Leon Mandrake

April 11, 1911 – January 27, 1993  As a child, Leon Mandrake saw the great magicians of vaudeville and set out to become one himself.   He did odd jobs for magicians in return for lessons, and by the age of eleven he was on stage in his hometown of New Westminster. At fourteen, he worked the PNE carnival and added fire eating, mind reading, ventriloquism, and some illusions to his skills.   In 1927 he joined the touring magic show of Ralph Richards and began his professional travels. By the late 1930s Leon had his own show; by 1946, his show was selling out in LA and Vegas and MCA (Music Corporation of America) was billing him as one of their biggest box office draws.  With his second wife Velvet, he originated a full magic show tailored for performance in the lavish night clubs of the 40s and 50s. In this challenging setting, where the artists were surrounded by their audience, Leon could float a woman in the air or instantly change places with Velvet in the substitution trunk, a trick he enhanced with his famous ‘suit change.’ Robert Lund, in the Conjurer’s Magazine, September 1948, wroteWhat’s unusual about his manner of mystifying? Added bits of business. For instance, he climaxes his version of the substitution trunk with a lightening change of clothing from black tails to a white Palm Beach suit. And it’s all in a matter of not more than    four seconds! Couple this with a commanding stage presence heightened by a natural flair for the dramatic. “I try to be a showman first; a magician second,” Leon declared. The Mandrakes and their four children eventually resettled in BC. They worked mainly along the west coast, and toured eastern North America and southeast Asia in the 1960s. In 1978, Leon Mandrake was awarded a “Performing Fellowship” from the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, California.  The Mandrakes’ last magic show, in Victoria BC in 1985, was filmed by CBS’s Fifth Estate.