News

Max Droge Makes History Come to Life

New York, New York
 

On Friday January 5th Sal Perrotta returned to the S.A.M. Magic Table after a months absent to the warm greeting of the regulars. The Table meets Fridays from 12:30 on for lunch at the Edison Hotel Café on 47th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue in Times Square. Also joining us was Rene Clement which made us just one short of a dozen. It was an afternoon of sharing magic and good conversation that we have all come to enjoy.

Our monthly meeting was held on January 5th at Mount Sinai in upper Manhattan. Harvey Berg’s Teach-a-Trick, which started at 6:30, was a blast this month. By 7:15 it was time for our MI President Ken Schwabe start the meeting. 1st VP Isaac Rodriguez producer of our 98th Annual Salute to Magic gave his report. The Salute will present the full evening show by TOPAS. This year we will be returning to the Heckscher Theater on upper 5th Avenue, which was the site of the show for three decades. Several years ago the Heckscher went though a several million-dollar restoration. It retains the beauty it must have had when Dean Frederick Eugene Powell performed on its stage in 1929. Changing to another topic President Schwabe and others reported that the December PA#1 Workshop on “Slights” was very good. Workshop Chairman George Silverman runs these workshops every third Thursday of the month at the Fantasma Magic Shop on 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. Shades of the old Martinka days, Roger Dreyer has made us very welcome in his shop. The reports and business done the meeting came to an end.

Our after meeting event was an amazing presentation of some of the greatest magicians of all time by film & video collector Max Droge. Drawing from his collection of thousands of films Max made history come alive on the large screen in our seminar room. Here are few of the highlights. Max presented T. Nelson Downs doing several minutes of coin work at Blackstone’s wedding, Houdini and Kellar doing rope ties for each other, then more amazing rare Houdini footage, Horace Goldin on stage cutting open a dog pulling a rabbit out of it’s stomach, Thurston on stage, Jaspar Maskeyene performing with sound, Johnny Grippo, Johnny Paul, Paul Daniels, Frank Garcia doing the shell game and a beautiful historical recreation of Robert Houdin’s Ethereal Suspension. We all applauded at the end of the night.

reported by Tom Klem, Reporter, Chairman of the Board, Treasurer and Trustee of the S.A.M. Parent Assembly Number 1 - January 12, 2007