Posts
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 08/20/2008 at 7:30 PM SHARP
Board meeting at 6:30 pm
Meeting theme: Foreign magic
Marks Street Center, 99 Mark Street, downtown Orlando
If you visit with us and do not know the room we meet in , please be aware that some of the people in the office at the Senior Center may not be aware we are meeting there! At the last meeting one visitor asked where the "IBM" was meeting and the management apparently thought they were asking for the International Business Machines group! They said that there was no "IBM" on the schedule. So, if you have never been to our ring meeting , please say "magicians" or "FAME" and if that doesn't get the room location , just walk around looking for us. The Senior Center is a public building.
Please note that the Ring meetings will be held at a new venue, starting in October. The new address is:
The Elks Club Lodge #1079,
12 N. Primrose Dr., Orlando, Florida 32803
“The corner of Primrose Drive and Central Boulevard”
Lunch meetings every Tuesday at noon at Goodings (next to the food court)
Website: http://www.ring170.com/
F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
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Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Art Thomas – Treasurer – Art.Thomas@Disney.com
Dennis Philips- Secretary – Dennis@alliedcostumes.com
James Songster- Director at Large, - JjTjMagic@aol.com
Joe Vecciarelli- Sgt at Arms - talkingmute@tampabay.rr.com
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
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GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the above e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
2008-08 From the Editor
Thanks to everyone that has submitted to this month's edition. In addition, thanks to Mystana for posting a comment in the blog. I hope that more of you will follow her example and start an online discourse.
Please note that the Ring meetings will be moving to a new venue, see above and in the Ring Report.
Looking forward to, hopefully, meeting some of you at the new venue, sometime.
Your Editor
Stefan
Please note that the Ring meetings will be moving to a new venue, see above and in the Ring Report.
Looking forward to, hopefully, meeting some of you at the new venue, sometime.
Your Editor
Stefan
2008-08 Ring Report
Our July ring meeting was attended by 33 people and a number of guests and returning former members. These were Joshua Stencamp, Bill Vontoble, Colin Parks and Jeff Stewart. President Craig Fennessey gaveled the meeting to order. He announced that the board members had approved moving the meeting place to the Elks Club Lodge #1079 at the corner of Primrose and Central Avenue in Orlando starting with the October meeting. The reason is that the City of Orlando has been forced to make budget cuts and can no longer keep the center open in the evenings where we meet. The new meeting place also offers an opportunity to get a reasonable supper before the meeting. There is also a good possibility of us holding other functions there. It has a stage.
Dan Stapleton next gave us a few insights into his recent appearance on “America’s Got Talent”. The full adventure is being published in Magic magazine. He said his appearance succeeded in getting him great publicity and bookings. Joe Vecciarelli provided a short DVD that we watched on the TV called “Presto”. It was a Pixar production with a cartoon story of a magician and his mischievous rabbit assistant.
Two mini-lectures followed. Dennis Phillips and Dan Stapleton did a presentation on the classic “Zombie” effect. Phillips recounted the history from its creation by Joe Karson in Springfield, Massachusetts. Jay Marshall worked for Karson as did Nick Ruggiero. Dan next showed and explained some of his favorite moves with the silver ball. Finally Dennis showed some adaptations of the principle in effects such as “Pranky Hank” and the “Floating Light Bulb”.
Phil Schwartz presented his fascinating and informative “Magic Moment” # 6. This was the story of Carl Williams (b. 1922). Williams is still alive and creating magic. Phil showed a number of Williams’ handcrafted props and explained all of Carl’s talents as an engineer, physicist, master metal and wood worker, sculptor and creative thinker.
Kerry Pierce, “KP” was our Emcee for the evening’s show that followed. He opened with an audience volunteer and presented “Psychic Escape” an effect by Toshio Akanuma and patter from “Just Alan”. It was an enchanting story of trumpet valves his father used when playing in the orchestra for Harry Houdini. The one that was secretly selected by a volunteer audience member managed to escape from a cord that had been threaded through a brass cylinder containing all the valves. Bill Vontoble did Bill Malone’s classic 'Sam the Bellhop' card routine with the patter where every card that is dealt tells the story.
Charlie Prfogner always has something unusual. This time it was a wooden Wonderbox that produced coins. Finally all the coins were turned into a giant coin and a metallic streamer cascaded from the bag used in the transformation. Joshua Stencamp did a Guy Bavali card effect where a card is selected and reveled at a spot counted to in the deck.
Dan Mapp did an interesting mental effect that combined a bit of cold reading and “wonder words” to determine which one on many statements on one of the five colored cards was chosen by a volunteer. Dan Stapleton took the stage for a nice routine featuring a deck that returned to normal after a slop shuffle and at the same time revealed which card that had been chosen by a spectator by being reversed in the deck. He followed up with a practical version of Paul Curry’s 'Out of this World'.
J.C. Haitt presented one of his original creations, a ballpoint pen with a tip that mysteriously changes ends. Hiatt has a way of taking a small sized effect and playing it very big. Finally James Songster was drafted to present a fascinating stage-sized version of a small effect that he and Joe Vecciarelli created called “The Riddle of the Runes”. The large version was crafted by Dennis Phillips. Six big round ruin stones were laid out and the spectator freely selected one and James proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the stones knew which ruin would be selected far in advance because the selection was the only one carved on the back side of the stone.
With the conclusion of the show we went out into the warm Orlando night. Good things are always happening in Ring #170.
Dennis Phillips
Dan Stapleton next gave us a few insights into his recent appearance on “America’s Got Talent”. The full adventure is being published in Magic magazine. He said his appearance succeeded in getting him great publicity and bookings. Joe Vecciarelli provided a short DVD that we watched on the TV called “Presto”. It was a Pixar production with a cartoon story of a magician and his mischievous rabbit assistant.
Two mini-lectures followed. Dennis Phillips and Dan Stapleton did a presentation on the classic “Zombie” effect. Phillips recounted the history from its creation by Joe Karson in Springfield, Massachusetts. Jay Marshall worked for Karson as did Nick Ruggiero. Dan next showed and explained some of his favorite moves with the silver ball. Finally Dennis showed some adaptations of the principle in effects such as “Pranky Hank” and the “Floating Light Bulb”.
Phil Schwartz presented his fascinating and informative “Magic Moment” # 6. This was the story of Carl Williams (b. 1922). Williams is still alive and creating magic. Phil showed a number of Williams’ handcrafted props and explained all of Carl’s talents as an engineer, physicist, master metal and wood worker, sculptor and creative thinker.
Kerry Pierce, “KP” was our Emcee for the evening’s show that followed. He opened with an audience volunteer and presented “Psychic Escape” an effect by Toshio Akanuma and patter from “Just Alan”. It was an enchanting story of trumpet valves his father used when playing in the orchestra for Harry Houdini. The one that was secretly selected by a volunteer audience member managed to escape from a cord that had been threaded through a brass cylinder containing all the valves. Bill Vontoble did Bill Malone’s classic 'Sam the Bellhop' card routine with the patter where every card that is dealt tells the story.
Charlie Prfogner always has something unusual. This time it was a wooden Wonderbox that produced coins. Finally all the coins were turned into a giant coin and a metallic streamer cascaded from the bag used in the transformation. Joshua Stencamp did a Guy Bavali card effect where a card is selected and reveled at a spot counted to in the deck.
Dan Mapp did an interesting mental effect that combined a bit of cold reading and “wonder words” to determine which one on many statements on one of the five colored cards was chosen by a volunteer. Dan Stapleton took the stage for a nice routine featuring a deck that returned to normal after a slop shuffle and at the same time revealed which card that had been chosen by a spectator by being reversed in the deck. He followed up with a practical version of Paul Curry’s 'Out of this World'.
J.C. Haitt presented one of his original creations, a ballpoint pen with a tip that mysteriously changes ends. Hiatt has a way of taking a small sized effect and playing it very big. Finally James Songster was drafted to present a fascinating stage-sized version of a small effect that he and Joe Vecciarelli created called “The Riddle of the Runes”. The large version was crafted by Dennis Phillips. Six big round ruin stones were laid out and the spectator freely selected one and James proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the stones knew which ruin would be selected far in advance because the selection was the only one carved on the back side of the stone.
With the conclusion of the show we went out into the warm Orlando night. Good things are always happening in Ring #170.
Dennis Phillips
2008-08 J.C. Hiatt
7/24 Fellow magicians,
I just want to keep you all posted on the medical condition of J.C.Hiatt. He under went heart surgery on Tuesday July 24, 2008. I have spoken to Pauletta his wife yesterday evening and although the operation took much longer than expected….he came through it all just fine!
Craig
7/25 J.C's recovery from heart surgery on Monday is going very well and is expected to go home from the hospital this Saturday!
You may send notes and cards to his home at:
J.C. Hiatt
3516 E. Crystal Lake Ave
Orlando, Florida 32806
JC had changed his internet carrier........ The new correct e-mail address to send him e-mails is Email: jcgreengenes@gmail.com
Craig
7/29 HEY EVERYBODY, I'M BAAACK!!!
Got HOME @ 4pm, Tuesday 7/29 feeling pretty good ...surprisingly good as a matter of fact. Early Saturday morning I went into A-Fib and they had a hell of a time getting that regulated...thus delaying my expected Saturday release.
This was then complicated by an unexplainable, dramatic rise in my heart rate...it's
somewhat humbling to be sent back to your room by your cute little twenty-something nurse while on one of the 4 daily "walks" (actually a circuit of the 3rd floor Cardiac progressive care wing) recommended on the "GOALS FOR TODAY" board.
But all that aside it's great to be back in my own digs and out of the worst of it on the recovery road probably a few more bumps along the way..I'll take it easy & go a "Day at a time"!!
Thanks to ALL for the show of warmth & concern
JC
I just want to keep you all posted on the medical condition of J.C.Hiatt. He under went heart surgery on Tuesday July 24, 2008. I have spoken to Pauletta his wife yesterday evening and although the operation took much longer than expected….he came through it all just fine!
Craig
7/25 J.C's recovery from heart surgery on Monday is going very well and is expected to go home from the hospital this Saturday!
You may send notes and cards to his home at:
J.C. Hiatt
3516 E. Crystal Lake Ave
Orlando, Florida 32806
JC had changed his internet carrier........ The new correct e-mail address to send him e-mails is Email: jcgreengenes@gmail.com
Craig
7/29 HEY EVERYBODY, I'M BAAACK!!!
Got HOME @ 4pm, Tuesday 7/29 feeling pretty good ...surprisingly good as a matter of fact. Early Saturday morning I went into A-Fib and they had a hell of a time getting that regulated...thus delaying my expected Saturday release.
This was then complicated by an unexplainable, dramatic rise in my heart rate...it's
somewhat humbling to be sent back to your room by your cute little twenty-something nurse while on one of the 4 daily "walks" (actually a circuit of the 3rd floor Cardiac progressive care wing) recommended on the "GOALS FOR TODAY" board.
But all that aside it's great to be back in my own digs and out of the worst of it on the recovery road probably a few more bumps along the way..I'll take it easy & go a "Day at a time"!!
Thanks to ALL for the show of warmth & concern
JC
2008-08 Judge dismisses suit on disappearing magic sales
Pick a card, any card -- just not the card trick "Any Card at Any Number."
That, essentially, was Magic Magazine writer Brad Henderson's advice, and it led Livonia magician Bill Nagler to sue in U.S. District Court in Detroit or "defamation and product disparagement" of his card trick, sold online for $99. Nagler said Henderson's article decreased sales, prompting Nagler to seek $100,000 in damages.
But Nagler's suit did a disappearing act Wednesday when Judge Bernard Friedman dismissed the case. He ruled that the review was Henderson's opinion, not defamation, and was thus protected by the Constitution.
Submitted by Joe V
That, essentially, was Magic Magazine writer Brad Henderson's advice, and it led Livonia magician Bill Nagler to sue in U.S. District Court in Detroit or "defamation and product disparagement" of his card trick, sold online for $99. Nagler said Henderson's article decreased sales, prompting Nagler to seek $100,000 in damages.
But Nagler's suit did a disappearing act Wednesday when Judge Bernard Friedman dismissed the case. He ruled that the review was Henderson's opinion, not defamation, and was thus protected by the Constitution.
Submitted by Joe V
2008-08 THE MAGIC SOLE
THE MAGIC SOLE
BY PAULA LARGE
I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM MARTY SCOTT. WE OF THE MAGIC COMMUNITY CALL THEM FRIEND FOR A LONG TIME. A TRUE LOVE STORY IF EVER THER WAS ONE. OF HEART, SOUL AND LOVE....THE TWO SHOE MAKERS HAND IN HAND , CLOWNS, PROP MAKERS, LOVERS OF MAGIC. AS THE STORY DRAWS TO AN EGRESS...WAYNE IS NOW LODGING AT A HOSPICE..AND MARTY ASK THAT FRIENDS PLEASE VISIT HER OR WRITE LETTERS OR SEND POSTCARDS. THEIR SIX YEAR OLD READS THEM TO GRANDPA WAYNE SO PRINT. PLEASE DO NOT SEND GET WELL OR HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER CARDS OR NOTES...FOR HE KNOWS THAT IS NOT THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE STORY AND IS DEPRESSING. INSTEAD SHARE PICTURES, STORIES, COLORFUL LIFE MOMENT OR JUST HELLO. FOR THE WOMEN WHO SEW A QUILT WITH MAGIC OR CLOWNS. HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO PUT ON A LITTLE MAGIC SHOW THAT WILL BRIGHTEN HIS DAY. TO CONTACT: MARTY AND WAYNE SCOTT, 23313 S. DEWEY ROBBINS ROAD, HOWEY IN THE HILLS, FL 34737-4002.
THEY WERE RECENTLY AT THE BEV AND DON TRIBUTE. THERE IS NOTHING SO MAGICAL AS THE SMILE YOU CAN PUT ON SOMEONES FACE OR LIGHTEN THEIR LOAD.
PAULA LARGE' AND JERRY DARKEY
BY PAULA LARGE
I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM MARTY SCOTT. WE OF THE MAGIC COMMUNITY CALL THEM FRIEND FOR A LONG TIME. A TRUE LOVE STORY IF EVER THER WAS ONE. OF HEART, SOUL AND LOVE....THE TWO SHOE MAKERS HAND IN HAND , CLOWNS, PROP MAKERS, LOVERS OF MAGIC. AS THE STORY DRAWS TO AN EGRESS...WAYNE IS NOW LODGING AT A HOSPICE..AND MARTY ASK THAT FRIENDS PLEASE VISIT HER OR WRITE LETTERS OR SEND POSTCARDS. THEIR SIX YEAR OLD READS THEM TO GRANDPA WAYNE SO PRINT. PLEASE DO NOT SEND GET WELL OR HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER CARDS OR NOTES...FOR HE KNOWS THAT IS NOT THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE STORY AND IS DEPRESSING. INSTEAD SHARE PICTURES, STORIES, COLORFUL LIFE MOMENT OR JUST HELLO. FOR THE WOMEN WHO SEW A QUILT WITH MAGIC OR CLOWNS. HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO PUT ON A LITTLE MAGIC SHOW THAT WILL BRIGHTEN HIS DAY. TO CONTACT: MARTY AND WAYNE SCOTT, 23313 S. DEWEY ROBBINS ROAD, HOWEY IN THE HILLS, FL 34737-4002.
THEY WERE RECENTLY AT THE BEV AND DON TRIBUTE. THERE IS NOTHING SO MAGICAL AS THE SMILE YOU CAN PUT ON SOMEONES FACE OR LIGHTEN THEIR LOAD.
PAULA LARGE' AND JERRY DARKEY
2008-08 Another Teach In 12/11
Well believe it or not we have another chance for a teach in. This one would be in December, around the 11th of December that is. Yes you have probably seen these people before and you most likely had a great time and bought quite a few tricks from them. Now we are going to give you the chance not only to see them again but to actually sit down and get some one on one, well one on fifteen, teaching with the Colombini's. I realize they were just here, but we are not talking about "here is a trick here is how it is done now on to the next", you will be supplied with the trick and learn to perform it right there. For more information about the Colombini's go to http://www.wildcolombini.com/
I need to know how many are interested because they need a 15 min and it will cost $30 per person. This will be an RSVP (youngdunns@yahoo.com) with limited seating and again snacks and drinks will be supplied.
Because the items are going to be supplied for you and we have to purchase the items for each person I will need to have an RSVP plus a non-refundable payment. Please let me know which teach in it is for. Checks or cash is fine.
Chris Dunn
I need to know how many are interested because they need a 15 min and it will cost $30 per person. This will be an RSVP (youngdunns@yahoo.com) with limited seating and again snacks and drinks will be supplied.
Because the items are going to be supplied for you and we have to purchase the items for each person I will need to have an RSVP plus a non-refundable payment. Please let me know which teach in it is for. Checks or cash is fine.
Chris Dunn
2008-08 Teach In 11/17
I am going to have a magic teach in at my house November 17th at 7pm to... Dan Stapleton will be doing the hands on teaching, materials will be supplied also. Most if not all of you know Dan and if you don't you can check out his website at http://www.stapletonmagic.com/.
Dan is doing a special deal, I guess he just like you all. He has dropped his price from $100 to $10, just kidding, it was set at $10. This will be an RSVP (youngdunns@yahoo.com) with limited seating and snacks and drinks will be supplied.
Because the items are going to be supplied for you and we have to purchase the items for each person I will need to have an RSVP plus a non-refundable payment. Please let me know which teach in it is for. Checks or cash is fine.
Please forward this on to people you think would be interested.
Thanks
Chris Dunn
Dan is doing a special deal, I guess he just like you all. He has dropped his price from $100 to $10, just kidding, it was set at $10. This will be an RSVP (youngdunns@yahoo.com) with limited seating and snacks and drinks will be supplied.
Because the items are going to be supplied for you and we have to purchase the items for each person I will need to have an RSVP plus a non-refundable payment. Please let me know which teach in it is for. Checks or cash is fine.
Please forward this on to people you think would be interested.
Thanks
Chris Dunn
2008-08 FMA Web Site
Attention all Florida Magic Club officers and members-
Check out our new FMA (Florida Magic Association) web site at www.flmagic.org to see a new era in connecting all Florida magicians to events happening around the state. We need your help.
Soon I will talk about the upcoming Florida Magic convention in Daytona Beach November 7-9. Please pass the info on to your members. There are links for the convention on the web site.
Check out the FMA history and read the minutes from the last meeting (June...Magic on the Beach).
Any corrections, questions or additions please email either myself or Irv.
If you see me at the IBM/SAM convention in Louisville, please stop by and say hello.
Dan Stapleton
President-FMA
2008-08 Dennis' Deliberations
“I always drank, from when it was legal for me to drink. And there was never a time for me when the goal wasn't to get as hammered as I could possibly afford to. I never understood social drinking, that's always seemed to me like kissing your sister”.
Horror-story author, STEPHEN KING, in an interview, Sept. 14, 2000
I just finished reading my copy of Reverend William Rauscher’s new book, “Pleasant Nightmares”, about the horror-show Illusionist and alcoholic Bill Neff. (The book is available from all major magic dealers) It is a valuable look at Neff’s tormented and twisted life and the personal psychological carnage to his family and others he left behind.
It contains much of Neff’s unique magic, rare photos, lists of props and routines. There is also a heartbreaking interview with his abandoned son. Rauscher is an Episcopal Canon and Priest and his writing reflects a pastoral style of literary expression. The book itself is a kind of Midrash on the tragedy of Neff’s alcoholism. Neff was a haunting and gaunt stage personality who created and performed the finest themed illusion show of the “Ghost Show” era. His show was almost always a late night stage show built around ghosts and horror. The plot was simple and yet complex: He would introduce you to ghosts, ghouls and goblins and, at first, protect you from them. Over the course of the show he slowly became one of them until at the end, the stage went dark and “all hell broke loose” in his final classic “blackout” sequence.
The Midnight Ghost or Spook show was one way to profitably play a magic stage show from the late 1920s until the early 1960s. Mark Walker did a comprehensive review of many of these touring shows in his book, “Ghostmasters”. These shows mostly played aging urban theaters and small town theaters that still had stages from the vaudeville era. Radio and then later television severely hurt box office receipts. This was especially true in the 40s and 50s. As suburban migration began in the early 50s in the post war baby-boom, inner city theaters saw fewer patrons.
The business was relatively easy to understand. The magician-illusionist heavily advertised with over-the-top exaggerated claims about how ghosts and ghouls and fresh blood would fill the theater. The stage show was booked with an inexpensive “B” horror movie and began at 11pm or midnight after the final regular feature. The show consisted of a magician with a few comedy effects and illusions and ended with a “black out” where all the lights were turned off and the magician and his crew played loud music and waved luminous cloth which provided “a visit with the spooks”. After the black out was over, the “B” movie would begin. The business angle was that the event, if a sell out-and they frequently were-, was a significant profit boost for the theater. Here is a note for some of you who are not old enough to remember the Hollywood studio system: They were motion picture factories and continuously cranked out feature films to fill their company-owned theaters (The Warner, The Fox, The Paramount, The RKO, and others).
The big studios made expensive and top billing movies (The “A” films) with name stars along with cheaper films with lesser stars (The “B” films). The whole idea was to keep film product coming out of the studios to fill their screens. When the Federal government forced film companies (known as The Paramount Case of the 1940s) to sell their company theaters, the “B” film pretty much came to an end. Every film was sold by bidding and the industry was opened up to Independent producers. The last vestiges of the old “Studio System” came to an end about 1960.
I am mentioned in Rauscher’s book. Rauscher used me as a source on Chuck Windley’s background. Chuck, my old 1950s boyhood friend from Norfolk, Virginia, had moved to New York City in the early ‘60s and was one of Neff’s last assistants. In the late 60s, when I lived near Washington, D.C., I built and repaired many of Chuck’s illusions. He worked full time doing school shows and amusement parks with his wife Shirley and daughters. Chuck is now semi-retired and lives again in his boyhood hometown in Norfolk, Virginia.
Roy Huston is extensively mentioned. Huston had been the named successor by Neff. This was not to be since Neff had no route or business to assume and in his alcoholic stupor did not really want to quit the business. Roy did, however, create his own Spook Show that played after Neff died in 1967. Roy now lives in Sarasota and has been a fixture with his magic on circuses, carnivals and what is left of ghost shows. He recently appeared at several Florida magic conventions. I saw his show again at “Magic by the Bay” In Tampa this last winter. Roy is, of course, much older and a lot slower but the old spark of fun made his act a pleasure to watch. I first saw Roy with his big illusion show at the MAES in 1964. In his younger years he looked a lot like a young John Moehring. Roy details his fascinating story to Rauscher about how he retrieved Neff’s illusions from Neff’s old dilapidated truck in New York City.
I saw Neff perform in New York the early 60s and again briefly met him in the mid 60s while I was in New York with my family.
The saddest part of the book is how Neff was furious with his first wife when she became pregnant with his only child. Neff arranged for her to get an abortion, which she refused, and then he horribly abused his son during his years as he was in a continuous alcoholic fog and psychotic madness. His first wife stayed married to Neff until the beginning of the 50s even though he had been living with Evelyn, his younger assistant, for most of the 1940s and had totally abandoned his wife and his only son.
Neff was living in a residential hotel in New York and somehow was known to an uncle of mine. This is what originally led to me knowing more about Neff other than just his famous Necktie and Rope trick or as the creator of “The Frame of Life and Death” illusion, which was justifiably promoted in old Abbott’s catalog.
Neff could not have performed enough magic to have made a decent living after the mid 50s so he had to have been doing something else or a part of some scheme to have been able to live in New York. Chuck said he did a few private parties and “had family money”. Phil Morris believes he was busking on occasion. Neff’s father, I am sure, helped support him. According to Rauscher, Evelyn worked as a concierge for the Hotel Taft and that explains some of the connection to my uncle who handled limos and entertainment transportation through The Teamsters in New York. I seem to remember that Evelyn was mostly a PBX (the old telephone switchboard) operator at their hotel to help pay the rent. When I saw Neff in about 1960, he was doing a run at The Paramount Theater in New York. When I visited New York the year of The World’s Fair in 1964 Neff was in pretty bad shape. He was very brief but formally friendly.
It took me many years to realize that Neff’s show was his own metaphor on getting intoxicated… At first your mind sends you warnings that you really don’t want to ‘tie one on’, the fear and painful recollections resurface in fleeting glimpses. Neff peppered the beginning of his show with illusions and effects that seemed to foreshadow the last part of the show. But you ignore the warnings and engage in the playful nonsense and fun of getting high. At the beginning of a drunken escapade, everything is a laugh. Neff’s silly jokes and playfulness with the near naked women were very much the actions of the early stages of an uninhibited drunk. Finally you get seriously intoxicated. The pace slows and everything becomes a deliberate calculated struggle. In Neff’s show, fear and loss of control took over with the presentation of the Noma. You are transformed into a monster. The dark pall of unconsciousness finally descends. In the end, you pass out (The Black Out!) Bill Neff then wishes you “Pleasant Nightmares!”
Bill Neff’s influence can be seen in the collection of illusions I perform. I supplied the details and photos of the Noma Illusion that Paul Osborne published in Genii Magazine in the August 2005 issue. I have performed that illusion which is now on loan to the Vince Carmen Show at Houdini’s Showplace in Sarasota, Florida. I still own and perform The Frame of Life and Death. Mine was made by Abbotts and came to me by way of the Harry Wise Ghost Show collection. I have reworked and improved the Bill Neff Rope Trick and it is a regular feature of my stage show. Neff used a very simple “Hold out” and I was never happy with his set up. I created a hold- out that is weighted so the effect can be performed anywhere within the show by simply dropping my right hand and letting it fall into my palm.
Canon Rauscher has contributed a valuable text for the history of magic and for understanding the tragedy of alcoholism and drug abuse (chemical addictions). He hints at some possible psychological heartache that Neff had. Bill Neff has been the boyhood friend of film actor Jimmy Stewart. They lived in the same town and grew up together and Stewart was Neff’s early partner in magic. Was Neff disappointed at Stewart’s fame and his own obscurity? Neff’s father was as financially successful as possible as Bill Neff came of age in The Great Depression. Bill Neff psychologically struggled to be happy selling Insurance. Did his marriage to a wonderfully domestic wife who wanted a home life and was not interested in show business, tip him over the edge? Did Neff turn to the Occult as a means of finding psychological certainty? Was his second wife Evelyn an “enabler” and contribution to his problem?
Modern psychology can offer a lot of insight into human motivations. The last 50 years have seen developments in understanding the role of brain chemicals that also offer clues at what motivates people. Sadly, the help we have today was not available to Neff in his prime years. Before the modern era of neuroleptics, starting with chlorpromazine in the 1950s, positive long-term results for psychotic patients were limited.
French chemist, Paul Charpentier, synthesized a phenothiazine antipsychotic, Chlorpromazine (Later sold in the U.S. as Thorazine) in December of 1950. Clinical trials in Paris France in 1953 (Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker) almost seemed miraculous in showing improvements in thinking and emotional behavior among psychotics. Chlorpromazine became favored over the previous therapies of electro convulsive and insulin shocks and psychosurgical treatment (lobotomy) which caused permanent brain damage. Ironically this was about the time that Neff was irreversibly sliding into the final stages of his alcoholism.
Quickly from the late 1950s until today, the psychiatrist’s tool chest filled with better potentially helpful drugs. (tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, benzodiazepines ,selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, atypicals, glutaminergic blockers, Naltrexone, Topiramate). Not much in Neff’s time was known about the psychology and brain chemistry behind addiction. More importantly, the social and family aspects of mental illnesses were not understood well and the stigma of those illnesses prevented many people from getting help. Today we can read about them and understand much from the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
The personal moral lesson you can take from all of this is to learn from the Bill Neff tragedy. If you are in show business, keep your thinking clear and keep your emotional health. If you have other friends in show business (or any other business) with problems realize that a lot of help is available today. Our local Orlando Episcopal Diocese (and other religious denominations) has mental health counseling available without prohibitive costs. There are other low cost secular mental health professionals available.
Betty Ford, First Lady of President Gerald Ford, and others have helped to remove the stigma from the term “rehab”. Kitty Dukakis, wife of 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis tells about her treatments in her autobiography. In the mid 1990s Presidential Candidate John McCain’s wife Cindy told the late Phoenix Gazette political columnist John Kolbe that she finally entered The Meadows, a drug-treatment center in Wickenburg, Arizona and went to anti-dependency meetings twice a week. His Aug. 25, 1994, column was headlined and led with a quote from her: "I'm Cindy, and I'm an addict." Kolbe also drew a straight line between Cindy's drug predicament and the stressful life of being a politician’s wife.
There should be no stigma and only praise in anyone recognizing mental health problems and getting treatment for themselves or others. Politics, show business and just the stress of modern life can create emotional havoc. Sadly, the very talented and creative Bill Neff was overcome by his problems. Rauscher has given us the tragic story and the lesson to be learned.
Dennis Phillips
Horror-story author, STEPHEN KING, in an interview, Sept. 14, 2000
I just finished reading my copy of Reverend William Rauscher’s new book, “Pleasant Nightmares”, about the horror-show Illusionist and alcoholic Bill Neff. (The book is available from all major magic dealers) It is a valuable look at Neff’s tormented and twisted life and the personal psychological carnage to his family and others he left behind.
It contains much of Neff’s unique magic, rare photos, lists of props and routines. There is also a heartbreaking interview with his abandoned son. Rauscher is an Episcopal Canon and Priest and his writing reflects a pastoral style of literary expression. The book itself is a kind of Midrash on the tragedy of Neff’s alcoholism. Neff was a haunting and gaunt stage personality who created and performed the finest themed illusion show of the “Ghost Show” era. His show was almost always a late night stage show built around ghosts and horror. The plot was simple and yet complex: He would introduce you to ghosts, ghouls and goblins and, at first, protect you from them. Over the course of the show he slowly became one of them until at the end, the stage went dark and “all hell broke loose” in his final classic “blackout” sequence.
The Midnight Ghost or Spook show was one way to profitably play a magic stage show from the late 1920s until the early 1960s. Mark Walker did a comprehensive review of many of these touring shows in his book, “Ghostmasters”. These shows mostly played aging urban theaters and small town theaters that still had stages from the vaudeville era. Radio and then later television severely hurt box office receipts. This was especially true in the 40s and 50s. As suburban migration began in the early 50s in the post war baby-boom, inner city theaters saw fewer patrons.
The business was relatively easy to understand. The magician-illusionist heavily advertised with over-the-top exaggerated claims about how ghosts and ghouls and fresh blood would fill the theater. The stage show was booked with an inexpensive “B” horror movie and began at 11pm or midnight after the final regular feature. The show consisted of a magician with a few comedy effects and illusions and ended with a “black out” where all the lights were turned off and the magician and his crew played loud music and waved luminous cloth which provided “a visit with the spooks”. After the black out was over, the “B” movie would begin. The business angle was that the event, if a sell out-and they frequently were-, was a significant profit boost for the theater. Here is a note for some of you who are not old enough to remember the Hollywood studio system: They were motion picture factories and continuously cranked out feature films to fill their company-owned theaters (The Warner, The Fox, The Paramount, The RKO, and others).
The big studios made expensive and top billing movies (The “A” films) with name stars along with cheaper films with lesser stars (The “B” films). The whole idea was to keep film product coming out of the studios to fill their screens. When the Federal government forced film companies (known as The Paramount Case of the 1940s) to sell their company theaters, the “B” film pretty much came to an end. Every film was sold by bidding and the industry was opened up to Independent producers. The last vestiges of the old “Studio System” came to an end about 1960.
I am mentioned in Rauscher’s book. Rauscher used me as a source on Chuck Windley’s background. Chuck, my old 1950s boyhood friend from Norfolk, Virginia, had moved to New York City in the early ‘60s and was one of Neff’s last assistants. In the late 60s, when I lived near Washington, D.C., I built and repaired many of Chuck’s illusions. He worked full time doing school shows and amusement parks with his wife Shirley and daughters. Chuck is now semi-retired and lives again in his boyhood hometown in Norfolk, Virginia.
Roy Huston is extensively mentioned. Huston had been the named successor by Neff. This was not to be since Neff had no route or business to assume and in his alcoholic stupor did not really want to quit the business. Roy did, however, create his own Spook Show that played after Neff died in 1967. Roy now lives in Sarasota and has been a fixture with his magic on circuses, carnivals and what is left of ghost shows. He recently appeared at several Florida magic conventions. I saw his show again at “Magic by the Bay” In Tampa this last winter. Roy is, of course, much older and a lot slower but the old spark of fun made his act a pleasure to watch. I first saw Roy with his big illusion show at the MAES in 1964. In his younger years he looked a lot like a young John Moehring. Roy details his fascinating story to Rauscher about how he retrieved Neff’s illusions from Neff’s old dilapidated truck in New York City.
I saw Neff perform in New York the early 60s and again briefly met him in the mid 60s while I was in New York with my family.
The saddest part of the book is how Neff was furious with his first wife when she became pregnant with his only child. Neff arranged for her to get an abortion, which she refused, and then he horribly abused his son during his years as he was in a continuous alcoholic fog and psychotic madness. His first wife stayed married to Neff until the beginning of the 50s even though he had been living with Evelyn, his younger assistant, for most of the 1940s and had totally abandoned his wife and his only son.
Neff was living in a residential hotel in New York and somehow was known to an uncle of mine. This is what originally led to me knowing more about Neff other than just his famous Necktie and Rope trick or as the creator of “The Frame of Life and Death” illusion, which was justifiably promoted in old Abbott’s catalog.
Neff could not have performed enough magic to have made a decent living after the mid 50s so he had to have been doing something else or a part of some scheme to have been able to live in New York. Chuck said he did a few private parties and “had family money”. Phil Morris believes he was busking on occasion. Neff’s father, I am sure, helped support him. According to Rauscher, Evelyn worked as a concierge for the Hotel Taft and that explains some of the connection to my uncle who handled limos and entertainment transportation through The Teamsters in New York. I seem to remember that Evelyn was mostly a PBX (the old telephone switchboard) operator at their hotel to help pay the rent. When I saw Neff in about 1960, he was doing a run at The Paramount Theater in New York. When I visited New York the year of The World’s Fair in 1964 Neff was in pretty bad shape. He was very brief but formally friendly.
It took me many years to realize that Neff’s show was his own metaphor on getting intoxicated… At first your mind sends you warnings that you really don’t want to ‘tie one on’, the fear and painful recollections resurface in fleeting glimpses. Neff peppered the beginning of his show with illusions and effects that seemed to foreshadow the last part of the show. But you ignore the warnings and engage in the playful nonsense and fun of getting high. At the beginning of a drunken escapade, everything is a laugh. Neff’s silly jokes and playfulness with the near naked women were very much the actions of the early stages of an uninhibited drunk. Finally you get seriously intoxicated. The pace slows and everything becomes a deliberate calculated struggle. In Neff’s show, fear and loss of control took over with the presentation of the Noma. You are transformed into a monster. The dark pall of unconsciousness finally descends. In the end, you pass out (The Black Out!) Bill Neff then wishes you “Pleasant Nightmares!”
Bill Neff’s influence can be seen in the collection of illusions I perform. I supplied the details and photos of the Noma Illusion that Paul Osborne published in Genii Magazine in the August 2005 issue. I have performed that illusion which is now on loan to the Vince Carmen Show at Houdini’s Showplace in Sarasota, Florida. I still own and perform The Frame of Life and Death. Mine was made by Abbotts and came to me by way of the Harry Wise Ghost Show collection. I have reworked and improved the Bill Neff Rope Trick and it is a regular feature of my stage show. Neff used a very simple “Hold out” and I was never happy with his set up. I created a hold- out that is weighted so the effect can be performed anywhere within the show by simply dropping my right hand and letting it fall into my palm.
Canon Rauscher has contributed a valuable text for the history of magic and for understanding the tragedy of alcoholism and drug abuse (chemical addictions). He hints at some possible psychological heartache that Neff had. Bill Neff has been the boyhood friend of film actor Jimmy Stewart. They lived in the same town and grew up together and Stewart was Neff’s early partner in magic. Was Neff disappointed at Stewart’s fame and his own obscurity? Neff’s father was as financially successful as possible as Bill Neff came of age in The Great Depression. Bill Neff psychologically struggled to be happy selling Insurance. Did his marriage to a wonderfully domestic wife who wanted a home life and was not interested in show business, tip him over the edge? Did Neff turn to the Occult as a means of finding psychological certainty? Was his second wife Evelyn an “enabler” and contribution to his problem?
Modern psychology can offer a lot of insight into human motivations. The last 50 years have seen developments in understanding the role of brain chemicals that also offer clues at what motivates people. Sadly, the help we have today was not available to Neff in his prime years. Before the modern era of neuroleptics, starting with chlorpromazine in the 1950s, positive long-term results for psychotic patients were limited.
French chemist, Paul Charpentier, synthesized a phenothiazine antipsychotic, Chlorpromazine (Later sold in the U.S. as Thorazine) in December of 1950. Clinical trials in Paris France in 1953 (Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker) almost seemed miraculous in showing improvements in thinking and emotional behavior among psychotics. Chlorpromazine became favored over the previous therapies of electro convulsive and insulin shocks and psychosurgical treatment (lobotomy) which caused permanent brain damage. Ironically this was about the time that Neff was irreversibly sliding into the final stages of his alcoholism.
Quickly from the late 1950s until today, the psychiatrist’s tool chest filled with better potentially helpful drugs. (tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, benzodiazepines ,selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, atypicals, glutaminergic blockers, Naltrexone, Topiramate). Not much in Neff’s time was known about the psychology and brain chemistry behind addiction. More importantly, the social and family aspects of mental illnesses were not understood well and the stigma of those illnesses prevented many people from getting help. Today we can read about them and understand much from the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
The personal moral lesson you can take from all of this is to learn from the Bill Neff tragedy. If you are in show business, keep your thinking clear and keep your emotional health. If you have other friends in show business (or any other business) with problems realize that a lot of help is available today. Our local Orlando Episcopal Diocese (and other religious denominations) has mental health counseling available without prohibitive costs. There are other low cost secular mental health professionals available.
Betty Ford, First Lady of President Gerald Ford, and others have helped to remove the stigma from the term “rehab”. Kitty Dukakis, wife of 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis tells about her treatments in her autobiography. In the mid 1990s Presidential Candidate John McCain’s wife Cindy told the late Phoenix Gazette political columnist John Kolbe that she finally entered The Meadows, a drug-treatment center in Wickenburg, Arizona and went to anti-dependency meetings twice a week. His Aug. 25, 1994, column was headlined and led with a quote from her: "I'm Cindy, and I'm an addict." Kolbe also drew a straight line between Cindy's drug predicament and the stressful life of being a politician’s wife.
There should be no stigma and only praise in anyone recognizing mental health problems and getting treatment for themselves or others. Politics, show business and just the stress of modern life can create emotional havoc. Sadly, the very talented and creative Bill Neff was overcome by his problems. Rauscher has given us the tragic story and the lesson to be learned.
Dennis Phillips
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