Kirk Kirkham and James Hamilton

Kirk Kirkham and Jim Hamilton circa 1970

Of the many magicians that befriended my Father, James Hamilton was one that I was on the most familiar terms with. He was one of the original Long Beach Mystics, and I knew him when he went by his real name which is Polish or Ukrainian and nearly impossible to say much less spell. Jim worked in many of the big shows we did in the late sixties and seventies, he also helped in the last big shows my Dad did in 1986 at Long Beach and Pasadena.

Some time in 1973, I got to return the favor. Jim was doing a big show and needed an assistant. I was asked to help and was happy to do so. The theme of his act at the time was oriental and we rehearsed several times at the apartment of another Southern California Magician, Bob Wagner. His sister Pat Kass also worked the show with Jim and I. My memory is not as sharp on the performance as it is on the lead up to it, I think the show was at Plumber Park in West Hollywood. I had a great time and it was nice to be able to help Jim out the way he had helped my father so often.

Many years ago Jim relocated to San Francisco, and he has been very active in the Magic business there. He does a parlor show that is a salute to Alexander Hermann. I have only one photo of Jim working on stage, and interestingly enough it was taken by another friend of my Dad's who is a follower on this blog, (Hi Ron, do you remember taking this shot?)

A year after my Mother passed away, my Dad was living with us in a new house in a new town. I don't think he knew most of the time who we all were but he loved playing with the dog and shooting baskets in the backyard with my daughter Amanda who was six at the time. I needed to go up to San Fransisco to help a friend of mine and Jim offered to have my Dad stay with him for a day or two while I was there. Dad seemed to remember Jim and enjoyed their visit together. I think they even went to the movies and saw "Dumb and Dumber".

I haven't talked to Jim since then, but he very kindly shared some memories in the article that appears in the current "Magic" Magazine. He said some wonderful things about Dad and he was right in saying that my Dad knew everything about any prop. Somewhere I have a great shot of Jim on stage with my Dad, acting as waiter for a little decanter trick that he would do in front of the curtain while the next illusion scene was being set up. I will add it to this post when I locate it.

Of course I am trying to focus on magic themed posts here but I remember Jim best as a guest at my parents home. He was there for many holiday dinners and Sunday afternoon visits. He was one of the few magicians that my wife got to meet when we were over at my folks place. Sitting next to Jim at the dining room table in my parent's apartment is one of her fond memories of my parents. I know she shared some jokes with him about the Kirkham family dynamics in the kitchen. I don't remember if he was there when my Mom tried oyster dressing for Thanksgiving, but she does mention occasionally how she and Jim laughed together when Mom and Dad were struggling with a Prime Rib which had not had the bones broken and cut. Our meal almost ended up on the floor and they were both cracking up.  I'd like to thank Jim for his friendship with my Dad over many years.

This last photo also features film producer Bill Self, a friend of my Dad's friend Ron Pascu. Ron informs me that he recently passed away. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves don't they?

Nino

Nino and Tihany

One of the pleasures of this blog is remembering old friends. I have heard from several former associates of my Father since I started the blog but also since the article in Magic Magazine appeared. My Dad collected friends and adversaries with both hands. Sometimes they even switched hands. One person who was always on the "Friend "side was the magician known to me only as Nino. I'm sure he had a last name but we never used it and although we worked with him on many big shows, I never saw him billed with any other name.

Nino was a disciple of the great Senor Frakson, a Spanish performer famous for his cigarette magic.  Nino did many of the same cigarette effects and he used doves and silks in his very polished act. My Dad took me to his house once in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, we must have been delivering something, but I can't remember what. Nino was always at the house helping out with some project my Dad was involved with. This is a picture that I found that is really only magically based because of the two subjects. There is no prop and I have no specific story. I just know that when Tihany was in town, Nino sometimes helped him navigate the L.A. area. Here are the two of them in what is simply describable only as a moment of exuberance. That may be Nino's truck and they were picking up something from my Dad. This is in the parking lot of the warehouse on Chapel in Alhambra.

One of the people who I have heard from since the article came out is Connie Keeler Mcleod, she worked many big shows with my Dad along with her husband Bill. She told me that Nino was still around and that she speaks to him on occasion. I hope this picture will bring back some fond memories for him if he gets a chance to see it, I know it brought some back for me.

The Amazing Phyllis Kirkham

Those of you who knew my parents, know that my father's common sense came from the woman he was married to for 47 years. They were High School Sweethearts at Battle Creek Central High. She worked with him in his entire professional career. My Father could be impulsive and short-tempered at times. He was also pig headed about a lot of things, yet if it was needed, my mother was there to calm him down, point out something that he was unwilling to see before, or back him up like a tiger. They were a team. Most professional magicians have the spotlight while their spouse moves in the background. It always seemed to me that my Mom got as much attention as she ever wanted from us, but she did step out front and center on occasion.

Houdini did a straight-jacket escape from tall buildings to draw attention to his upcoming appearances. My Dad must have thought it was a great idea, but he was an innovator and somehow managed to get my Mother to do the escape bit when they were touring around. I can't say for sure how many places they must have done this but in the early years before my older brother was born, they traveled extensively in the Western U.S. and this probably was featured in any town that was of sufficient size. 

Here she is at street level, this may have been in Battle Creek because the older woman here looks a lot like my father's Grandmother. I can't say for sure, and I don't know who the little girl would be. They may simply be bystanders who stopped to pose with the daredevil  woman.

In the late forties and early fifties there may not have been enough tall buildings in small towns to have the dramatic effect that Houdini would get from hanging off a skyscraper, so the next best thing appears to have been a hook and ladder from the local fire department. I can't imagine the red tape you would have to go through these days to pull a stunt like this. Back then, you might only have needed to ask at the fire house and get the chief on board.

If you watch the video above, you will hear some very dramatic music being played to heighten the sense of danger. From my point of view, hanging upside down fifty feet above the asphalt of the street intersection would be plenty dangerous enough. I wonder if there was ever a band or recorded music used at these events. Now a days, there are so many graceful performers working in places like Vegas, high above the stage and audience, we may get a little jaded as to how truly dangerous this stuff could be.

This shot gives me just a bit of vertigo by looking at it. You can see that there is some dramatic flare in the presentation with her arms outstretched once released from the jacket. My Mother must really have loved my Dad to do this kind of stuff. She comes from a family of five sisters who were all amazing in their own ways. The oldest sister, my Aunt Reba,  in in her late eighties and still plugging along. She is the last in the series of Lines sisters to be with us, but I have multiple cousins and second cousins that I have never met, who will know how my Mom could do something like this because they have met Aunt Reba. The Lines sisters were not shrinking violets.

Somewhere else in my dozens of boxes, I have a photo of my Mom standing with several other Magicians, getting ready to escape from straight jackets as part of a Hollywood promotion of the movie "Houdini " starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. When I find it I will add it to this post.  The producers of "You Asked For It", which my parents appeared on several times, might have been horrified to learn that my Mother was pregnant with my older brother Chris when she did this stunt on their show. How is that for being a trooper?