by JammyT » Dec 14th, '11, 17:10
Was quite surprised not to see an entry in the Hall of Fame for Harry
Harry Lorayne is an American card magician, author and memory training expert, he is renowned for his mnemonic demonstrations, has appeared on many (American) television shows. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians all over the world.
Harry has written some best selling memory training books and some absolutely fantastic card magic books.
Born in 1926, Harry grew up on the streets of Lower East side New York, he gained an interest in magic at the early age of 8, by the time he was 12 he had learnt many tricks, sleights, moves and was already performing for money. At 18, he was asked to perform as a table magician at Billy Reed's Little Club at 70 E. 55th St. in New York.
In 1950 / 51 (age 25) Harry appeared on his own television show, ‘Professor Magic’ he then had to wait over ten years for his next TV appearance and in the meantime would release, How to Develop a Super Power Memory (1958), Harry Lorayne's Secrets of Mind Power (1961) and Close-Up Card Magic – 1962.
From 1963 to date Harry performed on many more live TV shows including, I've Got a Secret, where he demonstrated his ability to remember every audience member’s name, The Ed Sullivan Show, Jack Paar, The Merv Griffin Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Regis Philbin Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, That's Incredible, David Susskind. He was also a regular performer (23 times) on The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson.
Amazing memory:
‘To demonstrate his memory, Harry Lorayne would stand beside the president of the club he was visiting and be introduced to each member. The number of members of a club could reach up to 1,500. After an hour and a half, Lorayne would speak about memory for about 20 minutes and then ask if anyone had a question. He promised that he would pay any questioner whose name he could not remember a thousand dollars. He always remembered the names of every member of the audience. Lorayne also made news by memorizing and recalling information from phone books with no errors. Did the above a few times, but on just about every personal appearance, he would meet all the people in the audience, then he would open his show by asking all the people he met to please stand. He'd ask them to sit down as, and if, he pointed to each person and said his or her name. He sat down everyone in the audience - always! He had a memory school in New York employing such instructors as Darwin Ortiz. His video course (MEMORY POWER) was used as part of the training of many top corporations.’ from wiki
Card Magic:
Harry may be a renowned memory training specialist and despite writing many books for a general audience (not magi) on memory (The Memory Book was a NY Times best seller), his personal first love is card magic, here is a list of his magic books he has written and published over the years:
• CLOSE-UP CARD MAGIC
• PERSONAL SECRETS
• MY FAVORITE CARD TRICKS
• DECK-STERITY
• BEST OF BILL-FOOLED
• THE HUNDRED DOLLAR BOOK
• DINGLE'S DECEPTIONS
• REPUTATION-MAKERS
• THE GREAT DIVIDE
• TARBELL #7
• RIM SHOTS
• AFTERTHOUGHTS
• THE EPITOME LOCATION
• THE MAGIC BOOK
• FINGER FANTASIES
• CARD ANIMATIONS
• THE CARD CLASSICS OF KEN KRENZEL
• QUANTUM LEAPS
• BEST OF FRIENDS, VOL. I
• BEST OF FRIENDS, VOL. II
• STAR QUALITY
• TREND SETTERS
• DOUG EDWARDS PACKS A WALLOP
• THE HIMBER WALLET BOOK
• PERSONAL COLLECTION
• THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, VOLUME 1
• THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, VOLUME 2
• THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, VOLUME 3
• SPECIAL EFFECTS
As well as writing some of the best card magic books there is, for 20 years 1978 - 1997 Harry also wrote and published a monthky magazine called 'Apocalypse' which would then be published in four volumes. Genii magazine are luck to have Harry on board as a columnist for them also.
to be continued ...
Last edited by
JammyT on Dec 14th, '11, 20:10, edited 2 times in total.