Kirkham Magic: Shirley Temple Theater

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.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Shirley Temple Theater

Several years ago I was looking for a copy of the Hollywood Palace Episode that my Dad Had appeared on. I knew it was in 1966 but the exact date was not in my memory. I then did what most people now do without thinking about it, I went to IMDB and typed in Kirk Kirkham. This is what came up:

As you may notice, there are a couple of other references as well. He did a lot of television but it is not well cataloged. Not listed are all the episode of "You Asked For It" and "Truth or Consequences" and "The Steve Allen Show" as well as numerous others. One thing that was listed that I had never heard of was the Shirley Temple Storybook Theater. He was listed as Magician, so I assumed it must actually be him. I hesitated many times about buying the series because I was sure he was only in the show for a couple of minutes, but over the holidays an opportunity came up to get a copy at a fairly inexpensive price, so I went for it. I was right, he has just two brief scenes in the episode based on "Madeline". Apparently, she has run away to the circus and in the morning she is greeted by as assembly of variety performers; there is an acrobat, a juggler, a fire eater and the magician. I was surprised to see that the episode is in color, because it was 1960 and color TV was not yet standard. I do seem to recall however that NBC made a big deal out of color being a huge part of their network so that may explain why. The sequence here actually featured Kirkham more than any of the other circus folk, he does a nice bit of slight of hand that was mostly lost because the camera director did not seem to know how to shoot it. He looks very distinctive in this part with a fake mustache and goatee.

When the commercial break ends, the camera comes up on him immediately, performing a vanishing cane into silk trick and then the kids take center stage again. He did this effect at the beginning of the fast opening to most of the shows I worked with him on.

There is some dialogue as the kids talk about how tough it is for other kids who don't get to live in the circus, and how when they are grown ups they won't make their own kids go to school. While that is going on, my dad is in the background doing some more slight of hand that again, the director of photography had not staged very well. The truth is that the show was low budget and changed stories each week so they probably had to do a lot of this stuff on the fly.

He finally brings the kids in to help him prepare a pudding. They add some flour and vinegar and then a lighted candle to the pan.

And then Ta Dah:

The flames shoot up and the pan is filled with fire. Magician Kirkham covers the pan and then opens it to see if the pudding has come out and of course it is a large white duck.

This shot shows the duck as it fly's off the table. We had a lot of P & L equipment in the collection and this Duck Pan was probably one that they made. The only times I ever saw my Dad use this type of prop were for kids shows because the live animals were always a hit with the little one.

The costume he is wearing looks like a combination of one of his tuxedos and then a red sash and epaulets are added to it. We may have had a cape with red satin lining but I do not remember it so it may have been a studio contribution as well. It was designed to look "Magician-like" for television. Although he had only a brief couple of scenes, he was listed third in the credits, right behind the little girl who played Madeline. He must have had a good agent.

The IMDB listing also has him a production manager for Plan Nine from Outer Space. I have no idea if that is actually him or if there is someone else with the same name that worked in Hollywood. I do know that he worked with Vampira on some TV stuff and she is in Plan Nine, and it would not surprise me a bit that he hooked up Ed Wood and his rag tag band of cheapo film makers with some material they used in their movie. He never spoke of it to me so I am only speculating. If any of you know if the Kirk Kirkham listed in the credits for Plan Nine is indeed my father please let me know.

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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.

Welcome to the Calvacade of Magic Presented By Kirk Kirkham

Friday, January 6, 2012

Shirley Temple Theater

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