This is the time of year when we see year-end summaries from all the media -- newspapers, television, radio, Internet, etc. It seems to be comforting to everyone to review the just-passed twelve months, either with fond memories, or with happiness that bad things are behind us and now we can look forward to a new year and a clean slate. As I flipped through all twelve issues of The Linking Ring, in order to write a review of the Broken Wands for 2011, I decided to take notes on other aspects of the magic world’s largest-circulation magazine. Here are my findings; you should be surprised:
TOTALS ARE IMPRESSIVE: During 2011, the twelve issues of The Linking Ring totaled a whopping 1,988 pages. WOW! On those pages there were 1,002 Ring reports, 81 Ring Events, 160 obituaries, 158 magic products reviewed, 128 tricks explained in the Parades, and an amazing 564 drawings by Tony Dunn. Are those impressive numbers, or what? So how about more details on these totals?
PAGES: Those one thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight pages averaged out to one hundred sixty-six per issue. The largest issues of the year were in January, May, and October, with one hundred seventy-two pages each. The smallest was in November, with only one hundred fifty-six pages. All the others were one hundred sixty-four pages long.
COVERS: The long-time “style” of covers of The Linking Ring has been a head-and-shoulders photo of some individual magician, There were nine which fit this description during 2011, thus:
January: Keith Cooper, Ring 25 president
February: Dr. Robert Albo, collector
March: Brett Sherwood, cups creator
April: Lizhi Zhao
May: Celeste Evans
June: Dale Salwak
July: Vanni Pule, I.B.M. President
August: John Calvert, upon his 100th birthday
November: Ricky Boone
On the cover of the October issue was Walter “Zaney” Blaney in a hips-up shot within one of his large rings; and on the September cover were two people, Joe Eddie and Betty Fairchild, breaking the one-person format, but also in a head-and-shoulders pose. Finally, on the December issue was a pen-and-ink Christmas-theme drawing by famous artist Nelson Hahne.
RING REPORTS: One of the most popular features of The Linking RIng is the “Ring Reports” section of each issue. This year there were one thousand and two Ring reports printed in the magazine. That is an average of eighty-four a month. There were one hundred Ring reports printed in the June issue (high), and just sixty-seven in March (low).
While it has been suggested from time to time that these reports be dropped in favor of more features on magic, there is overwhelming support to keep them. After all, RINGS are the FOUNDATION of the I.B.M. These reports are what these Rings and their members are all about.
Besides, they are interesting reading. You can get theme ideas for your own Ring meetings. You can see what lecturers are making the rounds, and read feedback about their appearances. You can get ideas for local benefits and fund-raisers. You might even be inspired to start some special event or activity in your own Ring after reading what some other Ring is doing.
A deep bow to Ring Reports Editor T.J. Shimeld, for receiving and editing these reports each month. Instructions about how and when to submit your Ring’s reports, is given at the beginning of that section each month in the magazine. Thanks T.J.
RING EVENTS: Similar to Ring reports are the Ring Events. But these are longer, are more detailed, and usually focus on a single special event or activity. They also include one or more photos, in full color. During 2011 The Linking Ring published eighty-one of these, an average of eight a month. And remember, we can’t publish YOUR Ring event if you don’t submit it.
HOCUS IN FOCUS: Another popular section of the magazine is Hocus in Focus, in which reviews are printed for new magic products, including tricks, DVDs, books, e-books, etc. A team of reviewers has been assembled by The Linking Ring staff, and tricks are assigned to them by their expertise and interests. The only compensation they get is they get to keep the products they review. In most cases the reviews refer you to your favorite magic store, thus supporting them.
ONE-MAN PARADES: Most often, the always-popular Parades are written by one person, and are referred to as One Man Parades. But often two or more people are involved, and thus are just Parades. Usually these involve original tricks or variations of someone else’s tricks. What I (and others, apparently) like most about this section is that it oozes with originality and creativity, and new ways to look at some existing effects. During 2011 there were one hundred and twenty-eight tricks discussed in these Parades, an average of eleven per month.
TONY DUNN ILLUSTRATIONS: And one of the best parts of each month’s Parades, are all the terrific line drawings from Tony Dunn, to help make a move, or prop, or viewpoint more easily understood. In addition, Tony often adds his brilliant illustrations to other sections in the magazine, mostly in columns. How many drawings did Tony create for The Linking RIng during 2011? How about five hundred and sixty-four? That’s an average of forty-seven per issue. He went crazy in the November issue, with seventy-six drawings; but that must have tired him out because he only had twenty-nine in the December issue, the highs and lows of the year. Thanks, Tony.
BROKEN WANDS: Finally, the reason I started going through all twelve issues of The Linking RIng during 2011 -- to review the Broken Wands of the year. In all, we published one hundred and sixty obituaries this year. That’s an average of thirteen per month, with two months -- August and December -- having nineteen obituaries, and two -- April and September -- with only nine.
In addition to the individual obituaries, we published five In Memoriams during the year: Bob Dowd in January; Dr. Earl Reum in February; Sidney Radner and Hank Moorehouse in August, and Earl Oakes in October. Further, in the May issue, we published a feature obituary about Dorothy Young, age one hundred and three, the last living assistant of Harry Houdini (who died in 1926). Still further, in the September issue we published an Index of all the obituaries, June 2010 to June 2011.
Regarding the AGES of those one hundred and sixty magicians, it is no surprise that the largest number (fifty-six) were in their eighties; the next largest group, forty-six, were in their seventies; twenty-eight in their sixties; and fourteen were in their nineties. One died in his twenties; and two were over one hundred.
As I re-read each obituary, I took notes on occupations of the people. They held positions in too many occupations to list them all, but the largest number were “veterans,” followed by “authors,” full-time pros,” “educators,” and “government workers.” Other occupations which had high counts were “professionals” (doctors, dentists, accountants, attorneys, etc.), “realtors,” “retailers” (including five who owned magic stores at one time), and “musicians.” Of course many of them fit in more than one category.
Finally, we noted that twelve of the magicians were members of the Order of Merlin (I.B.M. members for twenty-five continuous years); thirty-two were Order of Merlin Shield (thirty-five years); eight were Order of Merlin Excalibur (fifty years of continuous membership); and six were Order of Merlin Excelsior (sixty years of continuous membership).
In addition to all these regular sections in The Linking Ring, you as a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians receive each month in your issue:
Ten or more regular columns
Reviews and reports of magic conventions
Articles about raising your performance level
Biographies of distinguished magicians
Articles on magic history
And so much more, such as a complete index of the past year's issues, the Proposed Rules and By-laws to be reviewed by members, minutes from Board meetings, Pictures from the Past, Youth Trivia Contest, list of Sick and Convalescent, news about coning conventions, etc..
Finally, as a member you receive dozens of interesting advertisements from magic manufacturers, retailers, producers, individual magicians, suppliers, services, organizations, wholesalers, etc., of interest and importance to magicians. Without their support, your dues would have to be much higher in order to produce a magazine of this quality. Contact B.J. Hickman at advertising@magician.org to put your story before the largest group of magicians in the world -- the readers of The Linking Ring!
What a treffic value you receive in The Linking RIng as part of your dues of being a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
It’s been a terrific year for The Linking Ring, and we thank everyone who had any part in making it such a success, especially editor Sammy Smith and his staff. Please consider sending a Ring Event and/or Ring Report; an article; or just an idea to be considered for publication. And watch for the January issue on the IBM Portal early in January, and shortly thereafter in the U.S. Mail. Thank you for your support.
Dennis Schick, Associate Editor; editor, The Broken Wand
END
