Click on Details if you would like to download a PDF of this e-news.
E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator. The September 2023 issue included:
– Newsreel of the 1938 British Ring Convention.
– Radio dice box.
– The Great Modern Psuedourgos Dr Lynn.
– Is it just a puzzle or an entertaining trick?
– The Oswald Williams Noah’s Ark Illusion – now also on film.
– And have you seen . . . Eddie Dawes in his own words.
To see all the other e-news, click on Website e-news.
The International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring held their 8th Annual Convention at Malvern in 1938. This Gaumont British News film was aimed at the cinema-going public. It features an upside-down strait jacket escape by Les Levante and an underwater escape by his daughter Esmé. It uses a breathless tone to capture the excitement of these and other magical happenings. Gus and George Davenport briefly turn up from time to time, most noticeably at the end having fun with the production of two giant bunches of flowers using a double Botania, no doubt on loan from the Davenport stand at the convention.
The British Ring usually used The Palace Hotel, Bloomsbury Street, for their Dinners. This event was reported in The Budget for March 1937. The Davenports were there in force. In the front row, from the left, is Wally. his wife Hilda, Gus and then Wyn. In the second row, 8th from the left is Gilly. During the after dinner show Wyn Davenport assisted Brian McCarthy with a silk effect. Gus and Wally Davenport also assisted Levante with a new version of the Block Off Ribbon.
The International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring held their 8th Annual Convention at Malvern in 1938. On Friday 24 June the Davenport family took a 16mm colour film of Les Levante escaping from a straitjacket whilst suspended from the roof of the Festival Theatre. This stunt was arranged to provide publicity for the convention’s public magic show.
The International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring held their 8th Annual Convention at Malvern in 1938. On Friday 24 June the Davenport family took a 16mm colour film of Esmé Levante escaping from bonds underwater. This stunt was arranged to provide publicity for the convention’s public magic show.
Click on Details if you would like to download a PDF of this e-news.
E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The February 2019 issue included:
– Intermittently on the halls, a talk by Anne Goulden about Lewis Davenport.
– The first of 80 British Ring conventions, Cheltenham 1931, a talk by Roy Field.
– Noms de Theatre – stage names for magicians, a talk by Paul Freeman.
– a Gustav Fasola poster.
– Frederick Culpitt’s Doll’s House.
– Oswald Williams’ Noah’s Ark illusion.
– Production of a Ford car.
– The Friendship Clock – a gift from Punx to Lewis Davenport.
We are grateful to Paul Freeman who has given us permission to include this PDF version of his talk, which he has given in England and Austria between 2008 and 2011. Paul relates the interesting and often surprising ways in which magicians have ended up with a well-known stage name.
Peter’s talk traces the development of magicians’ programmes from the 19th century into the 20th century. He illustrates this with a wide range of Maskelyne programmes, as well as those of numerous other performers, from Signor Blitz to Carmo – around 50 programmes in all. On the way Peter highlights intriguing facts that can be discovered about the performers by careful study of the programmes.
Roy presented this talk in the History of Mystery session at the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Buxton, 9 September 2016. Click on this PDF to join the conventioneers of 1931, and to understand what happened and why it was so enjoyed by the participants.
Nobody is better placed than Donald to tell the story of Goodliffe the Magician and the magazine Abracadabra which Goodliffe founded in 1946 – the World’s Only Magical Weekly. Donald was involved with Abra from 1965 for over 40 years, many of those as Managing Editor, so you will also learn about Donald’s life in magic. The talk is full of insight and humour and the story is brought to life with over forty illustrations. Where else will you see Goodliffe with His Holiness Pope Paul V1, or Michael Bailey riding a bicycle?
J.B. Priestley’s book Lost Empires, published in 1965, looks back on the life of the fictitious magician Ganga Dun before the First World War. In his talk given at the British Ring Convention in Eastbourne on 24 September 2015, Brian Lead revisits the book to review the magic in it and how closely it matches the reality of a magician working at the time. Read on to learn why Brian believes that Priestley had a good working knowledge of stage magic and instinctively understood the subtleties and problems of its presentation.
In this insightful and entertaining talk Roy leads us through the numerous ways in which generations of children and adults have aspired to be a ‘Raging Social Success’ through mastering magic. How did amateurs learn their first tricks and where did they get them from? How has this changed over the years? Was the advice always good? Click below to have Roy answer these questions.
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