Walter Cummings

Walter E. Cummings
Born	Walter Kaminski September 9, 1904 New York
Died	February 15, 2000 (age 95) Utica, New York
Resting place	Holy Trinity Cemetery, Yorkville, NY

Walter Cummings (1904-2000), an World War II Army veteran, was a Chavez College Of Magic student and teacher.

Biography

Inspired after watching Paul LePaul perform in Utica, New York and getting enough nerve to meet him backstage, he saved his money to purchase a set of the Tarbell Correspondence Course on Magic in 1929.

By 1932, had been accepted in the Harry Meyers Mystery Review, and toured the south as "The Prince of Cards." He then did straight-jacket and handcuff escape act with several circuses and carnivals.

In 1938, Cummings moved west and played casual dates around Hollywood, finally getting a job doing table magic in a night club called "The Pirates Den."

During World War II he served in the Army Amphibian Command in the South Pacific, where he also did some magical entertaining among the troops. After the army, he traveled with the Bert Seeley USO Review to service camps and hospitals in the states, doing his magic act and a gambling expose.

His friend Elmer Biddle talked him into enrolling in the newly formed Chavez College Of Magic, in Hollywood, under the GI bill, graduating with honors. He remained there teaching for another three years.

Cummings then worked in several magic shops in Hollywood, and managed the Hollywood shop of the Dell O'Dell and her husband Charles Carrer.

In 1956, he moved back to Utica to attend to his serious ill mother, where he operated his own Studio of Magic.

He would appeared at many magic convention programs throughout the United States as both a performer and lecturer.

References

• Best of Friends Vol.II, by Harry Lorayne (1985), page 325
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 30, No. 4, June 1950, Walter Cummings Teaches Chavez Pupils, by Ellis K. Baldwin, page 38
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 38, No. 2, April 1958, Walter E. Cummings by Don Connelly, page 33
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 65, No. 4, April 1985, OUR COVER Walter E. Cummings, by Don Connelly, page 49
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 66, No. 3, March 1986, Cummings Honored, by Jeff Sterling, page 103
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 76, No. 9, September 1996, Don Connelly Ring #101 Parade 97, Interlock Billiard Ball Sleight, Walter Cummings, page 106
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 80, No. 4, April 2000, Tribute to Walter Cummings, by Tony Econ, page 68, Broken Wand WALTER E. CUMMINGS, by Shaun Robinson, page 138