ring 50 magi-gram february 2009

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Official Newsletter of IBM Ring 50 -- The National Capital Ring Volume 63 No. 2 February 2009

MAGI-GRAM

R

I

N

G

50

International Brotherhood

of Magicians Ring 50

The National Capital Ring

PresidentLouis Meyer

(703) [email protected]

Vice PresidentEric Redman


SecretarySam Brothers(703) 550-9155

[email protected]

TreasurerBob Patterson(703) 490-1222

[email protected]

Sergeant-at-ArmsReggie Rice


Magi-Gram EditorJim Flanigan


WebmasterEric Henning(301) 369-0025

[email protected]

IN ALEXANDRIA2460 Eisenhower Avenue

FEBRUARY MEETINGWednesday, Feb. 4, 2009

HOLIDAY INN

Alexandria, VA

6:00 Cocktails6:45 Dinner8:00Meeting

Ring 50s meeting

offering magic tips

Magic wonderment to be provided by Jeff McBrideLas Vegas is coming to the Potomac.Magic headliner Jeff McBride, a master

of masks and sleight of hand, willperform a 50-minute show in theWashington area as a part of our two-hour Saturday night stage extravaganzaat the 2009 Magi-Whirl convention in

Alexandria, Va. The event is April 17and 18.

Jeff is generally celebrated as astar performer on stage in the

N e v a d aen t e r t a i nm en tcapital, but mostrecently he hasbeen featured onthe new Mastersof Illusion:I m p o s s i b l e

Magic television

Jeff McBride

show produced by Gay Blackstoneon MyNetworkTV.com. The firstepisode aired in January. BesidesJeff the series features Mark &Jinger Kalin, the Amazing Jonathan,Ed Alonzo and others.

Jeff just finished a successfulrun at the Palace Station in Las Vegas

labeled the Best Magic Show by theInternational Brotherhood of Magicians before debuting on the slick new weeklytelevision series.

Jeff was a star performer for years atCaesars Palaces Magical Empire in LasVegas. He is well known among magiciansfor establishing the McBride Magic andMystery School. Ring 50 members willhave an opportunity to experience histeaching style when he holds a specialworkshop for registered participants after

the Magi-Whirl convention is over. JeffMcBride is recognized as a foremostinnovator in the art of magic.

His unique fusion of martial arts, dance,Kabuki Theater and stagecraft hasinspired thousands of magicians aroundthe world. An extraordinary performer,lecturer, teacher and innovator, Jeff has aseemingly inexhaustible supply of energy,curiosity and creativity.

A Magic-Teach-in Night will providetips to Ring 50 members at their Februarymeeting. Four top-notch performers invarious skills will provide you with theknowledge needed to expand yourmagical skills. Four tables will be set up inour meeting room and you will rotate fromone to another so you have a chance tosee all there is to offer. Be early to enjoythis learning experience.

Red Skeleton showstars Tom Mullica

Tom Mullica

Tom Mullica, who is consideredthe worlds greatest living barmagician, will presenthis tribute to the greatcomic Red Skeleton atthe Riverside Centerin Fredericksburg, Va.,this month.

Mullica will give adinner performance at6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb.3, with tickets ranging from $50 to$60. He also will do a matinee

performance at 11:30 a.m.Wednesday, Feb. 4, with admissionfees of $50 and $60.

You can call the box office at 540-370-4300 or check the Web site http:/

/ w w w . r i v e r s i d e d t . c o m / d t / upcomingspecialevents for moreinformation.

Mullica did many shows during

his 11-year run at the famed Tom-

Foolery Magic Bar Theatre in Atlanta.


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Coming EventsBarrys Magic Shop, 5544 NicholsonLane, Rockville, Md.

Lecture by George Schindler

George Schindler is a magic legendwho is a former president of theSociety of American Magicians and

now SAM dean.Place: The shops 40-seat magic theater

Date: Friday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m.

Cost: $15. Event sold outContact: 301/933-0373 or [email protected].

The Second Theory and Art of MagicConference on Performing MagicPlace: Muhlenberg College inAllentown, Pa.Dates: March 19-21, 2009

Keynote presentations and full-eveningperformances will be made by Eugene

Visit Barrys web site http://www.barrysmagicshop.comfor the latestevents.

SAM Assembly

23s Lecturefeaturing Ted

Brainard, a widely

renowned Boston-

area based street

magician, who

performs under the

name Kozmo.

Date: Wednesday,

Feb. 18, at 8 p.m.

Lectures at Denny and LeesDenny & Lee Magic Studio, 9004Yellow Brick Road, Suite HRosedale, MD 21237.... 410-686-3914

Bob Sheets Does Hospitality LectureDate: Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m.Cost: $20

Bob Sheets Three Shell Game Workshop

Date: Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m.Cost: $25

Kozmo Street Magic Lecturefeaturing

Ted BrainardDate: Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m.Cost: $20

Paul Gertner LectureDate: Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.Cost: $20

Shawn Farquar LectureDate: March 20 at 7:30 p.m.Cost: $20

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IBM 2009 Nashville--The GreatestMagic Convention on EarthDate: June 30 July 4, 2009.

Place: Nashville, Tenn. -- Music CityUSA

If you only make it to one magicconvention in 2009, this is the onewhere you should be! More than$20,000 in prizes, trophies and awardswill be given for the Stage and Close-up contests. There will be outstandinglectures, events and performers.

Accomodations: Special hotel ratesat the Gaylord Opryland Resort andConvention Center of only $120 pernight plus tax.

Contact: Terry Richison, I.B.M.Convention Chairman, by contacting

[email protected].

Glenn Gary Parlor Show in anintimate 19th century settingDates: Wednesdays and Fridaysat 8 p.m.Place: The Westin City Center Hotel,1400 M Street NW, just off ThomasCircle at 14th and M, in the FireplaceParlor adjacent to the dining room.

Cost: Pending available seating day ofperformance, any IBM member can get

Comedy & Mystery Society Shows Now starting its 6th season, thisentertainment presentation is co-

produced by Bob Sheets, Brian Curry,

Barry Wood and Mark Phillips.Place: The Arts Barn, 311 Kent SquareRoad in Gaithersburg, Md.Date: Feb. 27 at 8 p.m.Cost: Tickets are $12 for residentsand $15 for nonresidents forWednesday performances, and $18 forresidents and $21 for nonresidents for

Friday performances. Tickets can alsobe purchased online atwww.gaithersburgmd.gov/RecXpress .Contact:www.comedymysterysociety.comfor details or 301-258-6394 for informationand tickets.Future Dates: Friday performances setMarch 13, April 24 and May 22.Wednesday shows planned June 3 and 17.Special Note: The family-friendly shows

are perfect for ages 10 and up.

Directions: For information and

directions visit the Arts Barn online at

www.gaithersburgmd.gov/artsbarn.

in at a discounted rate of $25 cash atthe door.Contact: 703-963-0790 orwww.glenngary.com.

Kozmo

Cost: SAM members free. Others pay

fee at door.Place: National Press Club, 529 14thStreet NW, Washington, D.C.Contact: Ray Eyler at 410/798-0176c e y l e r 1 0 2 6 @ a o l . c o mFootnote: Ted, creator of Kozmo Magic,

had a dealers booth at Ring 50s 2008

Magi-Whirl convention.

Burger, Roberto Giobbi, Max Howardand filmmaker Michael Caplan. Extraevents for magicians only will be heldon March 18 and March 22.Contact: Conference Director Dr.Lawrence Hass at his address

[email protected] or visitwww.lawrencehass.com.

Mark PhillipsBob Sheets

Whats New at Barrys

Barry Taylor of Barrys Magic Shopin Rockville, Md., will present thelatest magic items on the market whenhe visits a Ring 50 meeting.

Barry

Taylor

Date: March 4 at 8 p.m.Place: Holiday Inn, 2460Eisenhower Avenue, inAlexandria, Va. A dinnerbuffet will be availableprior to the program.Program Note: Barrys,

which has served themagic community since

1974, moved to a new location severalyears ago. The shops affableproprietor will be demonstrating (andselling) such items as an incrediblevanish of a coin from the back of aspectators hand.Contact: Ring 50 President Louis Meyerat 703/765-1923 or email him [email protected].


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Feb. 4...........................Magic Teach-in

March 4......Whats New at BarrysApril 1......Auction, nomination of officers

April 17 and 18...Magi-Whirl 2009

April 19....Masters Class -Jeff McBride

May 6...Dan Lacey Contest,

Election of Officers

June 3.......................Winton Carroll Most

Humorous Magician Contest

July ..........No Ring 50 meeting

June 30-July 4.81st IBM Convention

Stay up to date always

Between Ring 50 Magi-Gram issues,check out the latest news events and performances at the official Ring 50blog site: IBMRing50.org.

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RING 50 MAGI-WHIRLApril 17-18, 2009

Broken Wand ceremonyhonors Phil Miller

A farewell rite for Ring 50member Phil Miller was performedby TVP Jim Flanigan, right, with the help of Jack Nance, whobroke a wand in Phils memory.

Jack Nance snaps

wand in two pieces

Jim Flanigan, the IBMs territorialvice president for Washington,D.C., delivered a broken wand

ceremony for Ring 50s Phillip Millerat the Januarymeeting. JackNance, a closefriend of Phils,broke a wand intwo in hismemory.

Phil, 72,passed away onDec. 13, 2008. Anative of Ohio, he taught school in

Illinois. He worked for the Office ofCivil Defense in Battle Creek, Mich.before going to work for the federalgovernment at the Pentagon. Heserved as the deputy director ofthe Defense Supply Agency prior toretiring in 1991.

He was a member of the IBMsOrder of Merlin and a member of theInvisible Lodge (Masons). He issurvived by one brother, the Rev.Mike Miller of Atlanta.Before the ceremony, several Ring

50 members who knew Phil paidmoving tributes. Rucj Uffelman,Mike Taggert, Buddy Smith andLarry Lipman all gave a dissertationon their friendship and good timeswith Phil.

Phil also was secretary of theVirginia Magic Society for manyyears. He recently enjoyed learningjuggling.

http://magi-whirl.blogspot.com/

Your help needed to make sureMagi-Whirl 2009 is a success

GUEST EDITORIAL

Mike Taggert

By Michael Taggert

As we get close to Magi-Whirl it is

time to consider your role in thisevent. I feel that this year is shapingup to be our best yet but we needyou to make itsuccessful. Whatcan you do? Manythings need to bedone that take justa minute or two ofyour time.

We need folks to clean up when weare done.

We need folks at the registrationtable.

We need ushers for the gala show.We need people to shuttle back and

forth from the airports.We need shuttles from the hotel to

the site of the convention and show--Bishop Ireton High School inAlexandria, Va.

We need people to send out emailsto your mailing lists and invite yourco-workers to get tickets to the show.

This years stage production will beespecially spectacular with JeffMcBride as our headliner.

We need you to order yourconvention tickets and program ads.

If you are not sure what we needand where you can help call me.

I know this all may sound a bitevangelistic but if everyone playseven just a small part of this specialevent then we all contribute to itssuccess and the work is just a minimalamount to give. Lets show everyonewhat Washington hospitality is allabout.

I look forward to seeing all of youthere.

As a side note, Ring 50 Treasurer BobPatterson and I -- with the help ofseveral dedicated folks -- spend thebetter part of a year getting this eventtogether. As a result it takes a lot of ourtime.

We would like get a few dedicatedfolks to actively join the Ring 50 Magi-Whirl committee. This would involveworking all year to plan next yearsevent. If you are interested please callor e-mail me or Bob.

For more check our Magi-Whirl sitenow at http://magi-whirl.blogspot.com/.

Again, remember that the date is fastapproaching. Mid-April is only weeksaway. Your contribution will guaranteethat The Best Little Convention inthe National Capital Area is the

finest ever.

Former Ring 50 President Mike

Taggert is the chief coordinator of

Ring 50s Magi-Whirl. He can be

reached by calling him at 540-370-

0752 or e-mailing him at

[email protected].

We need folks to help set up theday of the event.

Ring 50 Schedule Ring 50 dues for calendar year 2009are due by February. Treasurer BobPatterson will be happy to take your

dues at the Feb. 4 meeting. Dues are$15 for the year. The Ring 50 treasurerrequests that you pay by check if

possible as this eases the recordkeeping


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You can support Magi-Whirl 2009 and get your name out

at the same time! Ads may be placed in the Registrationprogram or the Gala Show program of the annual springconvention. The Gala Show program will be distributed toattendees and more than 600 members of the public at theSaturday night Gala Show in mid-April. The programs arein a folded half-page format; each full page will be 5 by8.

Ad rates are as follows:

Full page 4x 7": $90

Half page 4x 3: $50

Sq Box Ad 2x 2 $25

Rectangle Box Ad 1x4 $25

Please send ad copy, pictures, etc. and your check payableto IBM Ring 50 to Bob Patterson Treasurer, 3450 WainscottPlace, Lake Ridge, VA 22192-5263. If you have any questions,please call Bob Patterson at 703-490-1222 or [email protected]. Ads must be in no later thanApril 1, 2009. Earlier submissions would be appreciated.

Advertising space open

for Magi-Whirl 2009

Jeff McBride

The Best Little Convention in the National Capital Area

Magi-Whirl 2009 to bring out stars

Jeff McBride

The stars will come out at Ring 50s Magi-Whirl 2009 inmid-April. They will include a Las Vegas headliner, the leadersof two major magic organizations, a former Ring 50 president

noted for his Victorian magic, the Ring 50 Magician of theYear, the Magic Castles 2008 Close-up Magician of the Year

and a popular street magician from the Eastern Seaboard.

Jeff McBride, one of the most sought-after illusionists and magic lecturers in theworld today, is the headliner of Ring 50sMagi-Whirl 2009. The 6-foot-2 mastermagician stands out in a crowd and on astage.

A native of Upstate New York, Jeff stillmaintains a home studio there, in addition

to his home and studio in Las Vegas. He is married to hisassistant, Abbey Spinner.

He first gained prominence in 1992, when his Mask, Myth,and Magic tour included a stop in Barcelona, Spain, forthe Barcelona Olympics Arts Festival. In 1993, Jeffperformed his trademark, award-winning mask routine onWorlds Greatest Magic 2, which originally aired on NBC.

Hes been named Magician of the Year by The MagicCastle, has gone on tour as the opening act for such

performers as Tina Turner and Diana Ross, and has beenfeatured on countless magic specials and documentariessuch as PAXs Masters of Illusion, ABCs Champions of

Magic, PBSs The Art of Magic, and all three episodes ofThe Learning Channels Mysteries of Magic. Additionally,his role as Joran Belar on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine(1993) was created specifically for him.

Aside from performing, McBride has lectured and ledworkshops for such diverse groups as The Smithsonian,The Disney Institute, the International Brotherhood ofMagicians, the Center for Symbolic Studies and others.

Jeff is founder of The Mystery School, a uniqueexperiential retreat for magicians (and subject of anacclaimed 1994 CBC-TV documentary hosted by ArthurKent), and creator and co-founder of the World MagicsFestivals. His Las Vegas studio is home to McBrides

Master Class which he co-created with magic expertEugene Berger. Past students include such luminary magicprofessionals as Lance Burton, Mac King (of Mac KingsSchool of Magic), The Pendragons, Siegfried (of Siegfriedand Roy), Teller (of Penn and Teller), Luna Shemada andFielding West, as well as countless fans and magicenthusiasts.

Jeff has performed for a wide range of people frommembers of the International Brotherhood of Magicians tothe prince of Monaco.

Joan Caesar

Joan Caesar

International Brotherhood of Magicians

International President Joan Caesar will appearat Magi-Whirl 2009. A native of Hamilton,Ontario, Canada, she attended her first IBMconvention in Quebec City.

She goes to numerous conventions inCanada and the United States as well as

overseas in her role as IBM leader. She rose up through theIBMs ranks to the leadership role she holds today. She wasterritorial vice president for Ontario starting in 1999 and laterbecame coordinator for TVPs around the world as a memberof the IBM board of directors.

Her family has been highly supportive of her magicactivities and performances. She met her husband, George,

during the second week of their first year at college in 1967.Joan has been enriched over the years by her wonderfulfamily, children and the friends she has met through magic.

Joan performs shows for children at birthday parties,libraries, schools, corporate family events, county fairs andpicnics. She also performs close-up and parlor magic at seniorcenters.

In 1997 she founded The Canadian Association ofMagicians, an organization that became the Canadianrepresentative of FISM in 2000. As part of CAM, she runsthe Canadian National Convention every second year.


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Joan feels fortunate to have judged at the IBM, SAM,FISM, Columbus Magifest and MacMillans conventionsover the years, and was head judge at the IBM/SAMCombined Convention in Louisville, Ky., last year.

Joan taught remedial English in Kingston, Jamaica andfor 20 years worked with learning disabled children inElmira, Ontario. She was a social worker at the formerReception and Assessment Centre for Ontario delinquents

and for Big Brothers of Canada for 26 years.

Bruce KalverBruce Kalver, president of the Society of

American Magicians, has been a magicalperformer for close to 40 years. He willlecture and perform at Magi-Whirl 2009sponsored by Ring 50. He also will have adealers booth at the event.

Bruce began learning magic at the age of10 from his grandfather, Samuel Woolf,

Bruce Kalver

who was a prop builder for Harry Houdini. By the time hewas in junior high, he was performing regularly. Hisgrandfather was still his mentor. He was helping him build

up a magic library.A resident of Rhode Island, Bruce is the second

practitioner of legerdemain to lead the SAM. A magiciannamed H. Adrian Smith was its president in 1940.

Bruce calls himself both a magician and balloon artist.He performs at various venues. He is widely known for hisIncredible Growing and Shrinking Head Illusion in whichamazed audiences watch a performers head grow or shrinkwhen they stare at a spinning disk with a spiral design on it.

Bruce officially took over the post of national presidentat the combined SAM-IBM annual convention in Louisville,Ky.

Bruce remembers earning $5 for his first magic show in

1966 at a nursing homes annual picnic. He attended hisfirst magic convention when he was 13. As a teen-ager hewas doing restaurant magic.

Bruces sister was his assistant for a number of years.Among their feats was an electric sawing a woman in halfillusion.

While serving as a consultant for a community theaterproduction when he was 18, Bruce met his future wife, Arlene.Not long after their marriage, she became his assistantand they performed in dinner theater shows around thecountry. They were later booked by Carnival Cruise Lines.They spent years doing shows on board ships in theAtlantic and Caribbean.

Bruce was working in comedy clubs in the 1980s. Whenproducers from Americas Funniest People saw him , he wasinvited to be on national television in Americas FunniestHome Videos.

Later, Bruce formed a successful Murder MysteryEvenings company. He also went on to develop a radio talkshow called The Nostalgia Times Radio Programme.

Eric Henning

People often tell Eric Henning that he reminds them ofthe great magicians of the past.

Thats no coincidence since he has spent most of threedecades studying and performing some of the greatest magicin history. While still a student, Erics love of magics loretook him to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Morerecently, the National Theatre featured his Turn of theCentury -- a Victorian-style show with wonders not seenfor a hundred years.

Eric will be master of ceremonies for

Ring 50s Magi-Whirl 2009. In hisperformances, he takes you back to a timewhen men wore hats and women woregloves. With his old-fashioned magic heconjures up a time of optimism, whenanything was possible.

With unfailing courtesy and elegantstyle, Eric makes the impossible happen right before your very eyes, often inyour own hands!

Eric Henning

Eric is also an accomplished speaker, having reached thequarterfinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking.In a previous career in finance, he spent 17 years on the air

with his own radio shows. Eric has even gone overseas tospeak on behalf of the U.S. government!His award-winning blend of wit and wizardry has been

seen around the world, from the streets of Paris to theKennedy Center and two U.S. presidential inaugurals.

Some of the groups tapping into Erics eclectic and arcaneknowledge include Northrop Grumman, MedStar Health, TheWorld Bank, The Wonka Candy Company and certaindefense-related agencies whose very mention could get himkilled.

Noland Montgomery

Noland Montgomery

Noland Montgomery, who is Ring 50s Magician of the

Year, became hooked on magic at age 12 when he read hisfirst magic book, Classic Secrets of Magic by Bruce Elliott.I was fascinated by magic then, and still am today afterstudying and performing magic for more than 30 years, hesays.

Nolands family relocated a number of times while he wasgrowing up. But wherever I lived, I always found the areamagic shops and made them my second home, he relates.

Even through collegeIgraduated from Yale College witha major in historyI devotedquite a bit of time to magic.

Noland eventually decided

to make magic a full-timeprofession.

My goal is to generate inothers the same joy and thrill Ifelt when I first discoveredmagic, he declares.Noland has entertained at manydiverse events, including the2003 White House Easter EggRoll, private home gatherings,birthday parties, corporate

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Ring 50s January meeting offered awide view on the history of magic. John

Roberts, a former Ring 50 presidentand IBM territorial vice president,opened with a discussion about the firstmeeting of the International Brother-hood of Magicians in 1922. Because theIBM was founded by two Americansand a Canadian, the society wasdeemed international.

Eric Henning

John Roberts

Dick Christian

Arnie Fuoco

Tricks of the trade told by Ring 50 quartet

John distributed copies of the veryfirst issue of The Linking Ring--theofficial magazine of the IBM--whichpredicted the organization would growby leaps and bounds. Unlike the IBMsslick monthly publication of today,the initial periodical was a two-pagemultigraphed sheet intended to bedistributed now and then tomembers.

John discovered an orginal copy ofVolume 1, Number 1 of the Linking Ringwhen he bought a collection of magicmagazines. It featured a primitive

nameplate at the top of the first page,but most of it was typed and single

spaced. Gene Gordon, one of theoriginal IBM founders, wrote a longprofile of Len Vintus, another founder,on the second page. Gordon, fromLyons, N.Y., and Vintus, from Winnipeg,Canada, launched what became amagical empire along with Ernest K.Schieldge of Hartford, Conn.

Arnie Fuoco offered his version ofOut of This World--a card trickcreated by Paul Curry in 1942. Currywas a noted inventor of magic. Heinspired Dean Dills Box as well as the

Open Prediction effect.

Many performers have devised theirown variations of Out of This World.The method behind the trick is simpleand essentially self-working. The

performer places a deck of cards on thetable and tells an audience assistant todeal cards face down identifyingwhether they think each card is blackor red.

About halfway through the deck, theperformer stops and announces thatit is necessary to switch sides in order

to prevent a possible preference for onecolor over another. The performer dealstwo new marker cards onto the existinglines--a red one on the left and a blackone on the right.

When the deck is exhausted, theperformer instructs the subject togather up and somehow reveal the left-hand line of cards; the performer doesthe same for the right-hand line. Theexposed lines reveal that every one ofthe audience members guesses wascorrect. The black and red cards havebeen exactly sorted by color.

Dick Christian emphasized how oldbooks are the foundations of magictoday as hedistributed an excellent listof volumes to read.

Obviously no list can be completeand there are many fine books, butthose Ive listed are certainly more than

enough to start a good library, Dicknoted.

Dicks list included volumes ongeneral magic, magic theory andshowmanship, sleight of hand, magicwith cards and magic with coins as wellas texts on mentalism.

I recommend these books asessential reading for anyone who ismore interested in actually acquiring amastery of fundamentals of performing


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A recent PBS series on comediansin the movies and on television as wellas on the stage suggested that thegreat silent film actor Buster Keaton

was given his nickname by HarryHoudini.However, in an essay written by

Patricia Eliot Tobias titled The BusterKeaton Myths the story about themaster magician giving the comic hisfirst name when he was a child may bebunk.

We dont know who actually gaveBuster his nickname, the author says.It may in fact have been Houdini, butprobably not.

Heres the authors account:

The circumstances are relativelyclear. When little Joe Keaton Jr. wasabout six months old, he fell down aflight of stairs. According to someversions he laughed when he landed.In others, he cried a little but wasessentially unharmed. Someone, afriend of the Keaton family, saw thetumble and said something to the

magic than in simply filling the coffersof those in the business of selling --butseldom actually performing--magic,Dick emphasized.

Eric Henning closed the eveningwith a history of the Downs Palm fromits beginnings with a Peruvian-bornillusionist who had great success inFrance in the late 1800s performing asLHomme Masque, or The MaskedMan (Jose Antenar de Gago).

T. Nelson Downs brought themethod of palming to the U.S. butused the move from a different angle.

While describing various originatorsof palming coins for production, Ericshowed his own favorite ways tohandle coins.

Buster Keatonsname may nothave been given

by Houdini

Buster Keaton often found himself behind bars

effect of Thats quite a buster yourkid took! and the name stuck.

Several variations of the story wererepeated in the early vaudeville years.One clipping from July 20, 1901,describes it this way: ... the nameBuster was conferred upon him by themembers of the company with whichhis parents were then touring. Thename has clung to him, and he finds itan admirable one under which to exploit

his work in vaudeville. By this timeHoudini was the biggest star invaudeville, so if he was responsible,why wasnt he mentioned?

Other stories name specific vaudevilleperformersnot Houdiniwho hadsupposedly planted the moniker onhim. Even the midwife who deliveredBuster on October 4, 1895, in Piqua,Kansas, claimed she gave him thenickname on the day he was born!

The people who run the Houdinimuseum in Wisconsin have nothingin their records to support the ideathat Houdini was the man who namedBuster. However, neither do theyknow anything that would disproveit. They have almost complete recordsof Houdinis career except for thecrucial years during which thisincident would have taken place.

Certainly the Keatons were friendlywith the Houdinis and did go on tour

with them in a medicine showimmediately before Houdini became aworld-famous magician. Its also clearfrom surviving letters and documentsthat they remained friendly, soHoudini apparently did not object togetting credit for giving Buster hisname whether or not he actually did.

(Continued from the previous page)

Buster may

or may nothave been

given nameby Houdini

ring 50 magi-gram february 2009

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