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[[File: MervTaylor1.png|right|thumb|200px|[[ Merv Taylor]]]]
 
'''Merv Taylor''' (b.1904-d.1974) was a magic inventor and manufacturer.
[[File: RichardPotter.png|right|thumb|200px|[[ Richard Potter]]]]
 
'''Richard Potter''' (b.1783-d.1835) is credited as the first successful stage magician born in the United States and as the first black magician.  


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Reportedly, Potter was the son of an English baronet, Charles Henry Frankland, and an African American woman (some say "slave"). Frankland, however, died years before Potter was born.  Church records from Hopkinton, MA, list his father as George Simpson.  His mother's name was Dinah, who was a slave on the Frankland estate.  Potter went to England around 1798.  There is no record of his actual education.  He returned to the United States around 1801, probably with [[John Rannie]], a professional magician whom he started out working for as an assistant in 1802.


Born in Dennison, Illinois, but lived most his life in California, Taylor started out teaching art, metalcraft, electrical shop and mechanical drawing.  He also did some work for the government, but in 1940 a magician performing at the school took one of his broken props to Merv to fix, which sparked an interest in magic.  
One of the earliest records of Potter advertising a show was in Boston, November 2nd, 1811 at the Columbian Museum.  He advertised his show as, "An Evening's Brush to Sweep Away Care, or a Medley to Please."


By 1945, Taylor, who found the magic business more fun than teaching, moved to the San Fernando Valley and went into fixing and creating magic props exclusively. With three of his brothers and a few friends, he built a shop with a retail store in 1948 called [Merv Taylor Magic]]. He employed [[Alan Wakeling]] for a time and many people wanted his pieces including [[Richard Himber]] and [[Orson Welles]].
[[Richard Potter|Read more about Richard Potter…]]
[[Merv Taylor|Read more about Merv Taylor…]]

Latest revision as of 17:27, 1 November 2024

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Richard Potter (b.1783-d.1835) is credited as the first successful stage magician born in the United States and as the first black magician.

Biography

Reportedly, Potter was the son of an English baronet, Charles Henry Frankland, and an African American woman (some say "slave"). Frankland, however, died years before Potter was born. Church records from Hopkinton, MA, list his father as George Simpson. His mother's name was Dinah, who was a slave on the Frankland estate. Potter went to England around 1798. There is no record of his actual education. He returned to the United States around 1801, probably with John Rannie, a professional magician whom he started out working for as an assistant in 1802.

One of the earliest records of Potter advertising a show was in Boston, November 2nd, 1811 at the Columbian Museum. He advertised his show as, "An Evening's Brush to Sweep Away Care, or a Medley to Please."

Read more about Richard Potter…