Charles Hoffman

Charles Hoffman
Born	August 01, 1896 Providence, Rhode Island
Died	1966

Charles Hoffman (1896 - 1966), from Providence, Rhode Island, was at one time the highest paid magician in the United States.

Biography

Hoffman's family moved to southern California when he was young. In 1929, he joined the "Mel-Roy" tent show touring in Texas. He returned to California and began to perform on his own. At one time he billed himself as the "Doctor of Deception".

In 1935, Hoffman, with the assistance of Harlan Tarbell, developed his magic bartender routine. With his magical cocktail bar, he performed an Any Drink Called For routine, which he called "think-a-drink". He would poured all kinds of fancy mixed drinks, from a seemingly empty cocktail shaker. Hoffman out did other magicians by pouring any drink merely thought of by a member of the audience. By 1940 as one of the highest-paid magician in the world, he was being billed as "The Highest Paid Bartender in the World."

He filed a copyright for his patter under the title of "Think-A-Drink Hoffman." He successfully through the courts even stopped a "Think-A-Drink Count Maurice" (Maurice Glazer) from using the name and his patter, but not from eventually performing a similar act.

He played all over the United States and in 1949 appeared in the United Kingdom.

Honors

• Who's Who in Magic, Sphinx, May, 1936
• Cover of Sphinx, September 1936.
• Cover of Sphinx, April, 1941
• Obit Genii 1966 February
• KEEP IT SECRET by WARREN J. KAPS, MUM NOVEMBER, 1952
• LIQUID MAGIC: THINK-A-DRINK' HOFFMAN in Magicol February 1997
• Magic A Pictorial History History of Conjurers in the Theater by David Price, (1985)