The Billet Article - Librarians Page

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 429 - Dec 2007, Authored by Peter Wright

Librarians Page

Ok so this is the last Billet before Christmas and in my book that makes it the Christmas edition. So I thought we would start by making things a little lighter by giving you some trivia about magic and magicians, The sort of thing you can impress people with at magic conventions. OK here we go:

Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926 and is still the world's best known magician. This marvellous showman and escape artist took his name from the French magician Robert-Houdin. It is also not often mentioned that Houdini was an accomplished pilot and on March 16, 1919, became the first man to fly an airplane in, or rather over, Australia.

Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic amateur magician. In August 1849, in one of his most ambitious performances he introduced himself as "The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos, educated cabalistically in the orange groves of Salamanca and the ocean caves of Alum Bay." I’d like to see Colin get his tongue around that one if he had to introduce him.

The greatest collection of magic books, tricks and memorabilia in the world belongs to David Copperfield. The famous illusionist is building a special museum in Las Vegas to house his collection. But you probably guessed that. David Copperfield is also the first living magician to have a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. The only other magician so honoured is Harry Houdini, who received a star after his death.

Magic has many names! It is also called conjuring, hocus pocus, prestidigitation, legerdemain, necromancy, sorcery, thaumaturgy and wizardry, to name some of the most common. Some of those should come in handy when playing Scrabble.

The most famous Chinese magician of all time, Chung Ling Soo, was really an American named William E. Robinson. He was mortally wounded in 1918 doing the Bullet Catch trick on the stage of the Wood Green Empire Theatre in London and died the next day. Only then did the world discover that he was not Chinese. He never spoke on the stage or in public except to say “My God I’ve been shot”. Allegedly these were the first and last words he ever spoke in English in public

Famous Celebrities who are (or were) also Magicians: Jonny Carson, Don Johnson, Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, Dick Van Dyke, Milton Berle, Cary Grant, Bill Bixby, Jimmy Stewart, Steve Martin, Muhammad Ali, Bob Barker, George W. Bush, Jerry Lewis, Boris Karloff, Dom DeLuise, Gallagher, Charles Dickens, Fred Astaire, John Denver, and Joe Pasquale. There are probably many, many more.

Famous magicians have others talents as well. Houdini as we have already mentioned was an accomplished pilot, but he also held a patent for a diving suit and founded the Houdini Picture Corporation.

Chung Ling Soo the famous ‘Chinese’ magician was the owner of a toy aeroplane company

Well there are one or two bits to be going on with.

Library Expansion.

Good News. Another member has donated a big box full of books to the library. I have not had time to sort them out yet but there looks to be some exciting books on all aspects of magic. I am sure that you will be pleased to know that it contains the Paul Daniels Annual for 1982. According to message in the opening page even Bradford Libraries didn’t want that one!! Nevertheless there are some excellent books amongst the boxful and I shall be putting them out on the table in the New Year once they have been catalogued. If any other members have any books they no longer require please think of the Circle’s library first. If we cannot use them I am sure that Stevie B will find a good home for them in the Juniors section.

Well that’s about all for this time. Got to go now as Ivan Robinson has something he wants to rehearse with me. All will be revealed at the December meeting.

Just time for me to wish all our readers a very Merry and Prosperous Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year. I am looking forward to seeing all of you in the New Year.

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