Leon Mandrake: Difference between revisions

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===Tribute drawing===
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Image:Leon Mandrake - Phil Davis Tribute.png|''From one Mandrake to another one... Phil Davis' tribute to Leon Mandrake''
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Revision as of 18:15, 3 July 2019

Leon Mandrake
Leon Mandrake-50.jpg
Biographical information
Born: April 11, 1911
Died: January 27, 1993
Nationality: Mini usa.gif 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.

Gallery

  • 1927: Richards

  • 1938: Little Charlie Chin, Leon and Jerry

  • ad 1938

  • ad 1939

  • 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.

Gallery

  • ad 1941

  • ad 1943

  • ad 1944

  • ad 1944

  • ad 1945

  • ad 1945

  • ad 1946

  • ad 1946

  • Window Card

  • 1947 Program

  • Narda and her Doves

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.

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

  • ad 1953

  • ad 1955

  • ad 1955

Tribute drawing

  • From one Mandrake to another one... Phil Davis' tribute to Leon Mandrake

Reference Books

  • Publisher: Hades Publications, 1998 by Sheldon O'Connell with Lon Mandrake

  • Publisher: FriesenPress, 2018 by Linda and Lon Mandrake

Note

  1. ↑ born in Italy by Felix and Lorena Giglio.
  2. ↑ daughter of John Wagner and Rebecca Wagner née Mc Donald. From her first marriage she had her son Alfred Carlyle Jackson.
  3. ↑ a famous play which had been running 12 tears in Los Angeles, four years in New York and two years in San Francisco
  4. ↑ Also named as Lola Wilson
  5. ↑ in 1955 ?

References

  1. ↑ Washington, Birth Records, 1870-1935
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960 (May 25, 1939)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wikipedia: Leon Mandrake
  4. ↑ 1921 Census of Canada
  5. ↑ MagicPedia: Richards the Wizard
  6. ↑ Vancouver History
  7. ↑ Arizona, County Marriage Records, 1865-1972
  8. ↑ "Cherry-Ho Club Destroyed by Fire", Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) 21 May 1942, Page 8.
  9. ↑ Washington, Marriage Records, 1854-2013
  10. ↑ Watson, Patrick, "The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation", Volumer 1-3. McArthur, 2003, 439.
  11. ↑ Smith, George Porter, "Magic in Big-Time Style Presented by Mandrake & Company", Freeport Journal-Standard (Freeport, Illinois), 10 Oct 1946, Page 6.
  12. ↑ "Magician's Dove Act Ended After Bird Actor Dies", Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), 31 Oct 1944, p 6.
  13. ↑ Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada) 23 Apr 1946, Page 3.
  14. ↑ Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada) 24 Apr 1946, Page 8.
  15. ↑ "Annulment Recommended", The Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York), 20 Nov 1952, Page 17.
  16. ↑ Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002

External links

Retrieved from "http://www.mandrakewiki.org/index.php?title=Leon_Mandrake&oldid=60075"