Linking Rings - The Book
A Review by
Joel A. Moskowitz, MD
February 2009
Compounding Prescription: Add one part magic history and one part American politics and take with a large spoon as antidote to lack of information, and enhanced good mood. . . What organization was founded on February 10, 1922 in Winnepeg, Manitoba? Who was William Walter Durbin? Did you know that he began the Egyptian Hall Museum in Kenton, Ohio? That said museum of magic was moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1953? That it would be futile to search for it when you attend the I.B.M. Convention this year? That the Wizard of Oz was modeled on the physiognome of Harry Keller as portrayed in his poster of "Self Decapitation"? (read more)
Were you aware that Frank Baum in writing the Wizard of Oz in 1900 had in his mind a political allegory? That it subtly and masterfully told the story of William Jennings Bryan (represented by the Cowardly Lion), deceitful President McKinley who mesmerized the people to believe they lived in an Emereld City, where ‘oz' stood for ounce, a measure of gold vs silver, and the yellow brick road was code for the gold standard! The Wicked Witch of the East symbolized the power interests of Wall Street and the banker and Dorothy was ‘everyman'.
James D. Robenalt an attorney from Cleveland, Ohio and the great grandson of "Wild Bill" Durbin, a magic enthusiast who honchoed the first IBM Convention in Kenton, Ohio has performed a ‘perfect faro' riffle shuffle blending his ancestor's passion for magic, and his role in the political stage of those times. In "Linking Rings - William W. Durbin and the Magic and Mystery of America", scholar writer Robenalt has joined together an informative, well researched, tale of the time when the I.B.M. was born. Actually founded in Canada by Vintus (i.e. Melvin Justus Given McMullen) and two Americans Gene Gordon and Don Rogers, this organization, now the largest magic fraternity in the world, might not have blossomed were it not for the energy of William Durbin.
Durbin knew how to manipulate magical props as well as politics. As head of the Democratic Party in Ohio he almost defeated McKinley, helped Woodrow Wilson get into the White House and served (under Franklin Delano Roosevelt). In that era because so many presidents came from Ohio it was referred to as the Presidential State (Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Harrison, Taft and Harding). Durbin was in the thick of it but his passion was magic. On stage, he was known as The Past Master of the Black Art. Under F.D.R. he was a senior official of The Treasury. Some might say that politics and magic are both dependant on illusion.
In 1876, with the coming of a circus to Kenton, Ohio, then a ten year old boy who had lost his father a few years back (the family business was Scioto Sign Company of Kenton specializing in placards) saw a magician able to blow spots onto a card and then blow them off again. But especially captivating was the effect where a butcher knife is run through the magicians arm without losing a drop of blood! Purchasing a mail order book on black magic, he became obsessed. Magicians who chanced to come to Kenton were sources of increased magical knowledge. With his friends he built a tent and launched the W.W. Durbin and Company's Great Eastern Museum of Living Wonders."
Durbin knew of and associated with the ‘greats' of the conjuring arts: Alexander Hermann, Billy Robinson aka Chung Ling Soo, Harry Keller, and Harry Blackstone. As Editor of The Linking Ring, he preached caution describing the deadly misadventure of Karr the Magician of South Africa who after securing himself in a straight jacket directed that a car speed at him but his escape was seconds too late. Another Kentucky magician failed to escape from a water can device. And, of course there is the story of Chung Ling Soo and the bullet catching fiasco. In his diligent pursuit of the magical life of his great grandfather, and with the aid of access to David Copperfield's archives and Mike Caveney's kindness (Caveney bought the Egyptian Hall from David Price who had purchased it from the Durbin estate), author Robenalt fills in the gaps about the origins of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the political history and characters of those times, and some of the luminary illusionists with whom William Durbin associated.
Accolades to Kent State University Press for making this 315 page (Softbound) publication available to all who thirst to know about this nascent era of the birth of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, who made it happen, and what was the state of the nation in those times.
Therapeutically recommended as a brain stimulant. Got a second opinion or a story about Durbin? Leave me a comment below or Email by Clicking Here
