The newly released book, Richard Potter, America’s First Black Celebrity, will certainly spark new interest in the first American-born magician and ventriloquist. Details about Potter’s life and performance are scarce but tantalizing. NEMCA member and Yankee Magic Editor Editor, Andrew Pinard, has assembled details on Potter’s life and career, as well as pictures of the Potter’s final resting place.
Read more on Absolutely Magic.
For many years, Ray Goulet provided a complimentary DVD about his New England Mini-Museum of Magic. Ray and Ann have now shared this video tour with visitors to the NEMCA site. Ray shows rare items from his collection, demonstrates the Card Spider, and discusses how he started collecting.
Enjoy visiting with Ray Goulet at the New England Mini-Museum of Magic.
Gary Hunt recently started a fascinating site dedicated to Handcuff Queens: woman escape artists who operated during the Houdini era. Who knew?
Learn about the Pauline and Lewis, early pioneers of the escape act, and Marie Shannon’s original publicity stunts performed as “Lady Raffles”. As Gary says, “Hopefully this blog will provide these performers with some of the recognition they deserve.”
Visit Handcuff Queens
by John Booth, Excerpt from Memoirs of a Magician’s Ghost
Armed with a Sony tape recorder, I returned to the Goulets’ magic center after a hiatus of several years. My first visit should have included note making. But, I was so inundated with details and a need to sort them out before I could describe them in writing that I promised to come back.
This photo from the March, 1985 club meeting at Magic Art Studio is a Who’s Who of New England magic collectors: Chet Karkut, H. Adrian Smith, Ray Goulet, Dr. Grossman and many others.
Judge Gary Brown, Tom Ewing, and Gary Frank have collaborated to create an an entertaining and thoughtful blog dedicated to the art and history of Throwing Cards.
For more than a century, magicians have dazzled audiences by throwing playing cards with remarkable power, speed and precision. Some conjurers propelled cards to showcase their extraordinary skill and dexterity, bouncing cards against the rear wall of the theater, sailing them into the balcony or landing them in the laps of specific spectators. Visit Propelled Pasteboards to learn more about this amazing specialty.
