April 2001 Genii - Who was on the cover?

[Guest]

Misplaced my copy and I am trying to track it down.......maybe knowing who was on the cover will help.

Thanks

[Michael Edwards]

The April 2001 Genii (Volume 64, Number 4) had John Mulholland on the cover and featured a rather long article titled "The Sphinx & the Spy: The Clandestine World of John Mulholland," which explored his relationship with the Central Intellegence Agency.

[Guest]

Thank you Michael.....It also contained the Heinstein Shuffle and I had put it aside to check that out. Found it almost immediately after I found out who was on the cover.Thanks again.

[Jack Shalom]

You may enjoy reading this blog post about April 2001's cover boy:
http://jackshalom.net/2015/08/22/puttin ... -magician/

[performer]

I met John Mulholland once. Very tall as I recall. He was pretty old at the time. I found him to be terribly rude and unpleasant to some young magicians who were gathered around him because he was so well known. I do recall that he complained about Houdini allegedly mishandling the funds of the Society of American Magicians and he claimed he was the only one to have the guts to speak out about it.

[Ted M]

But could he do the Heinstein shuffle?

[performer]

I don't know if he could do the Heinstein Shuffle and neither do I know what the shuffle even is. I have never heard of it. But then I don't read anything written after 1954. I strongly suspect that Mulholland was dead and gone way before it was invented.

I do remember Mulholland though. It was at the Magic Circle and a bunch of young magicians had been invited to perform on their clubroom stage. It was so long ago that I think it was in the old Hearts of Oak building.

Afterwards the young magicians were crowded around Mulholland who appeared to me to be very arrogant and not very friendly. One of the young magicians had the temerity to ask the Great Man for some advice or criticism of the act he had just performed on the stage and where Mulholland was in the front row. The kid was Dennis Lipman who I vaguely remember went to work for Harry Stanley at one point. Maybe even Repro 71. It is so long ago that I can't remember. I have no idea what happened to Dennis-I think he became a writer and is probably old and decrepit by now.

I still remember Mulholland looking down on him from his great height in a sneering manner asking, "How old are you?" Dennis replied "Fifteen years old". Mulholland gave him a sneering superior look and snorted arrogantly, "I was a professional magician when I was fifteen years old". The implication was clear.

It has always stuck in my mind. I have never forgotten the incident and I have to say it is not particularly untypical of magicians at large. They are not a "brotherhood" and are generally speaking a very unpleasant bunch. There are many exceptions of course but I find this attitude to be a rule rather than the exception.

[Jack Shalom]

Anyone know anything more about the Houdini reference? Any truth to that accusation?

[performer]

I am curious too. I have never seen any reference to it anywhere else. I have seen a fair bit in the literature to indicate that there was no love lost between Houdini and Mulholland but nothing about this particular matter. Wasn't Houdini president of the SAM at one time?

All I can tell you is that I heard Mulholland say this with my own ears.