Help us get to over 8,755 articles in 2024.
If you know of a magician not listed in MagicPedia, start a New Biography for them. Contact us at magicpediahelp@gmail.com
Sam Berland
Samuel Berland (1907- May 27, 1987) was a magic dealer and inventor of popular effects and routines, especially using thimbles and dice. During his life he invented more than 100 effects including the popular "Devil's Dollar" and wrote some 13 books on tricks and illusions.
Starting in 1925, he opened the Princess Magic Shop in Chicago, Illinois with partners Joe Berg and Harry Faber, so named because it was in the same building as the Princess Theater, in Chicago's Loop. Berland was also the founder of the Berland Printing Co. in the late 30s in Chicago.
Sam, along with Joe Berg were among the founding members of the The Wizard's Club in Chicago, an organization for magicians, organized at the home of Sam Berman.
Many of his silk magic effects are included in Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic.
He was featured in the 1963 Vol 37 #3 issue of Genii.
In 1986 he received the Creative Fellowship Award from the Academy of Magical Arts.
The IBM Ring No. 43 The Harlen Tarbell Ring in Chicago Illinois, gives out the Sam Berland trophy for creativity each year.
Innovations
- Sucker Cigarette Box
Books
- Amazing Tricks with Paper Cups (1942)
- Berlands Thimble Routine
- Berland’s Tricks and Routines
- Twenty Tricks with Wiztax
- The Magic of Sam Berland
- Book of Routines
- Tricks for Today and Tomorrow