Kirkham Magic: October 2011

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.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Side Show Spiders

From 1972 till about 1980, my Father's workshop was a set of garages he rented in the back of a duplex in Pasadena. It was located on Walnut in Pasadena and it was right next door to Pooh Bah records which was in a house on the corner at the time. This is a Spider Girl Prop that was built for a circus attraction. There was a fellow named Jimmy Dixon, who purchased a few props from us at the time, I think this went to him, be had a small circus with animals and a tent, and this may have been for the side show that most circuses of those days offered to patrons on the mid-way. As you can see, we did not have a Spider Girl but we did have a Spider man and Spider Boy. My brothers Chris and Kirk both posed in the prop which makes it around 1972 or 1973 when we built it.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Crystal Casket 1970/Net Vanish

This was a beautiful prop my Father made in the garage at the house we rented on Pine Valley Drive in Alhambra. The two years we lived there were very busy times in his career. We did The IBM Convention, Built the Portable stage he used in the shopping center shows, created a Santa Illusion for Kids to see Santa at the North Pole, and he and my older brother Chris ran away with the Circus for several months. This shot is taken on the driveway of the house. Our neighbor to the north was the busybody who called the cops every time he ran any machinery. Technically, all you are supposed to do in the garage is park your car. So he moved all of his project out on the drive-way to work. It made more noise and irritated the neighbor lady even more. I'm sure she was glad we did not buy the house. I think this prop was traded with a guy named Don Nordoff. He was the ringmaster of the circus and he had several props my Dad wanted for some shows, including a light bulb suspension that he improved immeasurably.

This shot is of a Net Vanish that he built for a magician named Peter Reveen. The traditional vanish is done on a large stage in front of a curtain. This was designed to be done where there was no Fly Gallery but there was still a backdrop. This shot is taken on the same driveway above from a slightly different angle. That is my younger brother Kirk with Dad in the picture (Yes, my parents used his stage name to name my little brother). You can also see our Australian Shepard "Blue" on the stair platform on the left.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Master of Magic at a Tender Age

These are the earliest photos I have found of my Dad in relation to his Magic Career. I have an essay from his elementary school somewhere that indicates when he was twelve that he wanted to be a Magician and that his inspiration was Howard Thurston (I don't remember if he wrote that he had seen him perform). The watermark on the back of several of these photos shows that they were processed on July 17, 1942. I suspect they were taken on his birthday a few days before. That would make him 16 in these pictures.

He had some of these props up until a few years ago. I recognize the square circle and the personalized prop table is out in the shed at this minute although it is a little worse for wear.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Haunted House of Mystery

Here is a promotional flyer for an attraction that my dad was doing when he first came out to California. It is really pretty clever. On the front is a drawing of a spooky house.

When you open the flyer it actually pops up the point of the roof so the interior is twice the size of the cover. Here you will find pictures and a little more description of what the effect entails.

On the back is contact information and some more description. My parents were headquartered out of my Grandparents house in South Pasadena, so that was the contact info. No cell phone or web sites in those days. I wonder how many times my Grandmother must have answered questions about a Haunted House.

The art work was clearly done by my Mother, she had a great talent for this kind of thing. She had been the main Window Dresser at Jacobsons Department store in Battle Creek before they got married. I think I have the actual typewriter that this was prepared with. The lettering is very familiar. I have no idea what happened to the prop.

David Avedon Custom Prop

This is a picture of David Avedon, a magician that came to us with an unusual request. He wanted a park bench that turned into a theatrical trunk. I sadly read that he died just a year or two ago. He appears to have been an odd sort of performer with an interesting take on life. My Dad would have talked to him about the wisdom of the effect, but ultimately it was his call to make. As you can see, he is seated on the bench here in this first shot.

I don't know what the figure on the bench was supposed to represent. David had a very artistic approach to things and there may have been some narrative or pantomime involved. I never saw the final product in his act, but I know that the effect worked flawlessly and very smoothly. With one simple movement the bench transforms visibly into the trunk that the magician can sit on or cart off stage. I think you could also open it so maybe the figure ends up inside of the box.

You can see the trunk now on the ground right at David's feet. The trunk/bench was designed and constructed by my father at his workshop, storefront, office. The location was the old Owen's Brothers Warehouse at 1240 South Chapel in Alhambra. He took over the lease at that location for several years in the mid 1980s. Many of the best memories I have are of the times he and I worked together on a project. I spent two full summers working there as well as filling in at various times over those years.

IBM Ring 21 Convention Public Show 1971

This was the last hour of the public show for the IBM Ring 21 Convention in 1971. I think it was in February. Somewhere I have a set of sharp slides that I have to convert for the complete show, this is just a set of photos that gives some idea of the scope of the show. My father was a stage performer as well as a close up and parlor entertainer. We did a fast opening and then a dozen illusions spread out with pieces of audience participation and storytelling.

A Life in Magic: Here in Southern California

As a kid, I’d imagined myself following in my father’s footsteps and becoming a performer. I had magic kits, and puppets and a variety of equipment readily available. What I lacked was discipline. Someone once told me that the difference between your current status and expertise in a field was 10,000 hours of hard work. When I got to high school I discovered girls and debate, and suddenly, spending time on the technical craft of performing magic seemed less desirable to me. My father was never disappointed in my choice. He allowed me to stay a part of his world even though that part was on the sidelines. He was one of those people who understood the level of dedication that was required to be really good at your craft.

From the time he was a kid he wanted to be a magician, and that is what he worked his whole life at doing. He practiced and performed and read and dreamed. He talked with everyone who was interested in magic about everything connected to performing. When I was young my friends thought it was strange that my dad would still be asleep at ten or eleven in the morning. They did not understand that some people simply thrive at night. When he came home from a show or an evening with his friends in magic my father did not sit in front of the television; he read. He was a sponge when it came to magical knowledge. He listened to friends like Percy Abbott, Harry Blackstone, Bill Larsen Sr., and Dante tell stories and share secrets. He sought out magicians of all stripes to answer questions and to ask them. He acquired books and articles and lectures and blueprints and anything else he could lay his hands on, that dealt with magic and performing. When we needed funds to provide for his care in his last years it pained me to have to sell his library: I knew it was one of the most unique in the world.

He was more than just a fountain of knowledge though; he was a performer. Being on stage is where he came to life and made his mark. While he was an accomplished illusionist and a talented close-up performer, my father’s greatest strength lay in interacting with an audience. He loved having the little kids come up from the audience to do the hats and pants routine – just playing a silly, wonderful game. When they laughed and smiled, he was in his element. Lots of magicians do a guillotine trick, but Kirkham did ten minutes of audience participation, comedy and drama. The trick was the climax of the segment but it was hardly the highlight. His byplay with the two brave boys who volunteered to be onstage was where most of the fun was. When the curtain opened and an illusion was performed, my dad was as good as anyone else. In front of the curtain, setting up the scene or doing a small effect with patter he was better than everyone else.

We worked all kinds of shows and venues. Club dates at nightspots, corporate picnics in parks, high school auditoriums and legitimate theaters for full evening extravaganzas. When he did TV, I always felt special and made sure to tell my friends to watch ABC on Saturday night or CBS Wednesday afternoon. My older brother worked on my father’s show, along with my mother, for years before I was much help.

From 1965 to 1975, I went on all the state fair shows and company Christmas parties. My younger brother was in the act as well but by the time he was able to do some of the things I got to do my dad had slowed down a bit, so I can safely say that I was the only reason he could offer $10,000 to anyone who could prove he used two girls in the Thurston sawing a woman in half act. And so I got to discover that the smell of sawdust did a lot to minimize any claustrophobia I might have experienced as a kid. Speaking of sawdust, one year my Dad and my older brother, Chris, ran away with the circus; when it came to town, my younger brother, Kirk, and I joined for a couple of days – Kirk sold programs alongside the kid in the circus who was a fantastic juggler – so Kirk and I got the experience but did not have to caravan in a trailer for six months like Chris and Dad did.

In the fifties Dad and Mom worked in Vegas with Orson Welles. In the sixties Phyllis Diller asked Dad to come to Vegas and work with her. He had lots of chances to be a pioneer in sin city prestidigitation, but after all the issues he had with my troubled older brother Dad thought that relocating to Vegas, which was not the corporate tourist friendly spot it is today, was not a good idea. With two young boys at home, he sought a more traditional upbringing. We were kids of the suburbs, but show business and Hollywood were the office that Ward Cleaver went to each day instead of the insurance company. We got to meet movie stars and eat in fancy restaurants. We saw the eccentrics on Hollywood Boulevard before it filled up with drug users and homeless people. And then aside from the mundane Hollywood insanity, there were all my parents friends.

We had close friends who practically lived with us and helped out with the shows Dad was putting together. There were young performers from the Long Beach Mystics who came and milked my Dad’s brain for information and exchanged time working in the show for all of the encouragement they got. We had old timers from vaudeville sit down at the dining room table and regale us with stories of the past. Business associates visited, ate and became our friends as well as our parents friends. We had the star of the Moscow circus, at the height of the Cold War, sharing secrets even though he spoke little English. One time my Dad got into a fistfight with another magician in Baja California while we were down there to see a magic show. My mother had to go out and pay off the cops in the middle of the night to get him out of custody, leaving my younger brother and I at the hotel. Later, he and the other magician became friends again and did business together on several occasions. So while we had the trappings of a fifties family, the reality was often far different.

My Dad was always up for a confrontation, so his relations with some of the other elements of the magic world in Southern California were terse at times. I don’t know what feuds and rivalries were important and which were minor. I just know he loved the life he led in good times and tough ones. When my Mother passed away in 1994, we lost all connection to the magic world because my Dad needed her to keep track of his memory. His decline was accelerated by her absence. Those of you who knew my parents know how much that was true. Those of you out there who are meeting them for the first time through this article, welcome to the real history of magic in Southern California. My family would like to thank everyone involved in putting this material together. It is good to have a legacy, but it is better to have friends who remember you fondly.