Welcome to the Calvacade of Magic Presented By Kirk Kirkham

My Father was the Magician known professionally as Kirk Kirkham, his real name was Charles and many folks called him Chuck. He lived from 1926 to 2001. He was an active professional performer from the time he was sixteen years old. Magic was the only living he ever had. He toured with the USO after World War II, did the spook show circuit and television extensively in the 1950's, did thousands of club dates, school shows, and more television in the 60's, continued performing in the 70's but also became a well regarded prop maker who produced equipment for other magicians and attractions around the country.

Currently, David Copperfield has the largest private collection of illusions in the world, but prior to his success and collection, my father may very well have been the previous holder of that title. He owned parts of Thurston's Wonder Show of the Universe and Mysteries of India. He acquired much of the core of his collection from Will Rock back in the early 50's but continued to add to it the rest of his life. He knew and worked with Harry Blackstone Sr., Percy Abbot was a mentor to him. Dante was a personal friend, and he owned famous illusions that belonged to all of them.

My goal is to keep his legacy alive here in cyber space, and provide some historical context to the Southern California Magic scene in the 60's and 70's. I have had virtually no contact with the Magic world since my Mother passed away in 1994. My Dad suffered from Alzheimer's in his last years and he could not write the book that he always said he would get to someday. I don't know enough about magic to write competently concerning history, practice and technique. I can however provide an historical context for my Father, a man who knew almost everything about magic during the 20th Century. He had a huge library, subscribed to dozens of magazines, and had met every important magician of the second half of the century. He was consulted by many of the experts that now make up the intelligentsia of the magic community. He was also a mentor to many fine magicians and scholars of magic. I hope to hear from some of those people as a result of this blog.

Welcome to the Magical World of Kirk Kirkham.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Jumbo Sized Lobby Pictures/Thurston and Dante

My Dad had hundreds of posters and pictures at one time of classic vaudevillian magicians. He acquired some of them with his purchase of part of  the Thurston show from Magician Will Rock. Other items he managed to buy at actions or get from friends. Here are some of those photos that were large sized so the could be displayed in the lobbies of the theaters where the magicians performed.

 
My Dad had hundreds of posters and pictures at one time of classic vaudevillian magicians. He acquired some of them with his purchase of part of  the Thurston show from Magician Will Rock. Other items he managed to buy at actions or get from friends. Here are some of those photos that were large sized so the could be displayed in the lobbies of the theaters where the magicians performed.
 These first two are the older pair, they may have been from the Thurston show but they seem to focus in an Indian themed section. I wish I could say for sure, It does not look like Howard Thurston in any of the images, it may be some other performers relics. This is my younger brother Kirk, standing with the photos circa 1985.
 These two photos I know feature Dante. He was a personal friend of my Dad's and they may have come from his ranch out in the Valley in what is now Northridge. None of these is in my possession today. They were all sold to private collectors at one point or another. I especially liked the last photo featuring Dante's magic words (and the name for his show) Sim Sala Bim. I had to move it out of the way everytime we went to the garages my Dad rented for years in South Pasadena.