We Are Five

This month (March 2013) our site celebrates its fifth anniversary online. Thank you for your continuing support!

We celebrate by continuing to look at how Johnny was represented in various media in the past. First, below, as he appeared on the cover of MUM, the official publication of the Society of American Magicians (SAM) back in November, 1951. It was a high honour within the magic community to be so recognized. Johnny had been a proud member of SAM since 1927. The accompanying MUM feature article can be found on the next page.

Many thanks go to MUM's current editor, Michael Close, for granting us permission to reprint these fine memories of Johnny.

Scan of MUM cover (left) and MUM article (on next page) courtesy Joseph Giordmaine.

Johnny on Radio

Toronto historian Mike Filey has a weekly show Sundays at 12:30 pm on AM740 during which he talks about the history of Toronto and plays music from its past. Every Christmas he mentions his fond childhood memories of Johnny and he did so again this year. If you'd like to hear the podcast, here's the LINK for as long as the station maintains it. (UPDATE: Alas, the podcast is gone.)

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Johnny in "The Jinx"

While recently reading the legendary 1930/1940's mentalists' publication "The Jinx" edited by the late Ted Annemann on CD (special ordered from my favourite local magic shop, the Browser's Den of Magic) I came across two brief references to Johnny. To be mentioned in such a hip "insiders'" publication back then was yet another mark of distinction within the professional magic community. The first reference I've already mentioned, HERE, the second was in Edition 76, published late January 1940. Dunninger the famous mentalist had announced to the world that he had invented a secret method of rendering naval ships invisible to the enemy. To be fair to Dunninger, this was 1940. America was not yet in WWII so this was just another publicity opportunity for him (And he got massive publicity from it too, this story was picked up by press across the world. Just google "Dunninger invisible battleships"). But Canada and the UK and its Allies including Malta were already at war and so it was no matter to trifle with for us. Loved ones were dying. And someone as honorable as Johnny would not have allowed such a fabricated story to raise completely false hope in time of war. I don't think I can be accused of "exposure" here if I tell you it was all a publicity stunt. Annemann publishes the fact that Johnny had "reaped himself a number of press articles" for "ridiculing the Dunninger vanishing battleship idea". Anneman too seemed to think it was a less than stellar idea. Dunninger eventually had to back down from his claims and it was revealed as a hoax. I doubt he would have tried to get away with the same thing after Pearl Harbor.

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(LEFT) Johnny on the October 1959 cover of "The Gen" - once one of Europe's most distinguished magical periodicals, published in the UK. Click the cover or HERE to read its editorial about him. (Used with permission.)

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Coming up on the next page... the MUM feature article on Johnny from November 1951... and then Johnny in the movies!