Remembering Bob

A Personal Tribute from Ken Ashton

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of my dear and lifelong friend, Bob Eaton. We were still at school when we first met at a birthday party of a school friend. During the party the hostess announced that we were going to see a magic trick. I jumped to my feet with a set of billiard balls, and so did another young man. It was Bob Eaton with the same trick. He looked rather smart wearing a black blazer and bow tie that he had made himself from one of his mum's black belts. We tossed a coin and he won and did the trick. It was the beginning a friendship that was to last more than 65 years.

Every Saturday morning we met and made our way down to Ken Brooke's magic place in Sunbridge Road to watch him demonstrate his latest miracles. We had no money, but we bought Abra for 6d (3d each). Eventually we had to be kicked out by Brookie, and we tried to work out the secrets on the way home.

We met and talked and performed magic at every opportunity at his home or mine.

His real name was William, but his mum called him Willie, which he hated. It was later in life that he was listed on a show programme as Bob, and he liked it so much that he decided to stick with it. I never lost the habit of calling him Bill. He was a great admirer of a music hall comedian called Rob Wilton, and he used the same type of dry humour and deadpan expressions.

Our only audience in those days was Bob's mum, whose only reaction to the minor miracles of two very young and not very skilful would-be-magicians was 'mmm' or 'not bad' or 'do it again, I'm not sure what you did'. Bob became frustrated by her indifference and one day said, 'Right, mother, I'm going to stand on this table and disappear in a puff of smoke'. His mum just said, 'As long as you're back for dinner'.

Bob left school before me and his first job was with a local firm that made raincoats. Later in life he sold cosmetics to hairdressers helped by performing a magic trick to customers to get them in a good mood. He also worked for many years as a driver for Securicor.

One of my fondest memories was seeing Bob entertain an audience of magicians at Blackpool be performing his floating ball trick. The look on his face as the ball floated high up into the wings then offstage never to be seen again was pure Bob Eaton. He then followed up with his linking toilet sets - the mere mention of this effect was enough to send the audience into hysterics. As he got his standing ovation I heard a BBC cameraman say, 'We should have filmed him as well as this Ken Brooke chap'.

We lost touch when WW11 broke out, but he kept up his magic by entertaining army friends. After the war Bob got in touch and asked if I would do a double act with him. I declined because Bob had a very individual style. He was brilliant at ad-libbing and would make an audience laugh with a look. His cut/no-cut scissors was a wonderful piece of comedy for the audience, if not for the volunteer. I knew if he tried to change his act it wouldn't work. He never worked to a script; he just 'went on and took it as it came'.

He was a lovely man. I never once saw him lose his temper. Fun to be with and a good friend. His achievements in comedy magic are too well known to list them again. He was the best.

During the funeral ceremony my mind went back over the years and I remembered the young man in the black blazer and home made bow tie and I thought how wonderful if we could go back and do it all again. Then I realised that I had done just that in about 15 minutes. I will miss you Bill (Bob) Eaton.

My deepest sympathies to his widow, Vera, and son, Robert.