Festival of Magic: The 1957 T.V. Special Reviews

A Word from Levent:

     As a magic fan, I have sometimes experienced the heartbreaking realization that a magician about whom I have heard many great things turns out in fact to not be nearly as talented as his reputation suggested.
     Growing up in New York City, I befriended many older magicians and the one person they all raved about was Cardini, a man whom some called the greatest manipulator who ever lived. The praise was so overwhelming that I could not see how any magician could live up to it.
     I had no hope of ever seeing Cardini perform since I believed there was no film of his act. Then one day in 1979, Frank Garcia told me that one could view Cardini’s act (for a fee) at the Museum of Broadcasting on 53rd Street. Stunned, I went to the museum, found Cardini’s name in the card catalog, copied a videotape number onto a slip of paper, and gave it to a clerk. The next few minutes felt like an eternity, as I could not wait to see if Cardini was as good as everyone had told me.
     The clerk handed me a Betamax videotape and directed me to a booth, which contained a small video monitor, a tape deck, and a pair of headphones.
     I popped in the tape and, to my surprise, I realized that this was not just a recording of Cardini but in fact a full-fledged television magic special from 1957!
     The host and master of ceremonies was the brilliant and inventive television comic, Ernie Kovacs! Throughout the show, Kovacs presented clever magic-related sketches, including one in which a pair of rabbits (well, rabbit puppets) discuss their point of view and others in which Kovacs ends up literally skewering network executives in ill-fated attempts to perform magic tricks.
     The overall production was top-notch, with special sets for the performers and live music played by an orchestra complete with a string section.
     The magic performers consisted of an international cast. American Milbourne Christopher performed a bullet catch. The inventive genius Robert Harbin (born in South Africa) performed two of his original illusions in a way that could teach the current magicians how to perform illusions with patter, and then a straitjacket escape. June Merlin of Ireland, who incidentally was married at the time to Billy McComb, did a fast set of magic with candles and live rats!
     Li King Si was billed as Asian but was actually a Frenchman with an array of classic Asian tricks and stunts, performed with abundant energy. P.C. Sorcar of India sawed a woman in half with a buzz saw, and as he tells her to wake up at the conclusion, you get the feeling the she might not be revived after all. René Septembre of France did a series of small apparatus tricks with livestock with a speed and energy that has to be seen to be believed.
     And what about Cardini? Well, all I can say is that his skill was flawless, his acting was perfect, and he is without a doubt the best sleight-of-hand stage performer who ever lived. In all my years, I have never seen anybody who came close to having such complete package of manipulation and entertainment.
     After I watched the entire television special, I came to a realization that the magicians who performed in the video were a product of the mid-century nightclub era, and I was very impressed by their sense of timing and energy, which was certainly a product of working constantly in a challenging non-theatrical environment. Therefore, I reasoned, there would be other great magicians from that period and they would all have something to teach us in the present; that's how I became a researcher of magic's history.
     I have watched the entire Festival of Magic TV special many times and have often hoped that I could do so without trekking to the Museum of Television and Radio (formerly the Museum of Broadcasting), but until now, it was impossible to get a copy of the show.
     Now I am happy to say that through the help of Maurine Christopher and William H. McIlhany, we can watch this little time capsule of mid-century stage magic whenever we like without traveling to a museum and wearing headphones!

     — Levent