Broken Wand - Ken De Courcy
by Bobby Warren

Ken de Courcy, a former president of the I.B.M. British Ring 25, a prolific author of magic books and inventor of magic effects, died July 24, 2008. He was 86. Magic was a part of de Courcy's life for 80 years, and it began when his parents gave him a conjuring set at age 6 in order to keep him busy. Little did they know the impact magic would have on him and the impact he would have on magic. He wrote mroe than 60 books on magic, edited Supreme Magic's magazine and even produced his own Coffee-Break Chronicle, a monthly magazine limited to 100 subscribers.

Broken Wand
Louis Martelle (1927-2008)
British Ring President
1999-2000
by Jeffrey Atkins

Louis Martelle has passed away at the age of 81. He had been a member of The British Ring since 1949 and throughout that time had been a supporter of and worker for the Ring. He started in magic at the age of eleven when he saw magicians at the local vaudeville theatre and managed to borrow Hoffman's Modern Magic from the local library. He performed for the local churches and private parties until he was fourteen, when he left school and joined Murray, the famous Escapologist, as an assistant. (Read More)

The Sweet Talking
Southern Gentleman
By Phil Willmarth • July 2008

BILL TADLOCK, Member of the Order of Merlin Excalibur (50 years continuous membership), former International Treasurer and Executive Committee member of this organization, a long-time magician and mentalist, died July 8, 2008. He was born June 17, 1929 to Lewis Bond ("LB") Tadlock and Louise Respass Tadlock in Washington, North Carolina. He graduated from Washington High School, attended the University of North Carolina for a year and a half, left to serve in the military as did so many of the "Greatest Generation," matriculated from East Carolina University with a B.S. degree in Business, and managed a six-week graduate course at Columbia University in finance. He was also a member and past president of the Psychic Entertainer's Association. (read more)

 
ALEXANDER LEWIS
by Katy Grabel
He was a gentlemen and a teacher; an entertainer and a loyal friend.  He could do a shuffle-off-to-buffalo in a friend's kitchen, teach them Cardini's cigarette thumb grip, and then sit down to regale them with funny stories past midnight.  Al was a teacher at Chavez School of Magic in Los Angeles from 1946 -1951 and at one time instructed the following popular magicians: Channing Pollock, Zicarte, Ralph Pierce, Don Alan, Neil Foster, Albert Ching and Nardoni & Nadine.  Under the name, The Great Alexander, he played venues throughout Southern California and toured extensively on the National School Assembly circuit in the 1960s. He died at age 87 on March 13, 2008. (read more)

IN APPRECIATION FOR THEIR LIFE IN MAGIC
by Dennis Schick • Editor, The I.B.M. Broken Wand
June, 2008

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.  ~Kahlil Gibran (more...)