Harold Rice

Harold Rice
Born	Harold Randolph Rice May 22, 1912 Salineville, Ohio
Died	July 10, 1987 (age 75) Cincinnati, Ohio
Known for	Silks
Categories	Books by Harold Rice

Dr. Harold Rice (1912 - 1987) was the founded the Silk King Studio in September 1929.

Biography

Rice credits the original Tarbell Course as being one of his major influences in magic. By the time he was an art major at the University of Cincinnati, he was building a handkerchief act. He designed and created his own silks.

He joined the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1929 and the Society of American Magicians in 1934. Local magicians persuaded him to make a colored squares of silk for them and before he knew it he found himself in business as a magic dealer. Despite the depression, Silk King Studios was born and his silks became known for their brilliant colors, durability, and workmanship.

On 12 June 1937, Rice married Thelma Ryle, and the Silk King Studios became a partnership. They were soon marketing not only silks but silk magic and effects.

He earned many college degrees including a B.S. in Applied Arts, a B.S. in Art Education (both 1934) and M. Ed. (1942), Ed. D. (1944), L.H.D. (1963). All which led to a lifetime of employment in the education. After earning his doctorate as an Arthur Wesley Dow Scholar from Columbia, he was appointed Head of the Art Department, University of Alabama in 1944. In 1946 he left Alabama to become the Dean of the Moore Institute of Art, Science, and Industry, in Philadelphia and in 1951 was promoted to President. In 1963 Dr. Rice was invited to return to his Alma Mater, where he became its Dean.

In 1934 he proposed the forming of a magic dealers association to help with problems such as protecting the rights of those who invented or marketed new effects. Years later Phil Thomas had similar ideas and the Magic Dealers Association, Inc., came into being. Rice served as President in 1951 and then as Secretary from 1952 until 1967.

In the I.B.M. Rice served as International Secretary from 1940 to 1946, and served as Chairman of two International Conventions in Cincinnati in 1940 and 1942. He wrote a column in The Linking Ring from 1932 until 1940.

Marketed Tricks

• Tel-A-Color (1940)
• Obedients Silks (1940)

Articles and publications compiled, and/or authored and published by Harold Rice

• Rice's Exclusive Magic (1936)
• Naughty Silks (1937)
• Naughty Silks (2nd edition enlarged - 1938))
• Thru the Dye Tube (with Wayne F. Van Zandt) (1943)
• Capers with Color (1943)
• Keith Clark's Silks Supreme (1942)
• Keith Clark's Rope Royale (1942)
• Keith Clark's Celebrated Cigarettes (1943)
• Keith Clark's Nile Club Act (1944)
• Francis Martineau's Victory Bouquet (1944)
• Martineau's Miracle Silk (1945)
• Martineau's Walsh Cane Routines (1945)
• Martineau's Rope Hectic (1946)
• Rice's More Naughty Silks (1947)
• Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic, Vol. 1 (1948)
• Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic, Vol. 2 (1953)
• Selected Sympathetic Silks Routines (1961)
• Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic, Vol. 3 (1962)
• Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic, Vol. 4 (1993) by Mark Trimble

References

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