Magic magazine

MAGIC

THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR MAGICIANS

April 1999

THE CENTURY

The list lengthens, as a dozen more are added to those significant people in magic who have influenced and shaped the performing art in America during the 20^th century.

Those appearing in the first three installments of this ongoing feature are enumerated here.

THEODORE ANNEMANN

A.C. GILBERT

BILL LARSEN JR.

SIEGFRIED & Roy

LANCE BURTON

U.F. GRANT

MILT LARSEN

SLYDINI

BEN CHAVEZ

ROBERT HARBIN

RENE LAVAND

JIM STEINMEYER

T. NELSON DOWNS

DOUG HENNING

ED MARLO

HARLAN TARBELL

JOSEPH DUNNINGER

PROFESSOR HOFFMANN

JAY MARSHALL

HOWARD THURSTON

ALEX ELMSLEY

HARRY HOUDINI

RICHIARDI JR.

EDDIE TULLOCK

S.W. ERDNASE

RICKY JAY

MARVYN ROY

MARK WILSON

WALTER B. GIBSON

WILLIAM W. LARSEN SR.

P.T. SELBIT

Uri Geller

When Uri was 23 years old, he began to perform telepathy and mind-over-matter experiments in Israeli night clubs, Finding his talents under appreciated in his own country, where some critics accused him of fraud, Geller tried his luck on television in the United States.

In the ’70s, as floppy discs, barcode readers, and Pong video games came onto the scene, Geller appeared on numerous TV talk shows with his bending and breaking of spoons, stopping and starting of watches and clocks, and even causing a cable car to halt in mid-air. Many magicians were hostile to the assertions of genuine ESP and psychokenetic phenomena. Yet, it was the scientific world that became excited by his talents. The prestigious Stanford Research Institute included him in its ongoing psychic investigations, and although results were somewhat inclusive, Geller’s apparent abilities conferred a legitimacy on the stage performer.

Believe them or not, Uri Geller’s so-called psychic stunts and their resulting publicity were a boon to mentalism. He reshaped both the public’s and magicians’ perceptions of the potential of mental magic.