegie, David and Denise April 2012

Harry Kellar's Spirit Cabinet Pt1

Harry Kellar, the Dean of Magicians was well known for his Spirit Cabinet trick. In fact, Kellar worked for a time for the Davenport Brothers, the creators of the very first Spirit Cabinet illusion. When Kellar went off with William Fay to perform on their own, they kept the effect in their show. When they traveled throughout Mexico, rather than carry that bulky and heavy piece of equipment with them, they left the Cabinet behind at each location and had a new one built for each new town they played. So there should be Kellar Spirit Cabinet's all over Mexico!

Houdini coaxed Kellar into coming out of retirement for one more Farewell Show at the New York Hippodrome in 1917.  Kellar gave his Spirit Cabinet to Houdini at the conclusion of that event. This Spirit Cabinet was a 'new' cabinet and not the one he toured with years before. The Kellar Book by Mike Caveney and Bill Miesel says so on page 498. Later, in the New Conjurer's Magazine Vol 1, in 1945, Hardeen ran an ad selling off a number of the Houdini/Hardeen equipment, at the top of the list was the Kellar Spirit Cabinet. The ad even says it had been used by Frederick Eugene Powell and also by Hardeen.

Patrick Culliton mentions this ad in his Nov 1993 Genii article called "Where The Magic Went". He states that no one knows what has happened to The Vanishing Donkey and the Black and White Illusion that were also listed in that advertisement. However, there is no mention of the Kellar Spirit Cabinets whereabouts.

I have found a record of the Hardeen/Kellar Spirit Cabinet, I'm calling it that to differentiate between it and others. It was sold to Dr. Carl S.Frischkorn of Norfolk, Virginia, known as Karland the magician. This appeared in the April 1945 edition of the New Conjurers Magazine. I also found out that Dr. Frischkorn was a member of SAM Assembly #32 in Lynchburg. Norfolk and Lynchburg are NOT close to each other by any stretch. There is also an IBM Ring in Norfolk that at one time was named after Dr. Frischkorn, but apparently they have since renamed it. OK, big question, where is THAT cabinet today??? I'm still hunting and perhaps it resides somewhere between Norfolk and Lynchburg, or perhaps it was sold to a collector? Don't know yet, but I'm searching.

Kellar's 'Original' Spirit Cabinet that he used in the U.S.  would have been sold to Howard Thurston in the big sale. And Thurston only kept a couple of the Kellar pieces in his show, one was the Floating Lady and the other was The Spirit Cabinet.

Here is an interesting twist to the story. In the Sept 1923 issue of The Sphinx on page 195 a magician by the name of Walter Ross, professionally known as Nazami the Mentalist claims to have had in his possession the ORIGINAL Kellar Spirit Cabinet. According to the little blurb it says the cabinet weighed over 600 lbs and Ross intended to start a tour of Vaudeville with the prop. Hmm, did Thurston sell the cabinet or is this another 'original'?

Now I vaguely recall reading that Joseph Dunninger owned a Spirit Cabinet belonging to someone famous, but I want to say it was the Davenport Spirit Cabinet, though I could be wrong, it very well might be where the Kellar cabinet wound up.

But my big question is, does anyone know where Kellar's Spirit Cabinet resides today? Have any of the Mexican Spirit Cabinets ever showed up? I think I might know...stay tuned for part 2.

Influenced by Magic History

It is no secret that I love magic history. I've noticed a lot of folks who enjoy magic history are not performers or are former performers. My friend Denny Haney once told me that you could tell a performer who read magic history books from those who did not simply by the way they perform. In my case it's more than that. I take quite a bit of inspiration from many parts of magic history and I'd like to share one of them with you today.

One of my all time favorite magicians is Charles Mattmueller, better known as Karl Germain. I've never written about him before on this blog, but I think it's time to start including him. One of the things that fascinates me about Germain are his posters. He often used a black/red color scheme in his posters. Though it's very striking visually, I would image part of the reason was because it was cheaper to do than full color.

The poster at the top of the page lists him as 'The Master of Magic' but most often he was known simply as 'Germain the Wizard'. In this day of magician, illusionist, mentalist, mind reader and so forth, I kind of love the simplicity of WIZARD. There are only two wizards people know of today and they would be Harry Potter and Merlin, so it's not bad company to be in.

A few years back I needed a new poster and I decided to look through the many posters that other magicians had done in the past. This is not a new thing. Countless magicians have copied the Kellar/Imps poster. Escape artists and magicians who do escapes love to copy what Houdini has done. IF they don't copy his posters they very often copy the poses he struck in photographs.

I thought, the color scheme of the Germain posters was still appealing and so was the simplicity of the images. But I wanted something to make them more contemporary as well. My solution was to add the various names used by magicians, words like illusionist, conjurer, manipulator and so forth. I put all the names I could think of and used them in the background of the poster.

Then I decided to use the same font that Germain used in his name for my name, and just for fun I used the word 'WIZARD' rather than my usual moniker 'Artist of Mystery'. One other thing I did was add a quote about me by a well known source, The Washington Post. The end result, I think, is a very cool looking poster that gets it's inspiration from the past and yet looks quite modern at the same time. I hope you like it.

NEXT: Coming next will be an article about Two South American Magic Families.

Houdini Painting For Sale

Here is a chance of a lifetime. I never let my paintings go this quickly, but this painting of Houdini, which is painted in acrylics on canvas, 24x30 in size is available. I will ship it in a special box made for artwork, foam fitted, plastic covering the back and front to prevent punctures while in transit.

Though I painted a view of Houdini basically from the waist up, my intention was to put all the emphasis on the face. Notice the texture on the image below. I used a ton of paint on the face to give it a very thick appearance, but kept the remainder of the painting simpler, with the exception of the background. By the way, pay no attention to the color in the photo below, the actual color is closer to the top image.

I've not alerted anyone on my art mailing list about the availability of this painting, mainly because I'm hoping it stays in the magic community. However, today I received my first email from a non-magic person who had an interest in the artwork. So, it may be going into the 'world' rather than stay inside the confines of the magic world. I'm frankly ok with that, I just wanted to make the offer to my magic friends first.

Update: Removing the painting from the market as of midnight Dec 31, 2012.

Christmas and Houdini

I've heard from a number of people that say they find it odd that Houdini celebrated Christmas. He was after all the son of a Jewish Rabbi. Yet, he clearly did have cards/postcards that wished people a Merry Christmas. He married Bess who was Catholic and she no doubt celebrated Christmas.

While scouring through hundreds of newspaper articles over the last few days I saw something kind of interesting. I found brief write ups in the theatrical section of newspapers during the month of December about who was going to be appearing at the local theatres.  Apparently the crowds were traditionally low because of the holidays. Guess who was always working during the holidays? Houdini! And several papers mentioned that Houdini would be very helpful to bring in people. He was a guaranteed draw.

Christmas has always been a duel holiday from what I have discovered. Originally meant as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the day also fell upon existing celebrations by different cultures. These various traditions merged into one holiday called Christmas but there appears to be a religious celebration and a separate cultural celebration. For Christians the holiday involves all the traditions, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christmas Tree, Santa Claus and so forth. For non-Christians, they may also enjoy various parts of the holiday like Santa, the Christmas Tree, decorating, exchanging of gifts and so on but not observe the religious aspects.

One thing very interesting about the holiday is it's always been wrapped up in controversy. First, the early Christians were actually against it.  The holiday was even banned in parts of Colonial America. Today, we find political correctness  and Christmas not mixing too well. Some groups and individuals have complained about having the word Christmas used on govt. calenders, others want Nativity Scenes banned on government property. Some groups even want to ban Santa Claus, though in his modern incarnation he is hardly a religious figure. And others have actually pressured retailers to remove the word 'Christmas' from displays and advertisements. Apparently it's ok at the moment to use the words 'happy holidays', at least until someone complains about that. Oh, and then there are a few christian groups out there actually still protesting Christmas because it isn't in the Bible, so it should not be celebrated. It's gotten a little ridiculous  if you ask me.  But as I mentioned, Christmas has carried a bit of controversy with it since the beginning.

My guess is Houdini enjoyed the secular side of Christmas. Believe it or not, there was a time when saying 'Merry Christmas' to someone was just considered a pleasant greeting. Sending Christmas cards and notes has always been known as a gesture of kindness and friendliness. I tend to think Houdini stood on the side of "Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men" which is a good sentiment any time of year. So to all my readers out there, Merry Christmas! And if you celebrate a different Holiday, may those celebrations be joyous as well. And if you don't celebrate anything, Happy Nothing, I guess, lol, or better, have a nice day!

Happy Birthday Robert-Houdin

Today, December 6th 1805, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin was born in Blois France. He would go on to become a clockmaker, inventor, scientist and the Father of Modern Magic. Strange moniker today though as all of his magic was very Victorian in it's design and execution. However, for his time it was quite modern. Today he would be 207 years old. Happy Birthday Robert-Houdin!

The Incredible Walnut Street Theatre

I love old theatres, and in America there is none older than The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. It has been around for 204 years and thankfully is still in operation. The Walnut Street Theatre has some unique ties to the magic world which I thought I'd share with you, but first a little history on the theatre itself.

Built in 1809 in Philadelphia, The Walnut was the first theatre in America to have gas footlights, it was also the first theatre to have air conditioning. In 1863, the Walnut was purchased by famed actor Edwin Booth, who was also the brother of John Wilkes Booth.

A few famous names to grace the stage of the Walnut Street Theatre include: Henry Fonda, Ethel Barrymore, Jack Lemmon, Robert Redford, George M. Cohan, The Marx Brothers, Edward G. Robinson, Helen Hayes, Katherine Hepburn and many others.

But it's the magicians I'm most interested in. Since the theatre opened in 1809, it's hard to say who the first magician was to perform at the Walnut, but according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Herr Alexander played the Walnut in August of 1849. And I know that on July 4th 1853, Robert Heller opened at the Walnut Street Theatre for a three week run. Prior to his appearances at the Walnut, Heller had been performing with a fake French Accent and a wig. He dropped those accessories and the first place he performed as himself, was in Philadelphia! Oddly, on Nov 28th, 1878 (134 years ago today!) Heller would die of pneumonia in Philadelphia.

I thought Harry Kellar performed there, but I can't find a record. He did perform at the Walnut Street Theatre in Cincinnati Ohio however. And he played almost every theatre in Philadelphia, so I'd be surprised if he never made it to the Walnut St. Theatre.

I don't have any proof of it, but I'm going to guess that Signor Antonio Blitz might have performed there back in the mid 1800's, as he lived in Philadelphia for a time. And I'm thinking it's very possible the Alexander Herrmann may have also performed there which could be why I didn't see Harry Kellar's name listed because the two were competitors.

According to the website for the theatre, Harry Houdini performed at the Walnut, but I don't know when. A little digging shows Houdini at the Chestnut Street Theatre and also at Keith's Theatre in Philadelphia. Houdini had a number of ties to the city. On one visit he discovered the grave of Robert Heller, which had been lost to time. Heller was originally in Macepelah Cemetery in Phili and then later moved to Mt Moriah. At another time he introduced Remigius Weiss, a spiritualist debunker whose claim to fame had been exposing the slate writing of Dr. Henry Slade.

In October 1947, the Blackstone Show was at the Walnut Street Theatre and they were in need of a replacement girl. Word was sent out to some of the theatrical agencies in town and a young dancer named Adele Friel applied for the job. She met Blackstone backstage at the theatre and he gave her an idea of what was required for the position. She met the other girls in the show and just like that, she was hired! But that wasn't all. This was the afternoon, and there was a show in the evening and Adele had no idea she'd be IN the show that night!

Sure enough, she performed her first show with the Blackstone troupe that night and stayed with them for several years touring across the country in the process. One great blessing for the magic world is that Adele loves to visit with magicians and attend conventions on occasion. If you ever get a chance to meet her, please take the time to say hello and listen to some of her wonderful stories.

Teller

In the modern era, Penn & Teller have appeared at the Walnut Street Theatre as well. By the way, Teller, the quieter half of the duo, was actually born in Philadelphia!

To me the most exciting thing is that this old beauty of a theatre is still running and has continued to do so for over 200 years! The theatre is located at 825 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
If you are aware of the number of theatres that have been razed, destroyed or closed down in the past 100 years, you'll realize just how special the Walnut Street Theatre is.