Magical Quotes of the Day Astonishment is not an emotion thats created. Its an existing state thats revealed. - Paul Harris The hard must become habit. The habit must become easy. The easy must become beautiful. - Doug Henning -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug Henning (1947-2000 was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. Early Life Henning was born on May 3, 1947 in the Winnipeg suburb of Fort Gary, Manitoba to father Clarke Henning (an air line pilot for Air Canada) and mother Shirley Jean Henning (nee Rutherford.) At six years old, he watched Richiardi Jr on the Ed Sullivan Show float a young lady in mid-air. When he asked his mother how its done, she told him, Thats magic! Doug was hooked. He soon finds his way to the local library where he finds the usual library books on magic. An industrious Doug then makes his props from cardboard, tin cans, and construction paper; he then talks his parents into buying a magic kit. Doug once asked his father to scratch an identifying mark on a coin, which Doug wrapped in a handkerchief and made disappear. Then he reached around to his rear pocket to produce a tiny box, which he asked his father to open. Inside was a tinier box, and in that a little cloth bag, within which he found his own marked coin. That was the first time I had ever given anybody wonder! It was a marvelous feeling. His mother then encouraged a shy Doug to perform for his two sisters; Nancy and Carol, hoping it would draw him out. I was so shy, he recalled, When company came I used to hide in the clothes hamper. In 1956 Doug’s father received a promotion and the family moved to Oakville, Ontario. His father built him a magic table and in 1961, at age 14, Doug performed his first paid show at a friends birthday party for the princely sum of $5. Soon after he had The Great Hendoo business cards printed and places an ad in the local paper: Magician, Have Rabbit, Will Travel. From then on he was busy performing two to three shows per week for $15 a show. At age 16 Doug began performing magic in local TV shows and started to attend meetings of Torontos famed Hat & Rabbit Club. He also attended Abbotts Get-Together and Wisconsins Houdini Club Conventions. In the January, 1965 issue of The Zombie (magazine), the youth-magicians section of the Hade-E-Gram, Micky Hades wrote: With this issue of the Hade-E-Gram Doug Henning takes over as editor of the young magicians section. He would continue to edit this for one year. THE HENNING FORMULA: Magic + Theatre = Art. With this thesis, Doug applied for a Canadian Council of the Arts Grant, governmental funding traditionally awarded to musicians, singers, dancers, painters, and playwrights. Upon receiving a rejection letter stating Magic is not a fine art, He traveled to Montreal, where he performed, thus convincing a skeptical panel of the Canadian Council of the Arts to grant him $4,000 plus travel expenses to pursue the study of magic as an art. In 1971, the 24-year-old college dropout studied dance with Lenny Gibson in Toronto and pantomime with Adrian Pecknold, director of the Canadian Mime Theatre Company. He became more graceful, using his hands more theatrically. He then traveled to Europe then to New York to learn sleight of hand from Tony Slydini The Master of Misdirection, who taught Doug maneuvers for diverting audience attention.. He then attended the PCAM (Pacific Coast Association of Magicians) convention in Vancouver. By now he had grown his hair and was starting to dress in the style that he would soon become famous for. As Hermetic Press owner and magical author Stephen Minch described it in Genii 1997 March, When I got to Vancouver the only other long hair at this convention was Doug … He was traveling from Toronto through Vancouver for this convention, then down to L.A. to spend some time with Dai Vernon … The second day of the convention, one of Dougs lungs collapsed, and he had to be hospitalized. The lung collapse was the result of a congenital ailment. In three months he underwent 13 unsuccessful attempts to permanently reinflate his lungs. He lost 35 pounds, became addicted to morphine, the painkiller he was given, and came to realize there was a chance I was going to die. Then a 14th try succeeded. Its the greatest miracle that I am alive. After recovery he went to the West Coast to study with Dai Vernon at the Magic Castle. … I went to Hollywood, where Dai lives … and he agreed to take me on as a student. So I spent three months with him. I was the first Pupil he ever had. We watched films, really old films, of Blackstone and Kellar and people like that. And we talked about magic, and we did magic together. And with him I developed my own style of magic. You know, what we talked about. Magic. After Henning completed his apprenticeship with The Professor, in his March 1972 column in Genii, The Conjurors Magazine wrote: I predict that if he keeps up with his present schedule of study and dedication, Doug Henning will be a great success in magic, and he will help magic itself consequently. Spellbound Impressed with the success of the rock musical Hair, Doug convinced college friend Ivan Reitman (Who would also go on to great success as a movie producer & director) to co-produce a rock concert of illusion to be called Spellbound. After eight months of rehearsal, a last-minute show cancellation allows them to open at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, owned by flamboyant merchandiser Ed Mirvish. Even with bad reviews, audiences love Doug, and the two-week run broke all box-office records for the theatre, including Hair and Godspell. New York producers Edgar Lansbury (Brother of Angela Lansbury and producer of Broadway hit Gypsy) and Joe Beruh (also producer of Gypsy) came to Toronto to see the show, and negotiations begin for a Broadway production. The Magic Show With a new book written by Bob Randall, and with new music by Stephen Schwartz (who wrote the music for the popular Broadway show Pippen) and directed and choreographed by Grover Dale (Who was married to Anita Morris, the actress who played Charmin in the show.) Henning stars in the Broadway muscial The Magic Show There was one major problem with writing the show, Doug couldnt sing. To make up for it they wove the plot so that it was the other cast members who presented the musical side of the show, so Doug only had to worry about the magic. After twelve days of previews, on May 28, 1974 The Magic Show opened at the Cort Theatre in New York City. The show becomes a four-an-a-half-year Broadway fixture for theatergoers, running either 1,859 or 1920 performances. (Depending on which source you use.) The Tonight Show On December 25, 1974 Doug made his first appearance on The Tonight Show, with guest host John Davidson. Doug was the last of four guests (which included Robert Goulet and Barbera Eden) and he performed an illusion, talked about his upcoming special, Houdini and did some card tricks for the panel. https://youtube/watch?v=-oB988DB8gk For more info on Doug, visit geniimagazine/magicpedia/Doug_henning
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:06:35 +0000
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