DOUG HENNING

Henning is a Canadian from Winnipeg who at an early age was awarded a government grant to study magic. Hopping on his motorcycle and heading south, he studied with two master conjurors: Dai Vernon, another Canadian­become-American renowned especially for card magic, and Tony Slydini, a sleight-of hand master. The report Doug made of his study was interesting but na’ive, since he chose to believe some authorities rather uncritically.

Doug abandoned the top-hat-and-tails costume so long favored by magicians, and chose to perform in a T shirt and blue jeans, embellished with “flower child” emblems and adornments. He created a show called Spellbound, which played for a record-breaking run at the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto. Seen by American promoters, the show was adapted for Broadway as The Magic Show in 1974 and had a long four-and-a-half year run there. Henning was the first magician to run a series of yearly magic specials on television, receiving an Emmy Award and seven nominations for these shows. An ambitious later Broadway show called Merlin, was spectac­ular indeed, and highly entertaining, but was so expensive to operate that it closed in a few months.

Henning has been featured in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, has designed magical effects for leading musical groups, and has been fea­tured in major television commercials. His series of annual U.S. televi­sion specials was remarkable for being broadcast “live,” an element that was calculated to eliminate the possibility of editing tricks being per­formed. It was a daring innovation. Doug is one of the best-known Modern Wizards magicians in the business, in spite of not having been seen in recent years.

It is generally agreed that Doug’s revival of magic on Broadway marked the beginning of a new era for the art, rekindling a public awareness of con­juring. His clean, young image did much to interest agents in the commer­cial applications of magic to their advertising and public-image needs.

Performing magic lost a bright star when Doug fell in with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Transcendental Meditation movement. Dedicated to that cause, he gave up his profession, sold all his props, and moved to India to pursue Infinite Bliss. He is missed.

Doug Henning, who helped revive the popularity of magic as mass entertainment with a series of Broadway shows, television specials and a traveling act, has died. He was 52. Henning had suffered from liver cancer for five months. Febrary, 10th 2000

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