IBM British Ring No. 25
77th Annual Convention Buxton 2013

Wednesday September 4th – Sunday September 8th, 2013

 

History of Mystery

This year Buxton will bring the 40th Anniversary of the History of Mystery programme which Eddie Dawes first introduced at the Harrogate Convention in 1973 during his Presidential Year of office. On this occasion there will be topicality as the Buxton Museum possesses, and will be displaying, artefacts from the Houdini Collection of Douglas Randolph, and Ann Beedham, the author of Randolph’s biography, Randini: The Man Who Helped Houdini, will be speaking under the same title. Ann will have signed copies of the book available at the end of the event.

Randolph, who grew up in Sheffield, performed escapology under the name of Randini, and was also a good artist. During Houdini’s engagement at the Sheffield Empire in 1913 Douglas met him backstage, the American took a liking to the 18-year-old and he and Bess visited the Douglas home for the first time. The following year on Houdini’s return to Sheffield, Randolph demonstrated for him a presentation he had devised – escaping from a straitjacket whilst suspended by his ankles in mid-air. Houdini noted this with great interest and soon afterwards it became a feature of his outdoor publicity stunts, but he never gave credit to the young man who had devised it, a highly visual presentation still widely used by modern escapologists. Ann will recapture this fascinating story of the rapport between the youngster and the world-famous escapologist.

For the second topic, attention is turned to Magic of the Orient, and Peter Brunning will speak on ‘When East met West; the Japanese Magicians who came to Edwardian London.’ While British audiences at the turn of the 20th Century had already witnessed some impersonations of Oriental magicians it was not until 1904 they first had the opportunity to see the genuine Japanese specie when the Ten Ichi troupe arrived in London, bringing such novel mysteries as the Thumb-tie and Water Fountains. The troupe included Ten Ichi, his stepson Tenji, a 15-year-old boy Takase Kiyoshi, and several females, and it is the three named principals who are the focus of the talk, together with the subsequent arrival for the Maskelynes at St George’s Hall of Gintaro and the rope-walker Tamamoto.

Finally we feature that much-loved magician, the late Pat Page, with Barry Murray’s presentation on the exciting Patrick Page Sound Archive, supported by the playing of examples pertinent to Barry’s talk. The tremendous amount of work which has gone in to the assembly of this collection of material will be apparent and a fitting tribute to a wonderful personality, knowledgeable and remarkable magician.

I am sure you will all enjoy another History of Mystery this year and the efforts Eddie and his speakers put into it.

An Audience with Ian Adair

Steve Short will be conducting this event with highly respected magician, author and inventor Ian Adair. These two have been working hard together to present a very informative and entertaining session detailing Ian’s life and work in magic. Although not working to a solid script it will be very much a timed event profusely illustrated with photo/movie clips on the big screen, some of which have never been published.

Ian took up ‘magic’ when he was five years old and from the moment he left school all he wanted to do was become a magic dealer. Well he certainly achieved that being part of probably one of the biggest dealers of all time The Supreme Magic Company based in Bideford, Devon. Yes I remember it well and always looked forward to receiving my goods with every order personally signed ‘Best Wishes Edwin and Ian’, happy days.

Now at the age of 72 although no longer performing paid shows he keeps busy having written 13 books over the past two years and 85 items marketed by Sam Dalal of India during that time. This brings Ian’s originations to over 1,000.

The presentation will include anecdotes, flashbacks, and a little about disasters involving customers and suppliers. Ian will have copies of his new book A ‘Supreme’ Lifetime in Magic available during the convention. The publication is scheduled to be launched towards the end of August so the timing will be just right. This sounds like an event to remember.

A Tribute to Alan Shaxon

Michael Bailey will present this hour long tribute to someone he knew well for over 50 years. Alan was a man respected by all and a former President of both the British Ring and The Magic Circle. In this Michael will show many videos that have not been seen before along with live performances of Alan’s best known effects.

I learnt so much from his book “My Kind of Magic” published in 1970, he was certainly a guiding light in my early days of magic. I am sure you will all enjoy this afternoon about one of the nicest and most talented magicians of our time.

As you can see there is a varied selection of talks about people which will make an excellent contribution to the convention.

Geoffrey Newton PRO

 

For more information, and to register, visit www.magicconvention.co.uk

 

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