Magical Odyssey 3

Magical Odyssey- by magic-Ian We were all fascinated by magic when we were young, my mom gave me a real top hat and cape at age 6, and I went to my school classes producing silks from my sleeve and a stuffed rabbit from the hat. Now I was 21, and failing at college, so I opened a coffee house which also failed within the year. I turned it into an antique shop and that is where I met Bob Reinhart. Bob came in looking for antique dishes, and always asked if I knew of a juggler named Dubois. He then took some of the dishes and juggled them over my china display. Not too bad for age 80. He never mentioned magic, but more about Bob later. My interest in magic was rekindled at age 24, when we rented a room to a young magician who inadvertently left his magic bag open allowing me to peak in and see a thumb tip. Well, it was like I was missing a finger all of my life and there it was. My wife bought me a magic kit that year and six weeks later I opened a shop. That shop was all of 20 items in the front of my mom's fabric store, but everyone got a demo when they came in. Then Bob Reinhart came by one day. Like an old reclusive wizard he would wait until there were no other magicians in the shop, and then start to tell me stories of his entertainment booking agency in New York. He never told me of his magical connection when he shopped at my old antique shop, but now he came out of the closet. He dropped names that I only now could identify, and for some reason he insisted on encouraging me to get some older classic props. He would never buy anything, but knew all. He then invited me to the Poughkeepsie SAM. That was where I met George Sands, and Walter Gibson. Reinhardt was a close friend of all of the old timers, Gibson, Vernon, Marshall, Flosso, Kudobucks, Lawton, Larson and it was found out that he was the agent for many acts in the 20's. The Poughkeepsie connection was the real start of great magical interest. Two years later, 1979, I did my first lecture on magic and wrote a booklet "Best Dam Tricks" and Walter Gibson wrote the introduction. I had gone to Gibsons house to seek his advice on writing. He gave me some routines (from an 1919 booklet he wrote), and gave me permission to use whatever I wanted. He then went to his Underwood typewriter, the same one he typed "The Shadow" on. The same one he wrote all of his thousand books or so, and he said he never corrected his text and wrote pages of original text in mere minutes. He typed out a fabulous introduction for my first booklet and he signed it. That signature went right to print. The shop was a magic magnet for talent, and an 13 year old named Jeff McBride practically lived at the shop. He was a featured act (even then) at the Orange County (NY) fair up until he turned 17. Jeff and I would travel to the larry Weeks conventions in NY, and one time we saw Reinhardt there. I introduced Bob to Jeff, and all of a sudden I was invisible. Reinhardt decide to take us all out after one of the conventions, to a building in NY at 2 A.M.. He had the keys to this "club" as he put it, and we all were in awe of his NY savvy. It was McBride, Myself, Bobby Baxter (great thimble artist), and Reinhardt walking into this huge room which suddenly lit up when a butler came by to light the way. The walls were all mahogany and the chairs were all fine leather. Twelve foot ceiling, and great mahogany doors with gold handles, and we went through ten rooms to a private room at the end. This was the Harvard Club in NY. Rheinhardt persuaded Baxter to do some magic, and he obliged by doing his entire thimble act, producing 10 thimbles as a finale after showing his bare hands. Next, McBride would do his card act with split fans, interlock, and cards from everywhere. What a night. We left at dawn, and Jeff and I took turns driving his van home to upstate NY. ----More next month.