Magic Is Dead: My Journey into the World's Most Secretive Society of Magicians

Walter had amassed a collection of hundreds of tapes, footage of wonder-workers that was otherwise impossible to find. He had clips dating back to 1896 and Georges Méliès’s vanishing act, Escamotage d’une dame chez Robert-Houdin. A seven-year-old Ricky Jay changing a guinea pig into a dove on the 1955 program Time for Pets. Every magician who ever

For twenty years, Walter had been archiving magicians’ television appearances. Any time a magician performed on a talk show, a variety special, even guest spots on sitcoms and dramas, Walter fired up his VCR and pressed Record. Walter used those tapes as bargaining chips with other collectors across the country, trading his copies for footage he di

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