Orson Wells and Kirkham Magic

In response to the last post, featuring what turns out to be the Nicola Throne Chair, as once owned by Blackstone Sr. and Kirk Kirkham, I received an e-mail note that one of the readers seems to recall seeing this illusion performed by Orson Wells on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, sometime in the early 1980s. I went in search of a video for such a performance and came up empty handed. If Wells did present it, there is a good chance he rented it from my Dad, I don't think Wells kept a collection of large illusions.I was reminded however that we had a couple of contacts with the Great Orson Wells during his lifetime.

At the time that was mentioned in the email, I remember my Dad digging out some props that Mr. Wells was interested in using. One was a large wooden barrel that had some kind of gimmick to it that I was not familiar with. The barrel had warped in storage, and my Dad put it in the swimming pool at the apartment building to try to get in back in shape. I don't think it worked, and the attempt to get a large water soaked oak barrel out of the pool was something for a Laurel and Hardy movie. I remember that Wells came to the apartment but I don't think he even got out of the car. He and my dad had their meeting in the parking area in front of the building.

My Father had history with Orson Wells and that was probably one of the reasons we were contacted. Back in 1956 or 57, Wells did a Magic act at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. My Father was the technical adviser, which meant he supplied a lot of the props, played the role of assistant and did general show work for the run of the performance. I don't think that they worked more than a few weeks in the nascent gambling mecca. I do know that my Mom was with them because of the following physical evidence.

I originally saw this picture in Magic Magazine, shortly after my Mom passes away in 1994. She was given a nice obituary and this photo was featured at the end of the magazine. I have misplaced the copy I have, but when I was looking for the Orson Wells Video on the Carson show, I ran across this photo. Wells looks a little worse for wear, but Mom always seemed great on stage.