Warren E. Simms

Warren E. Simms
Conjuring Record November 1913
Born	William Edward Simms April 25, 1889 New York City
Died	January 22, 1976 (age 86)

Warren Simms (1889 - 1976), aka Sheldon Simms, was a professional magician, ventriloquist and novelty entertainer who at one time billed himself as "the White House magician" after Eleanor Roosevelt once mentioned him as one of her favorite magicians.

Biography

Starting out first as an engineer for the Machine Appliance Corporation of Brooklyn, while doing magic on the side, he also wrote technical articles for various journals under the pen name of Sheldon Simms. Simms married Miss Henrietta Nanette Fricke in Brooklyn on November 27, 1912.

Simms eventually became a full time professional and manufacturer of magic apparatus. He did six shows for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the President's mother. He was well acquainted with Houdini, Thurston and Harry Kellar.

Simms was very active in magic societies. He was President of the Society of American Magicians (1944-45), founding member and president of the Magician's Guild (1946) and also a founding member of the National Conjurors Association of which he served as their president for two terms.

Simms contributed effects to New Conjurers' Magazine, of which he became a Technical Editor.

He is credited as inventor of the horizontal-load coin dropper.

References

• Sphinx December, 1912, Page 190
• Magician of the Month, MUM December, 1952
• Obit MUM April 1976