MagicPedia Main Page

From MagicPedia, the free online encyclopedia for magicians by magicians.
(Redirected from Main Page)
Jump to: navigation, search
Welcome to MagicPedia,
the free encyclopedia, dedicated to preserving the history and techniques of magic, that anyone can edit.
Become a member (it's free) and help improve one of the 7,573 articles or create one that is needed.
Tricks are only the crude residue from which the lifeblood of Magic has been drained. -S.H. Sharpe

Overview   · Browse   · Getting Started   · FAQ   · Policy   · Help

Featured article

John Giordmaine

Cover of Genii (May 1964)
BornGiovanni Nicola Giordmaina
September 26, 1898
Malta
DiedJanuary 19, 1974 (age 75)
NationalityCanadian

John Giordmaine (1898-1974) was born Giovanni Nicola Giordmaina in Malta but immigrated to Canada in 1919. He started as an electrician, but went onto a successful career as a professional magician after a serious injury in an electrical accident.

He became friends with Sid Lorraine who got him to join the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He changed his name to Giordmaine to rhyme with legerdemain.

In the late 1930s, Giordmaine worked at The Arcade Magic and Novelty Shop and the T. Eaton Company of Toronto. While at Eaton's toy department during the 1940s, he developed and sold a magic kit.

He became the first magician on television in 1933 and appeared on the Howdy-Doody show, Captain Kangaroo, Paul Winchell's Circus Time. He had been described as "the world's greatest little magician artist" in an early television show for children.

Giordmaine was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 and played the New York World's Fair.

Read more about Giordmaine...

Did you know...

From MagicPedia's newest articles:

  • ... George Casaubon was the pen name of Monsignor Vincent Foy, a Roman Catholic priest and magic collector.
  • ... Professor Henderson (Milton H. Grannat) was one of the crew on the Monitor, during the Civil War. After retiring from the Federal Navy at the close of the Civil War, he became a magician.
  • ... Mac McDonald(1907-c.1982), of McDonald's Aces fame, was a diamond broker before he became a magician...
  • ... Jack Merlin (c.1885-1943) was buried at Marion National Cemetery in Marion, Indiana...
  • ... Houdini had a nephew, Harry Houdini Hinson, who was an amateur magician that died at the age of 21...
  • ... Houdini wrote under the name "N. Osey" for both Mahatma and his own Conjurers' Monthly Magazine....
  • ... American author John Ball (who wrote the mystery novel "In the Heat of the Night" involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs in 1965) performed as a semi-professional magician in college as Jacques_Morintell...


See also Recent changes.

Featured Tip

Subscribe to MagicPedia updates

On this day June 19...

Featured Video

Richard Himber(1900-1966)


In the news

Upcoming Events

  • 7/03 - 7/6/2013 : S.A.M. national convention, Washington D.C.
  • 7/17 - 7/20/2013 : I.B.M. national convention, Phoenix, Arizona
  • 8/1 - 8/4/2013 : PCAM convention, Burbank California
  • 7/1 - 7/5/2014 : Joint S.A.M./I.B.M. convention, St. Louis, Missouri

Friends of MagicPedia

Sites which have been useful to MagicPedia or are linking to MagicPedia articles:

Collaboration requests

Help MagicPedia by:

All you need to do is join (free) and click "Edit"

Featured picture

Ray Price as R. Temple Greystoke, a professional illusionist on both the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuit.
Greystoke.jpg


MagicPedia is operated by Genii, The Conjurors' Magazine. So please help support them by subscribing to keep this site running.

Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Interaction
Support our sponsor
Share
Print/export
Toolbox