MCW: Saturday Afternoon

We have four wonderful speakers scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Leading off will be Jeff Taylor, the new curator of the American Museum of Magic. The Museum, founded by Bob and Elaine Lund, should need no introduction to this crowd. There has been much speculation, however, about what has happened to the collection and the access to it since their passing. Jeff is going to give us an update on what he and the Museum have been doing, and the plans for the future.

A large part of collecting magic is also disposing of it. We often acquire duplicate items to upgrade the condition of the item in the collection. Sometimes we buy a large amount of material in order to acquire just one particular piece, and are left with items that are not within our primary range of interest. We may have reached an age, economic circumstance, or be in a relationship where it is prudent to dispose of  parts or all of our magic holdings.  Holding an auction is a tried and true method of selling magic. To take us behind the scenes and detail the process involved, we have asked Gabe Fajuri to address our group. Gabe is the founder of Potter & Potter, a firm specializing in the disposition of magic-related material.  After Gabe’s presentation, we will have a panel discussion that will include David Goodman, The Magic Auctioneer, and others, to discuss this subject and address questions from the delegates.

The penultimate presentation will be about the magical mind of Del Ray, presented by Bill Spooner, one of Del’s close friends, and co-publisher of the critically acclaimed magic bestseller Del Ray: America’s Foremost. Bill has probed the principles that Del devised and is going to explain to us what made Del and his props tick. We are particularly pleased that Bill and another of Del’s close friends,

Bob Escher (who, along with David

Baldwin, were the other co-publishers of the Del Ray book), will be bringing several of Del’s props from their personal collections to display at the MCW.

The final presentation scheduled for Saturday afternoon is the talented, charming and indefatigable, Celeste Evans. With over fifty years experience performing and promoting magic, Ms. Evans will talk about her life on both sides of the footlights, address questions from the audience, and launch her new book, I Can Still See Me.

American Museum of Magic

American Museum of Magic

The American Museum of Magic (Marshall, Michigan) is pleased to announce the launch of its new website at www.americanmuseumofmagic.org.   This new, professionally designed site replaces a simpler, minimal site that was up for several years. Museum Director Jeff Taylor explains that “the new site offers us a greater flexibility in being able to communicate with the public, and does so with an excellent design that highlights the museum’s amazing collections.”   The new site joins a recently posted Facebook page which also contains information on the Museum.

Opened in 1978, the American Museum of Magic was founded by Bob Lund, a long-time journalist.  Taylor thinks Lund would appreciate the site.  “Bob, personally, was a big fan of direct contact with people, but as a journalist, he certainly understood and appreciated mass media. Today, we can use the internet to share his passion for magic with people all over the globe.”

Visitors to the site will be able to see images of some of the artifacts exhibited in the museum, get information on hours and updates, and even view items currently for sale in the Museum’s expanding gift shop.   The new site will also promote educational and public programs, something the Museum started this past summer.

Additions to the new site are already being planned.  Online exhibits, biographies of magicians, and information on Museum’s vast archival holdings will all be part of the new site as it grows.   Taylor hopes the planned updates will make the website a resource for people interested in magic across the nation, rather than just an advertisement for the museum.  “We can only exhibit a fraction of the material we preserve,” said Taylor.  “We try to limit our tour to an hour, but with 500 years of history in the museum, a lot gets left out.  The updates will allow us to share many more stories of magic and magicians.”   Taylor hopes that the next batch of updates will be completed by the summer of 2011.

American Museum of Magic