Jay Marshall

Jay Marshall
Cover of Genii (1960)
Born	James Ward Marshall August 29, 1919 Abington, Massachusetts
Died	May 10, 2005 (age 85)
Resting place	Plot 69, Woodlawn Cemetery & Chapel, 7750 West Cermak Road Forest Park, IL
Categories	Books by Jay Marshall

Jay Marshall (August 29, 1919 – May 10, 2005) was a famous magician and ventriloquist born in Abington, Massachusetts.

Biography

Over a 60 year career he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show 14 times together with his hand puppet "Lefty". He also was the opening act for performers like Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle and Liberace. In fact, he was the first act to open for Sinatra in Las Vegas. He was also the dean of the Society of American Magicians.

Jay Marshall & "Lefty"
- by Al Hirschfeld
Cover of Genii, July 2005

According to the Chicago Tribune, his interest in magic started when he was six. Marshall failed to graduate from Bluefield College in West Virginia and went on to be a professional magician instead.

During World War II, Marshall was "island hopping" in the Pacific to entertain military personnel in USO shows. He became tired of taking his elaborate ventriloquist's dummy called Henry with him, so he decided to use a white glove and some bunny ears to turn his left hand into his dummy, "Lefty".

In the 1950s, Marshall moved to Chicago and married fellow magician Frances Ireland. Together they opened a magic shop in 1963 called Magic, Inc. on Lincoln Avenue on Chicago's North Side. Marshall was also a historian of stage magic and wrote several books about it. However, his own acts focused more on card magic and sleight of hand which he often combined with ventriloquism. One of his creations was the Jaspernese Thumb Tie.

For five years in the 1950's, he edited New Phoenix.

He died at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago after a series of heart attacks.

Awards and honors

• Masters Fellowship from Academy of Magical Arts (1982)

Books

• TV, Magic and You (1955)

References

This page incorporated content from Jay Marshall (magician), a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• Cover, The Linking Ring, Vol. 35, No. 1, March 1955, "One Of The Better Cheaper Acts", by Alvin Richard Plough – Jay Marshall, page 19
• Cover, The New Tops, Vol. 1, No. 6, June 1961, Cover Portrait, Jay Marshall, by Clarke "The Senator" Crandall, page 2
• Cover, The Linking Ring, Vol. 42, No. 11, November 1962, On Jasper The Jongleur, by Robert Lund, page 35; Sponsored Magic is Lucrative, by Jay Marshall, page 37
• Cover, M-U-M, Vol. 69, No. 1, June 1979, FRANCES AND JAY MARSHALL, magician-of-the-month by A Few Of Their Many Friends, page 14
• Cover, The Linking Ring, Vol. 63, No. 3, March 1983, Our Cover, Jay Marshall, page 51
• Cover, The Linking Ring, Vol. 70, No. 6, June 1990, Our Cover, Jay Marshall, page 66
• Cover, M-U-M, Vol. 82, No. 2, July 1992, Thoughts from your President, A Salute to Jay Marshall, S.A.M. Dean, page 9; JAY MARSHALL, Dean of American Magicians, page 10
• M-U-M, 91, No. 12, May 2002, The Deans of the S.A.M. - Jay Marshall, page 26
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 82, No. 4, April 2002, Chicago's Magic, Inc. Celebrates Its 75th Year, by Robert K. Miller, page 43
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 85, No. 6, June, 2005, James Ward "Jay" Marshall 1919-2005, page 47; BROKEN WAND, JAMES “JAY” MARSHALL, page 139
• Cover, The Magic Circular, Vol. 104, No. 1124, March 2010, Jay Marshall, Lefty in London, page 76
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=11017966&page=gr Jay Marshall