St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis the gateway to the west is the second largest city of the independent city and state of Missouri. The city is the largest urban area in Missouri and 15th-largest in the United States.

Magicians

Several notable St. Louis Magicians that are either from or have lived in the area include: Brother John Hamman, Forrest Hendricks, Louis Vizard, Don Lawton, Robert Parrish, Paul Le Paul, David Livingston Price, Jr., James Barton, Jim Buffaloe, Bud Dietrich, Frank Everhart, Devo, John Randall Brown, Jack Lippincott, Andrew Buel, Charlton F. Chute, Bev Taylor, Harry Monti, John Mendoza, Jonathan Levitt, Chris Kenner, Justin Willman, Chris Rayman, Ernie Heldman, Joe Scott, Roger Linden, Harold D. Russell & Don Rataj.

Dealers

Magic shops in st. Louis area include: The Devoe's Magic Den run by Gene Devoe which was located downtown and then was later relocated to Maplewood area and operated by John Mendoza, Don Lawton had a little magic shop in the back of his St. Louis home at one time but also worked at 4 different magic shops, Bev Taylor operated the Towne House Magic, Will Lindhorst operated Lindhorst magic in downtown, Mike O'Dowd was the mfg. of magic and Fabjance magic was located across the river from St. Louis. Magic n Things was a shop operated by Rev. Fred Kruse, who aquired part of the Thurston collection from Heaney. Other magic shops include St. Louis Magic Studio (Roger Linden) Rings & things, BC Magic, Ickle Pickle (Steve Bender) and Village Square magic shop operated (Conrad Dunn)

Organizations

The first International Brotherhood of Magicians local chapter, IBM Ring 1 was started in St. Louis after the members wanted a change in the club. Society of American Magicians' assembly 8 is also located in St. Louis and is shared by many of the St. Louis magicians.

The St. Louis Midwest Magic Jubilee, convention is held annually in St. Louis, and was one of Dai Vernon's favorite conventions. Gene Devoe and Ernie Heldmen worked on the first idea of the Midwest Magic Jublilee convention which was to be held every three years in a different city. The 3 selected cities were St. Louis, Kansas City and Peroria Illinois. The St. Louis and Kansas City magicians agreed to have the jubilee convention every other year in the other city, and now only St. Louis holds the Jubilee convention yearly. It has grown yearly into one of the best conventions in the Midwest.

Events

• The Sphinx magazine, started in Chicago by William Hilliar, moved to St. Louis in 1904 when Kansas City physician, Dr. A. M. Wilson, took over as editor (Vol. 3 No. 8).

• Harry Houdini introduced his Milk Can Escape trick in 1908 in St. Louis and maybe invented the trunk change trick while in St. Louis.

• Paul Rosini performed at the Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. (See Genii 1937 November, Chicago Notes by George Troseth)

• Harry Blackstone publicly named Bill Chaudet as his successor while in St. Louis in 1946.

Map

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References

This page incorporated content from St. Louis, Missouri, 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

• History of St. Louis Magicians post on Genii Forum

History of Magic in St. Louis, book on the IBM 85 years of St. Louis Ring One magic by historian Don Rataj to be published Sept. 2011.