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Fred Keating
Fred Keating Template:PersonInfo, born in New York City, was a successful magician that moved to Hollywood to try his success as an actor.
He saw de Kolta when he was eight and later ran away from school to join the Thurston show as an assistant. Keating was a student of Nate Leipzig and was influenced by the slightly sarcastic style of Frank Ray.
He appeared in such films as 'To Beat the Band', 'Tin Pan Alley' and 'Eternally Yours'. The latter starred David Niven as a magician and featured Paul LePaul as a Butler and Fred as a Master of Ceremonies.
On television, he staged and starred in a one hour magic show with Arthur Godfrey.
He was well known for his version of the De Kolta's Vanishing Birdcage.
During the 1920s, he also went by the name "F. Serrano Keating" as seen in the Washington Post Aug 24, 1924 article he wrote under that name titled "Easy Magic Tricks For the Beginner" [1]
Roy Benson was inspired by Keating's persona and started out imitating him.
Keating's essay on "Magic As Theatre" was published in Tarbell's Course In Magic Volume 6.