Litzka Raymond Gibson

Litzka Raymond Gibson
Born	Pearl Beatrice Gonser January 11, 1901 Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania
Died	May 11, 1996 (age 95) Golden Hill Infirmary, Kingston, New York.
Resting place	Montrepose Cemetery, Kingston, New York

Litzka Raymond Gibson (b.1901-d.1996) performed as "The Great Litzka".

Biography

When Pearl decided to change her name for show business purposes it was proposed she should have a name with an exotic, Bohemian touch. Her friend suggested "Pearlitzka". She liked the Litzka part, which is what stuck, although she continued to sign documents and her passport as Pearl Litzka Gonser.”

She married Maurice Raymond in 1927 after her first husband, a musician, died. She was his assistant, as wells as an act on her own as a magician and harpist. Photographs of Litzka posing with her card-trick-assisting rooster "China Boy" appears in the Wilfrid Jonson books, Magic Tricks (1949) and Card Tricks (1950).

After Raymond died, she married Walter B. Gibson in 1949 with whom she assisted in his writing and coauthored several books.

She was awarded a "Special Fellowship" from the Academy of Magical Arts in 1995 as was elected into the Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame

Books

• How to Read Palms (1950)
• Latin American Dances (1959) using the pen name Leona Lehman
• The Key to Palmistry (1961) using the pen name Leona Lehman
• The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences (1966)
• Mystic and Occult Arts: A Guide to Their Use in Daily Living (1969)
• The Complete Illustrated Book of Divination and Prophecy (1973)

References

• The Linking Ring, Vol. 76, No. 7, July 1996, Broken Wand, Litzka Raymond Gibson, page 110
• M-U-M, Vol. 86, No. 2, July 1996, Broken Wands, Litzka Raymond Gibson, page 48
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 90, No. 1, January 2010, Pictures from the Past, page 28, Answer page 103
• http://www.compumagic.com/sam35/history/LitzkaMagicHallFame.htm