Difference between revisions of "Magicana (Woodfield)"

Revision as of 05:51, 14 December 2008

For other uses, see Magicana (disambiguation).

Magicana was a magic newsletter started by Bill Woodfield around 1946 when he was 18 at the encouragement of Walter Gibson, Bill Larsen Sr., and Charlie Miller.

The first two issues of Magicana were published as a newsletter (four pages) of 1,500 each. They contained tricks, news and reviews.

The Conjurors' Magazine offered to publish his newsletter with complete editorial freedom inside to make Magicana "A Magazine Within a Magazine". That was until he gave a friend of the magazine a bad review.

He then made the same deal with Bill Larsen Sr. for Genii. Bill promised total editorial Freedom and Magicana started running inside of Genii beginning in Vol. 12, N° 5, January 1948.

Charlie Miller picked up the editing duties, also inside of in Genii (as well as his new Intermission column), from November 1964 until September 1987. Although the last few years, many issues were edited by Elizabeth Wilson and James Patton. A number of Charlie's columns were also ghosted by Elizabeth Wilson and Jules Lenier when Charlie was off on cruise ships.

Tony Giorgio was the last editor of Magicana when Bill requested Magicana be retired after 52 years on August 1997.

References

• Dariel Fitzkee's review in Genii, Vol. 10, N°10, June 1946, page 333.
• Genii September 1997 page 12 - Bill Woodfield's letter to the editor.