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| Tannen's Magic Shop | |
|---|---|
| Name | Tannen's Magic Shop |
| Founded | 1925 |
| Founder | Louis Tannen |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Products | Magic props, books, instructional media |
| Services | Retail, lectures, conventions, consulting |
Tannen's Magic Shop is a long-established retail and cultural institution in New York City known for supplying conjurors, illusionists, and hobbyists with apparatus, literature, and instruction. Founded in 1925, it has functioned as a commercial emporium, gathering place, and organizational hub that intersected with major figures and institutions in performance magic, vaudeville, theater, and popular culture. The shop’s role extends from retail sales to sponsoring competitions, publishing material, and nurturing generations of magicians who worked alongside or interacted with luminaries from stage, film, and broadcast media.
From its founding by Louis Tannen in 1925, the shop developed amid the interwar entertainment scene that included Harry Houdini, Rahn Grimes, and contemporaries in vaudeville circuits such as Buster Keaton and The Marx Brothers. During the Great Depression and World War II periods, patrons ranged from touring performers who appeared at venues like Radio City Music Hall and The Palace Theatre to nightclub entertainers engaged with circuits around Harlem Renaissance locales and Broadway houses including Shubert Theatre and Winter Garden Theatre. Postwar, the shop became a nexus for practitioners who later associated with organizations like the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Society of American Magicians, and regional clubs linked to the Magic Castle and international events organized by the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques.
In subsequent decades, the store’s proprietors maintained relationships with television personalities and film magicians who performed on programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and in motion pictures produced by studios including Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.. The business weathered urban changes tied to real-estate developments on Manhattan streets near Times Square and adapted to shifts brought by the digital age, with the shop’s name appearing in coverage by publications such as The New York Times and Variety.
The establishment retailed a wide selection of apparatus ranging from traditional close-up items favored by performers in clubs associated with Club 33-style private rooms to stage illusion pieces used in engagements at venues like Radio City Music Hall and audition circuits leading to residencies on Las Vegas Strip stages. It sold instructional literature by authors connected to the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians, including manuals used by amateurs and professionals who emulate acts by figures like Dai Vernon, Siegfried & Roy, and David Copperfield. Other offerings included novelty items, trick decks, mentalism props referenced in lectures by Banachek, and replacement parts for classic apparatus once utilized by performers who worked with producers at MGM and RKO Pictures.
Services extended to custom fabrication for illusion builders collaborating with theater companies such as Lincoln Center and touring productions linked to impresarios like David Belasco. The shop provided appraisal, restoration, and consulting services for collectors and museums, interfacing with curatorial departments at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and exhibitions that have featured artifacts from historic magicians including Harry Houdini and Chung Ling Soo.
Over its history the business sponsored and hosted competitive and social events that connected to major conventions organized by the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and attracted attendees who later appeared at major festivals such as the Blackpool Magicians' Club conventions and the FISM World Championships of Magic. In-house lectures and workshops featured instructors who also lectured at academic-adjacent venues like The Juilliard School and cultural forums including panels at New York Comic Con and symposiums convened at Columbia University.
The shop served as a meeting point for regional gatherings preceding appearances at marquee events such as residencies on the Las Vegas Strip and television tapings for programs on networks like CBS and NBC. It hosted publication launches, award ceremonies tied to organizations like the Magic Circle, and memorial events honoring contributors to the field such as T. Nelson Downs and Howard Thurston.
A wide roster of performers, authors, and builders have frequented or worked with the shop, including sleight-of-hand masters like Dai Vernon, television magicians such as David Copperfield and Penn Jillette, mentalists like The Amazing Kreskin, and stage illusionists associated with productions by Siegfried & Roy. Prominent authors and historians affiliated through purchases, signings, or lectures include Milbourne Christopher, Davenports, and Jim Steinmeyer, while builders who collaborated on large-scale illusions had connections to theatrical production teams at Cirque du Soleil and Broadway creative teams involving designers like Bob Mackie.
The store drew collectors and celebrities who engaged with magic as hobbyists or consultants—figures from film and television, including directors and performers from studios like Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, and networks such as HBO.
As a commercial venue and social hub, the establishment shaped trends in apparatus design, pedagogy, and community organization among practitioners linked to the Society of American Magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and international bodies like FISM. It influenced pedagogical dissemination by distributing texts used by generations of performers who later taught at institutions and festivals such as The Magic Circle and academic programs at New York University. The shop’s role in provenance, restoration, and archival consultation informed museum displays at institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and private collections that preserve artifacts related to magicians including Harry Houdini and Chung Ling Soo.
Located in Manhattan, the retail premises sat within reach of cultural landmarks such as Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, and theater districts connected to Broadway. Facilities typically combined retail floor space, demonstration areas for close-up work popular among performers appearing at venues like The Comedy Cellar and small lecture rooms used for presentations by figures from the Society of American Magicians and visiting international lecturers from clubs such as the Blackpool Magicians' Club.
Category:Magic shops Category:Performing arts in New York City