William Edwin Self

William Edwin Self (1921 - 2010) was an American television and feature film producer who began his career as an actor.

One of Self's favorite hobbies was magic. When he was thirteen years old, he won a citywide contest, mounted by the Howard Thurston and his traveling show, to name "Dayton's Best Amateur Magician and the Person Most Likely to Become Thurston's Successor." Being the winner, Self appeared at the Colonial Theatre on the stage with Mr. Thurston to perform his trick. Although he had never before performed this trick in public (a fact he had left out on his contest application), it went off perfectly. Self's photograph was taken with Thurston and a notice appeared in a Dayton newspaper.

He was friends with some of the best-known magicians and magic historians in the United States, and attended many of the major magic conventions. For many years, he was a member of The Magic Castle. In later years he became a close friend of Howard Thurston's daughter, Jane, who had appeared on stage with her father.

References

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