Broken Wand

Guidelines to report death of a magician

49942 — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:06:07 -0500

Please help us to post deaths in a timely manner.

The Broken Wand section of the IBM Portal and The Linking Ring is: (1) to pay tribute to magicians who have died, (2) to notify friends of the deaths, and (3) to archive those obituaries for historical purposes. People honored do not need to be I.B.M. members.

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Broken Wand: Jerry Conklin

63104 — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:07:46 -0500

Illusionist Jerry Conklin dies at 82

Broken Wand: Sid Fleischman

63104 — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:14:39 -0500

Cancer claims life of
Sid Fleischman, 90

Sid Fleischman, the Newbery Award-winning author of The Whipping Boy and member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, died March 17, 2010, at home, the day following his 90th birthday, according to The Los Angeles Times' Web site.

Fleischman said he was surprised he grew up to be a writer. "I had a childhood much like everyone else's," he wrote in his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life. "What went wrong?"

His biography page on his Web site, www.sidfleischman.com, provides a glimpse into his life, noting his childhood was not a typical one. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he grew up in San Diego, Calif., during the Great Depression. In the fifth grade, he decided to become a magician. Just out of high school, he traveled widely in vaudeville and with a midnight ghost-and-goblin show.
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Broken Wand: James Krzak

63104 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:35:48 -0600

James S. Krzak, 1944-2009:
Magician at Schulien's restaurant

Trevor Jensen, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, reported the death of James S. Krzak. He was 65 and died Tuesday.

Jensen writes:

Broken Wand: John Booth

63104 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:10:36 -0600

John Booth: Minister, magican
worked to bring people together

With the death of John Booth Wednesday, the magic community has lost another legend, and the International Brotherhood of Magicians mourns the passing of the man who has held the longest running membership.

Booth, of Los Alamitos, Calif., was born Aug. 7, 1912, and died Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, after several weeks of diminishing health, according to longtime friends, Norm and Lupe Nielsen. He was 97.

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