 |
Atlanta Society of Magicians Julian V. Boehm/Walter S. Bell Assembly 30 The Society of American Magicians Atlanta, Georgia |
 |
|
(Adapted from Souvenir Programs of the 25th, 50th and 60th anniversary banquets of the Society)
We, as magicians, have found this priceless treasure. With a wave of our magic wand, time stands still in its flight, no flower withers, no fair face fades. Like the young lovers on the Grecian urn, forever will he love and she be fair. Magic has this time-stopping quality -- an escape from reality; and we all become children again. We acquire the faith to believe the impossible.
Magic delights both him who performs and him who watches. It brings pleasure and forgetfulness of daily care. It charms young and old alike. And like a good book it keeps children from their play and old men from their chimney-corner. It has existed since the beginnings: the high priest, the medicine man, the sorcerer and the alchemist of the middle ages, the necromancer, the wizard of fairy literature, the thaumaturgist -- all were the performers of their day. They sought to mystify, to enchant, to entertain. Today, no less than then, can magic enter into our lives. It can bring to others, as it has to us, such pleasures. To us it has brought a quarter century of fellowship. To paraphrase the magic words of Shakespeare: Its infinite variety.
By reading all the written records of our founding members, it is possible for the historian at this late date to piece together a fairly definite record of the beginning of our Society. Of course even the present historian has had to exercise his judgment in picking items from these old records. Some of the details given here will probably not coincide exactly with Julian Boehm's memory of those ancient events. Strange as it may seem, the forces that eventually led to the formation of the Atlanta Society of Magicians in 1924 can be traced to a small inner room in a more or less obscure magic shop in New York City known as Martinka's. At the turn of the present [Note: "twentieth"] century it was the custom of amateur and professional conjurers to foregather in the Inner Sanctum at Martinka's and discuss the latest gimmicks and sleights. Gradually these informal gatherings of necromancers grew more and more popular, and in April of 1902 thirteen persistent prestidigitators founded the Society of American Magicians. The new organization grew very rapidly, drawing members from all sections of the country as they, from time to time, visited the back room at Martinka's. In the course of a very few months the original membership of thirteen had increased to something over two hundred. Late in the fall of 1902 a Dr. F.E. Van der Veer of New York City was being initiated into the mystic rites of the Society of American Magicians. It so happened that a young man from the Deep South was in New York at the same time, and he, too, was being initiated into the Society on the same evening. His name was Julian V. Boehm, and he hailed from Atlanta, Georgia. Out of the meeting of these two men was to emerge eventually the formation of our own Society here in Atlanta. Dr. Van der Veer, speaking at the 125th Meeting of our Society on November 15, 1938, had this to say about that long ago evening in New York. "As I recall the event, my impression of Julian's physiogonomy differs but little from our Julian as he now appears. In those good old days Julian specialized in the lemon trick, cards from the pocket and paper tearing effects. He confirmed his eligibility for membership in the S.A.M. by an exhibition of these effects, although the highlights of his present patter were not obtained until many years later." In 1907 Dr. Van der Veer moved to Atlanta and renewed his acquaintance with Julian Boehm. At that time they were the only two known thaumaturgists living in Atlanta. The only other conjurers anywhere near were Albert Harrington, of Austell, Ga., and Harry MacKirgan, of Jacksonville, Fla. Boehm and Van der Veer saw one another rather frequently, and the association served to keep alive their interest in magic. Occasionally they had an opportunity to discuss gimmicks and patter with Harrington and MacKirgan when they paid rare visits to Atlanta. In 1919 a young man immigrated to Atlanta from Boston, Mass. His name was Sherwood B. Blodgett. Being a student of magic, Blodgett naturally becmae acquainted with Boehm and Van der Veer. With three conjurers in the same town it was inevitablethat they soon began to feel the urge to form a local magic society. Intense as their interest in magic was, however, they felt that the three men were not enough to form a real Society; hence each of them began diligently to search for magic talent in the area. Their search bore fruit. Blodgett discovered that he had a fraternity brother, J. Edgar Hunnicutt, who was a budding thaumaturgist. They also found an Allen C. Gottschaldt, who was taking lessons in magic from one Milton Brooks, a teacher of magic who came from New England. A further combing of the city turned up Kenneth S. Keyes, who was also practicing the ancient rites of mystery. On a warm, summer-like day in September of 1924 Blodgett chanced to meet Boehm on the streets of Atlanta. As usual they fell to talking magic and men interested in magic. Before they parted they had decided that they had found enough men in Atlanta interested in the ancient art of mystery to form a local magic society, and a date for a meeting was agreed upon. The first meeting took place at the residence of Mr. Julian V. Boehm on September 26, 1924. The conjurers gathered together were Julian V. Boehm, F.E. Van der Veer, J. Edgar Hunnicutt, Jr., Allen Gottschaldt, Kenneth Keyes, and S.B. Blodgett. There and then the Atlanta Society of Magicians was born. In summing up the events of that historic meeting, S.B. Blodgett wrote as follows, "The evening was delightfully spent in an informal discussion of topics pertaining to magic and magicians. After a few sleight-of-hand tricks by Blodgett, refreshments were served and the pleasant evening was concluded at 12:30 a.m." A proposed draft of the constitution and by-laws as written by Dr. Van der Veer was considered at the second meeting. After the suggestions that were made were incorporated into the constitution and by-laws, they were formally adopted at the third meeting which was held on November 25, 1924. At the second meeting it was decided that the six men who attended the first meeting of the Atlanta Society of Magicians should be the charter or founding members of the Society. It was also agreed to establish an initiation fee for any further members who should be invited to join. In anticipation of the adoption of the by-laws, officers of the society were elected at the second meeting. Dr. Van der Veer was unanimously chosen to be the first President, Julian Boehm was elected Vice-President, and S.B. Blodgett became our first Secretary-Treasurer. Following the second meeting of the Society, the Society received its first newspaper notice. It read as follows: "What promises to be one of the city's most unique societies has just been organized - The Atlanta Society of Magicians. The purpose of the organization is to advance interest in magic and to provide entertainment for its members and friends. A number of the most prominent magicians in the South are enrolled as charter members in the Society, which plans to hold monthly meetings from now on. -- At the organization meeting it was decided that membership in the new society would be by invitation only and that the Society's roll would be limited to magicians of acknowledged standing." From the very beginning the Society formed the policy of inviting prospective new members to meet with the group and to display such magical powers as they might possess. The first such invitation was extended to Mr. W.D. Alexander at the third meeting, on November 25, 1924. Mr. Alexander was elected to membership at the fourth meeting, and the minutes of that meeting have one other item of interest for us who are active members today. A young man by the name of Homer R. Hulse was invited to display his ability as a mystifier to the members of the young organization. Homer so pleased the founding members of the Society that he was elected to membership at the fifth meeting of the Society, which was held January 27, 1925. Thus Homer Hulse, who is still very much an active member, had the honor of being the second member invited to join the Society. The historian regrets that he does not know Mr. Alexander, and nowhere in the records can he discover what happened to him. Apparently he was a member of the Society for only a brief length of time. The same meeting that saw Homer elected to membership in our Society was the first meeting to which the ladies were invited. The meeting was held in honor of Dante, a famous European magician who was playing in Atlanta at the time. He and Mrs. Dante were invited to attend the meeting, and at the same time the members were asked to bring their wives and friends. The meeting was a very sociable gathering, and a show was put on in honor of the guests. Dante performed, as well as Dr. Van der Veer, Kenneth Keyes, Julian Boehm, Sherwood Blodgett, and a Mr. Creighton, who was later elected to membership in the Society. Thus early in our history was started a custom that happily has continued down through the years -- the custom of making our Society as much a social club as it is a magic club. There is nothing that we like better than to have our friends meet with us for an evening's entertainment and good fellowship. In planning a letterhead for the new Society, it was decided to have each of the members submit his idea of the proper design to go at the masthead of all letters. It seems that many members did submit designs, and those original designs are preserved in the archives. An official letterhead was adopted at the seventh meeting of the Society, which was held on March 31, 1925. Sherwood Blodgett's design was used for those early letterheads. With some modifications it is the same design as appears on our letterhead today. The eleventh meeting, held on November 10, 1925, was the start of another precedent that has come down to us today. That is the business of asking for the unanimous consent of all present to set aside the by-laws in order for the Society to do something it wants to do forthwith. The by-laws were set aside on that long ago evening in order that A.G. DeVaughn, our own Tony, could be elected to membership in spite of the fact that he was not yet twenty-one years of age. So Tony is not nearly as old as his balding head would indicate. Our ritual of initiation was written by Van der Veer, Hunnicutt, and Blodgett in December, 1925. The Ritual Committee formed the original initiation team, and at the thirteenth meeting on January 26, 1926, the ritual of initiation was extended to Julian Boehm and Allen Gottschaldt. Why the ritual of initiation was not extended to the sixth founding member of our Society is not chronicled in the minutes of those old meetings. The thirteenth meeting was the birthplace of another rigid precedent of our Society. Rather plaintively S. B. Blodgett wrote these words into the minutes. "The Secretary tendered his resignation for the second time, but it was not accepted. In fact, the chair hardly gave any recognition to the speaker." It seems that the custom of re-electing men to the same office in the Society was abandoned after Dr. Van der Veer served two years as President. However, this happy precedent was not extended to the office of Secretary-Treasurer. Sherwood Blodgett evidently was an excellent Secretary-Treasurer, and he was rewarded by being elected the second President of the Society at the seventeenth meeting, held in October, 1926. A list of the men who have served the Society as President will be found elsewhere in this brochure. In the minutes of the forty-second meeting, which was held on February 11, 1929, there is recorded the beginning of another frequent happening with which we are all familiar today. The Secretary, A.G. DeVaughn, states that the meeting was called to order at 8:20, and upon motion by Gesma Boehm the Society adjourned the meeting at 8:45. Evidently, even in those days, Julian was anxious to get home early. Although the Society did not hold its first annual show until 1929, such an entertainment was decided upon as early as the fifteenth meeting, which was held in March of 1926. The Secretary records that, "It was moved, seconded, and passed that the Society hold an annual show the latter part of May, and that admission be by invitation only." At this point the historian would like to interpolate the remark that before any secretary of this Society assumes his duties, he should be required to read all the old minutes that have been compiled over the years. If he would do so, he would find that he would include in the minutes a number of things that should go in them that are not now being inserted. As has just been said, at the fifteenth meeting it is recorded that the Society voted to have an annual show in May of that year. No further mention is made of the annual show in the minutes of that period. No statement is made as to whether the show was held or not held. In fact, as you read through the minutes of the years 1926 to 1929, each year it was moved -- usually by Julian Boehm -- that an annual show be held at such and such date. Never is any statement made as to whether any show was held or whether it was not. The first record in the minutes anywhere of an annual show actually being held is found in the minutes of the forty-third meeting, held on April 2, 1929. In those minutes it is recorded that the Secretary was instructed to make up a report of the annual show which was held on March 2, 1929, and place a report in the records. So far the historian has been unable to find the Secretary's report on the show. However, Dr. Van der Veer, in his speech before our organization in 1938, verified the fact that the first annual show was held in 1929. I quote Dr. Van der Veer's report of that show. "It was not until the spring of 1929 that we felt sufficiently strong to give an exhibition to the semi-public. On March 2, 1929 our first annual exhibition was given in the Pompeian room of the Biltmore Hotel. This was the first and last exhibition at which we had the courage to serve refreshments. It is not known which our audience preferred the most -- the refreshments or the magic. At least it may be said that a good time was had by all." According to the minutes of the forty-first meeting, Dr. Van der Veer was in charge of the first annual show. The minutes do not give a list of the members who participated in the show. In the archives, however, there is a clipping from one of the local papers that shows pictures of some of the performers taking part in the first annual show. The performers whose pictures are shown are Julian Boehm, Tony DeVaughn, H.H. MacKirgan, Dr. Van der Veer, H.R. Hulse, S.B. Blodgett, and W.S. Bell. Apparently this first annual show was a huge success and made quite a splash. The idea that men whose vocations were something other than show business would be interested in magical entertainment for free was a novel one, and one that was made a lot of by the newspapers. In the archives are a number of clippings from newspapers throughout the country that recognized this departure from standard practice. As an example of these clippings, the New York Times, of June 3, 1929, carried a headline that read "Atlanta Civic Leaders turn to Magic as Favorite Sport." The article that followed reads: "Magic practiced as a benefit to orphans and other needy ones and divested of its powers of personal gain has become the favorite sport for an even dozen of Atlanta's civic figures. To them 'The hand is quicker than the eye, ladies' or a chortled 'Now you see it, now you don't,' has become more thrill-laden than the shouted 'Hole in one!' The Atlanta Society of Magicians represents sports evoltion of a prominent group of young Georgians who have gone through the golf, tennis and polo urge only to return to their boyhood love -- sleight-of-hand. Now their dining rooms furnish round tables for visiting professionals of the art of legedermain." On April 6, 1940 the full circle of our being was completed. On that date, the Atlanta Society of Magicians joined the Society of American Magicians, becoming Assembly No. 30 of that body. The charter members of Assembly No. 30 were Bell, Boehm, Cooledge, DeVaughn, Feldman, Friedman, Graydon, Heck, Hefner, Hopkins, Hulse, Morgan, Smith, Terry, and Wolcott. Click on a page below to view a larger image of sample pages from the 1949 Souvenir Program.
|
