Now You See It, Now You Don’t – A Summer of Magic

I am worse than the kids when I go to a magic show. I sit there in the theater after the trick, mouth open, and ask my friend “How did they do that?”

Well, visitors to the New-York Historical Society this summer can find out how they do it (a little bit) in the museum’s new now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t exhibit Summer of Magic, which includes numerous special events and a movie festival.

The magic exhibit in the New York City museum slaps you right in the face when you enter the building with magician David Copperfield’s fabled large Magic Box, that he has shown often in his television specials. You see the box and then, in a video, Copperfield explains how it works. It is a lot of hocus pocus and even more science and quick moving machines. Fascinating. You move from there is a series of large glass boxed-in exhibits of famous and unusual magicians, such as Howard Thurston and Chung Ling Soo, actually an American, William Robinson, who passed himself off as an Asian magician for years. He became famous for catching bullets in his teeth (until one day that trick failed and he was killed).

Across the lobby from Soo is a huge cardboard mat on which you stand and learn how the levitation trick works. Me? I tried it and nearly fell on my butt.

Then you bump into a long line if real magicians who do tricks and explain tricks to you in hour long performances. I caught the bearded Adam Realman, in his pork pie hat, who delighted the crowd, especially the kids, with his rope tricks and, best of all, escaping heavily secured straightjacket (I still don’t understand he how did it). Realman was wonderful and enthralled all with his deft tricks and sparkling personality.

Then it was on to a few more exhibits. The museum reconstructed the magic shops of the 1940s and ‘50s that were found all over the nation. There was one in Times Square, New York, started in 1925. run by Louis Tannen. In the shops were magic kits produced by Alan Gilbert and his Mysto Magic Manufacturing Company in the early part of the twentieth century, plus skulls and small magic tricks. It was decorated with a large photo of a shop with four 1940s magician in it.

The final part of the exhibit, in the museum’s lobby, were artifacts of Harry Houdini, the most famous, with Copperfield, magician of all. There is the huge can in which Houdini was locked and miraculously escaped (it was often filled with water). Next to it was his real straightjacket, that he not only squirmed out of, but did it while held upside down dangled high up over city streets to the roar of the crowd below.

Museum CEO Louise Mirrer thinks that while families know much about magic today, they should take a look back at its historical beginning. “Visitors will be captivated as they discover the tricks, illusions and escape that mystified audiences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” she said. “We explore the links between magicians and their craft.”

The exhibit is very interesting, but it is way too small and full of historical holes. There is one small plaque telling people who Houdini was. Even though there have been several movies about him, I doubt that the average teenager in this family-oriented exhibit knows much about his life. You learn next to nothing about Copperfield, from Metuchen, N.J. who became a magician at the age of 12. And the exhibit only covers the lives of a few magicians. Where, oh where. Is anything about the immortal Harry Blackstone? Jeff McBride, Criss Angel, Harry Anderson, Penn & Teller, David Blaine? All those theaters that staged magic shows? The movies about storied magicians? The exhibit is spread across the museum lobby and is not located in any of the galleries, which it should have been. If it wasn’t for the good twenty or thirty minutes with daily magicians such as Realman, you would not be overwhelmed by it. The exhibit needed a lot more exhibits and plenty of videos. It needed a lot more hocus pocus.

It is as small as it is, I suspect, because the special events, lectures and movies are the keys to the overall "magic show." That is true, but still, the exhibit needs to be bigger and more inclusive.

This exhibit, which runs through the middle of September, does have a long list of performances, lectures, movies about magic, kids’ days and other events that can fill up the summer. It is as jammed packed with them as Copperfield’s magic kit.

Copperfield himself kicked off the summer of festivities June 16 with a special magic show in the museum’s auditorium. Other events include ‘Magic Workshop’ with Jerry the Magician (July 17). ‘The Witch of Lime Street,’ the story of the fabled women magician of the 19th century and a rival of Houdini’s (July 18), ‘Watson Adventures: Escape the New York Historical Society’ a show of different games tied to the museum (July 20 and August 10), ‘Parlor Mind Reading with Kent Axell, who recreates the world of mind readers in the 1870s (July 24), ‘Tragic Magic,’ with Joshua Jay, who tells the stories of al the magicians who died doing their tricks (July 25), ‘Women in the Golden Age of Magic,’ the story of women magicians in the 1880s (Aug. 2), ‘The Bowery Boys Magical Mystery Tour’ explores the history of magic in New York City (Aug. 14).

Free magic movies on the museum schedule:

Houdini (documentary (July 13), Now You See Me (Aug 3), Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (documentary, Aug. 9), War of the Worlds (documentary on 1938 radio broadcast (Aug. 17) and The Prestige, starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, (Aug. 25).

The closest I ever ventured into how the magicians do their tricks was about thirty years ago, when I interviewed David Copperfield. I begged him to tell me how he performed one particular trick.

“OK, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise never to tell anyone else,” he said.

I nodded yes. Copperfield walked me over to the far corner of the room and whispered carefully into me ear,

“It’s magic…” he said and walked away.

The New York Historical Society is at Central Park West and W. 77th Street. The exhibit is open through September 16.