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Larry Grey

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Larry Grey

Performing with Jumbo cards in "Mr. Celebrity"
BornLawrence Grey
September 13, 1894
London, England
DiedMay 5, 1951 (age 56)
Burbank, California, United States

Larry Grey (1894-1951), born Lawrence Grey in England, was a comedy magician known as the "Dizzy Wizard".

Biography

Grey moved to the Canada in the early 1900s and then the United States. Early in his career he did a manipulative act with Jumbo Cards and by 1925 was doing a card act while wearing gloves.

Around 1918, Grey met Dai Vernon at Coney Island. Dai taught him how to cut silhouettes and they both worked together cutting silhouettes at the Toronto Exhibition in 1919 and at a booth in New York City in the 1920s.

While in New York City in 1926, Grey and Vernon formed the Sleight-of-Hand Artists Club and had meetings at their Silhouette Studio on Broadway.

Grey did about fifteen minutes of magic with jumbo cards in the film, "Oldtimers Night", a movie about vaudeville performers performing in a boarding house.

In 1941 Grey appeared in the film, Mr. Celebrity, as himself performing magic tricks with Jumbo Cards. The film was about vaudeville performers performing in a boarding house.

Grey also worked on the Walt Disney movie, Alice in Wonderland as the voice for Bill the Lizard just before he took his own life in 1951.[1][2][3][4] [5][6][7][8]

Dai Vernon considered Grey one of the greatest card performer who ever lived.[9]

Near the end of his life, Grey had his own Magic theater on the boardwalk at Santa Cruz, California and did a comedy Magic act with his wife known as Larry Grey and Carlotta.

In 1951, shortly after appearing in Alice in Wonderland, he committed suicide.

Contributions

References

  1. The Magical Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 1922, Cover, LARRY GRAY—"THE DIZZY WIZARD", page 52
  2. Billboard, July 24, 1926, page 40
  3. 41.—THE WORLD'S FAIR, SATURDAY, MAY 9th, 1936, LARRY GRAY, THE DIZZY WIZARD
  4. Tops, Vol. 16, No. 6, June 1951, Magical West Wind by George L. Boston, page 23
  5. The Sphinx, Vol. 50, No. 4, June 1951, Obituaries, Larry Gray, page 145
  6. Vernon Touch, Genii 1970 March
  7. Vernon Touch, Genii, Vol. 34, No. 9, May 1970, Basic Moves, Larry Grey, page 397
  8. Vernon Touch, Genii 1981 August (photo page 493)
  9. LARRY GREY, THE DIZZY WIZARD in "He Fooled Houdini Dai Vernon A Magical Life The Vernon Chronicles Volume IV" by Bruce Cervon and Keith Burns (1992)
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