Leon Mandrake: Difference between revisions
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Mandrake Wikipedia: Leon Mandrake] | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Mandrake Wikipedia: Leon Mandrake] | ||
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhxU7uaK4J4 YouTube: Mandrake the Magician, documentary film by Käla Mandrake] | |||
==Reference Books== | ==Reference Books== | ||
Revision as of 09:21, 29 October 2022
| Leon Mandrake | |
| |
| Biographical information | |
| Born: | April 11, 1911 |
|---|---|
| Died: | January 27, 1993 |
| Nationality: |  American
|
| Occupation: | Stage Magician |
| Website: | The Leon Mandrake Memorial Web Page |
Leon Mandrake the Magician was an Italian-American magician, mentalist, illusionist, escapologist, ventriloquist and stunt performer.
Life and career
Early life
John Arthur Leon Giglio was born[1] in San Juan (Washington) on April 11, 1911. He was the only child of Antonio Arthur Giglio[footnotes 1] and Harriet Florence Wagner[footnotes 2]. When Leon was about one years old his parents were divorced[2] and his mother brought him to New Westminster, British Columbia on the West Coast of Canada to live with his aunt Mildred[3][4].
Leon began[3] his magic career in 1922, giving vaudeville performances in New Westminster (British Columbia), only 11 years old. According to Magicpedia[5] Leon used the stagename "Leon Wagner" in his early career.
The vaudeville was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. The various olio acts were normally introduced by a MC (master of ceremonies) and could include musical performances by popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, ventriloquist and on.
At age 16 he travelled across North America with the Ralph Richards touring magic show[3].
When the tour ended in 1927 he settled[2] in Oak Harbor (Island County, Washington) and continued to give vaudeville performances on the west coast of the US. According to "The History of Metropolitian Vancouver" [6] Leon was billed as "Leon", and later as "Leon the Ventriloquist". In 1941 Leon married[7] the 21 years old Ruby Olive Burleson (née Armour) in Maricopa (Arizona) on August 13.
1927: Richards
1938: Little Charlie Chin, Leon and Jerry
ad 1938
ad 1939
March 1939 confirmation booking at the Palace Theatre, Memphis (Tennessee)
ad 1940
ad 1941
autographed photo
Mandrake the Magician and Princess Narda
From November 1941 Leon toured with the 20 years old Lola R Douglas under their stagenames Leon the Magician and Princess Lola. In 1942 Leon lost[8] his props and equipment, including his ventriloquist dummies, in a fire while working at the Cherry-Ho Club in Phoenix (Arizona).
Leon and Lola married[9] in King (Washington) on 20 October, 1942. Spring 1943 they were headliners in Oakland (California) with their new stagenames Mandrake the Magician and Princess Narda.
Leon legally changed[10] his surname to Mandrake in 1944, when he prepared a melodrama vaudeville with the road show edition of "The Drunkard"[footnotes 3]. In "The Drunkard" Lola played the role figure Agnes Dowton (Mad Agnes), she was one of Leon's assisting magis and she had her own act, "Princess Narda and her Doves". The featured act was described[11] as:
"The tiny white birds, nestling on her head and chest, are fluttering on the backs of her hands, do her bidding as she performs several tupes og Egyptian and oriental dances, and they fly out over the audiece and return on cue. Back drops, costly and filled with color, and a system of neon lighting which made the doves dots of brilliant hue, .."
When Baldy, a white sacred Javanese dove, died on stage in Tucson Leon said[12] the dove was the last of seven trained about six years ago when the act was new. He said that the doves seldom breed in captivity so his extra supply of understudies came from the Far East some time ago.
Leon headlined his own West Coast tour in 1945 billed as "Mandrake the Magician and his entire Company" and "Mandrake the Magician and his Magic Revue". Although Leon and Lola got their divorce decree[13][14] in April both Mandrake and Narda were headlined in their "Gremlin Gambols of 1946" tour, billed in larger cities in states such as Utha, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota and Iowa.
ad 1941
ad 1943
ad 1944
ad 1944
ad 1945
ad 1945
ad 1946
ad 1946
ad 1946
ad 1946
ad 1946
Window Card
Narda and her Doves
Levitation on stage
Oct. 1, 1946 - at the Indianapolis Lyceum (Indiana)
1947 Program
ad 1947
ad 1947
ad 09/1948, Gloria Club, Columbus (Ohio)...with the Ray Cincine Musical Band
London Appearance
In December 1948 Lola[footnotes 4] married the magician Roy Benson (born Edward Emerson Ford McQuaid). The marriage was short-lived and after two years of separation they were divorced[15] in 1952. Lola continued to perform with her dove dance as "Princess Narda" in the years up to 1956.
Leon and Velvet Mandrake
In 1947 Leon was headlined as Leon Mandrake (the Magician) and Company, and was assisted by Velvet (Louise Marie) Salerno [Born: October 6, 1924 / Died: February 28, 2019], Lucille and (Princess) Nadja. Leon and Velvet married[16] on tour in Kansas City on July 24, 1947. In October Leon Mandrake was billed two weeks at the Club Continental in the Jefferson Hotel (St. Louis), the hometown of both Lee Falk and Phil Davis.
During the fifties, Leon Mandrake had bought a supply of unused stage posters of another magician, "Alexander, The Man Who Knows," (Claude Alexander Conlin), material previously sold by the latter retired from the stage; in order to make use of those posters he sometimes also toured under the name of "Alexander the Great, the Man who Knows" - especially in a Pacific Northwest tour. He also performed occasionally as Alexander in night clubs and on a televion series of programs, entitled "Alexander the Great", which was performed out of Portland, Oregon for 36 weeks and Richland, Washington for 20 weeks in 1955 - 1956.
- about Alexander the Magician, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_(magician).
He was also billed with Prinsess Nara (Velvet ?) in 1953 but later mainly headlighted as Leon Mandrake & Velvet in the following years.
Leon Mandrake also met[footnotes 5] Phil Davis and they corresponded for years.
ad 1947 St. Louis
Some tricks... (Dayton, Ohio, Sept.14, 1951)
ad 1953
ad 1955
ad 1955
fifties ad
ads / fifties
1958 ads'
in the Fifties
The Last Years
In the second part of the fifties, the show was less successful and Leon only participated to road shows. Between the latest shows in the 1970s, he gave lectures on the occult, mysticism and Eastern philosophy at different universities in British Columbia.
On March 11, 1978, Leon Mandrake was awarded the "Performing Fellowship at the Academy of the Magical Arts" (The World Famous Hollywood The Magic Castle) for his contribution to the magic acts made by Leon and Velvet Mandrake. He performed his last magic show in 1985, after a 62-year career in show business.
He died of emphysema at Surrey Memorial Hospital (City of Surrey, British Columbia) on January 27, 1993. A wake was held at the old Edison Theater in New Westminster, now the Paramount Theater, the first place Leon Mandrake worked as a child magician.
On August 28, 2016, Leon Mandrake's home, located at the corner of Grosvenor Road and Kindersley Drive in Surrey, British Columbia, was engulfed in flame and destroyed. His son, Lon, has stated that during his childhood the home contained secret rooms and passages. In its September 21, 2016 Minutes, the Surrey Heritage Advisory Commission notes that "due to the significant damage sustained by the fire, and concerns to public safety, the City of Surrey Building Division issued a Demolition Permit". Unfortunately the site was in a derelict condition prior to the fire, so the staff noted that although the building cannot be documented that there might be an opportunity to celebrate Leon Mandrake through some kind of "place-making" initiative such as installing an embedded image in the sidewalk nearby. However at the present time, no commemorative plaque has yet been installed.
In 2021 an exhibit about Leon Mandrake has been organized by the Museum of Surrey (from February 17 until May 16, 2021 / Museum location: 17710 56A Avenue, British Columbia, Canada). see https://www.surrey.ca/news-events/news/experience-real-mandrake-magician-museum-of-surrey and https://www.surrey.ca/news-events/news/magic-days-coming-museum-of-surrey about Lon Mandrake performances for his father exhibit. Two news articles : https://vancouversun.com/news/mandrake-the-magician-exhibit-celebrates-world-famous-illusionists-surrey-and-new-westminster-roots (Vancouver News) and https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mandrake-exhibit-surrey-1.5926418 (CBC News article). An virtual tour is available at: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=tiWXk7imoke, and on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNuiPesN7UU&ab_channel=ExitThrutheGiftShop.
ad / end of the fifties
ad 1958
February 1958: blindfolded Leon Mandrake behind the wheel (New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada)
Reading "Mysterious Senses, an Enquiry Into Animal Perception" (1964 book by Vitus B. Droscher translated from German)
ad 1967
ad 1970
ad for 0ctober 17, 1970 show at the "University of Victoria", British Columbia
ad 1977
ad 1977
ad 1977
1977 Promotional Flyer, signed
ad 1978
death article in newspaper "The Surrey Leader", January 31, 1993
Newspaper front page, 17 February 2021, for Surrey Museum exhibit.
Photos from Studio Romaine
In the forties, the studio of the photographer Romaine (adress: 220 Jones Street, San Francisco, California) was quite noticeably known for its portraits of movies actors and actresses as well as of various entertainers or stage performers, among whom Leon Mandrake and his assistants.
photo chosen as cover for the book "The Real Mandrake"
serious pose!...
with signed autograph
with Narda
with Narda
Princess Narda
Princess Narda
with Velvet in "The Enchanted Pagoda dollhouse illusion"
Romaine mention on the back of the photos
Phil Davis Tribute drawing and letter
From one Mandrake to another one... Phil Davis' tribute to Leon Mandrake
1961 Phil Davis' letter to Leon and Velvet
Notes
- ↑ born in Italy by Felix and Lorena Giglio.
- ↑ daughter of John Wagner and Rebecca Wagner née Mc Donald. From her first marriage she had her son Alfred Carlyle Jackson.
- ↑ a famous play which had been running 12 tears in Los Angeles, four years in New York and two years in San Francisco
- ↑ Also named as Lola Wilson
- ↑ in 1955 ?
References
- ↑ Washington, Birth Records, 1870-1935
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960 (May 25, 1939)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wikipedia: Leon Mandrake
- ↑ 1921 Census of Canada
- ↑ MagicPedia: Richards the Wizard
- ↑ Vancouver History
- ↑ Arizona, County Marriage Records, 1865-1972
- ↑ "Cherry-Ho Club Destroyed by Fire", Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) 21 May 1942, Page 8.
- ↑ Washington, Marriage Records, 1854-2013
- ↑ Watson, Patrick, "The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation", Volumer 1-3. McArthur, 2003, 439.
- ↑ Smith, George Porter, "Magic in Big-Time Style Presented by Mandrake & Company", Freeport Journal-Standard (Freeport, Illinois), 10 Oct 1946, Page 6.
- ↑ "Magician's Dove Act Ended After Bird Actor Dies", Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), 31 Oct 1944, p 6.
- ↑ Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada) 23 Apr 1946, Page 3.
- ↑ Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada) 24 Apr 1946, Page 8.
- ↑ "Annulment Recommended", The Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York), 20 Nov 1952, Page 17.
- ↑ Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002
External links
Reference Books
Publisher: Hades Publications, 1998 by Sheldon O'Connell with Lon Mandrake
Publisher: FriesenPress, 2018 by Linda and Lon Mandrake
The Conjurors' Magazine / Genii: Articles and covers with Leon Mandrake
- The Conjurors' Magazine - selected as the official organ for the Magician's Guild of America - was a monthly periodical devoted to magic and
magicians and created in 1945 before becoming Genii, The Conjurors Magazine.
September 1948, Vol. 4, Nr.7 / Article "Mandrake - A Profile in Print" by Robert Lund (editor)
March 1951, Vol.17 Nr.7
November 1981, Vol.45
Other Magazines: Covers with Leon Mandrake
"The Linking Ring", August 1990, issue Nr.8
