McDonald Birch

McDonald Birch
Cover of Genii (1940)
Born	George McDonald Birch January 28, 1902 Columbus, Ohio
Died	April 28, 1992 (age 90) McConnelsville, Ohio

McDonald "Mac" Birch (b.1902-d.1992) was born George McDonald Birch and grew up in McConnelsville, Ohio. Known as Mac to his friends, he began performing on the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits. He quickly gained a reputation for his work offering a full unassisted two-hour show.

Biography

Later, his wife Mabel Sperry, a xylophonist and also played the marimba , provided the musical interlude in his shows, as well as working as his chief assistant. Two of his featured acts were the Vanishing Pony and the Silk Mirage.

McDonald Birch was a contemporary of other master illusionists like Blackstone, Thurston and the great Harry Houdini. In 1924, Howard Thurston made plans to make Birch the successor to the Kellar-Thurston "magic mantle". Thurston, however, never got around to retiring.

After over 50 years as a headliner, Birch retired from performing in the 1960s.

The auditorium of the Opera House Theater in Morgan County, Ohio was dedicated "Birch Hall" as tribute.

Awards

• Received the "Master Fellowship" award from the Academy of Magical Arts (1980)
• Given a Presidential Citation by IBM in 1990.
• Cincinnati Academy of Magic and Allied Sciences (C.A.M.A.S.) bestowed him the "Honored Wizard" in 1990.

References

This page incorporated content from McDonald Birch, 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

• The Sphinx, Vol. XXIII, No. 3, May 1924, MCDONALD BIRCH by O.V. Stout, page 79
• Cover Genii 1940 January, Vol. 4, no. 5, page 145.
• Cover Genii, Vol. 10, No. 1, September 1945, McDonald Birch, page 19
• M-U-M, Vol. 44, No. 11, April 1955, MCDONALD BIRCH magician-of-the-month by LESLIE P. GUEST, page 483
• Cover Genii 1968 July
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 59, No. 12, December 1979, Memoirs Of A Magician's Ghost by John Booth, "MC DONALD BIRCH ATTRACTS HOWARD THURSTON", page 61
• Genii, Vol. 55, No. 9, July 1992, Obituaries, MacDonald Birch, page 636
• M-U-M, Vol. 82, No. 2, July 1992, Broken Wands, McDonald Birch, page 40
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 72, No. 7, July 1992, Obituary GEORGE MCDONALD BIRCH 1902–1992, page 114
• http://sdrcdata.lib.uiowa.edu/libsdrc/details.jsp?id=/birchm/2&ui=1
• http://www.operahouseinc.com/newmagic.htm