Max Malini Grave

Max Malini was born Max Katz on August 14, 1873 in Ostrov, which was near the border of Poland and Austria. According to information in the new article about Malini in Genii Magazine, Max got inspired to become a magician after watching a performance of Alexander Herrmann.

He began his professional career in Washington D.C. and eventually became a performer for royalty and high society. He chose a performing style different than most of his contemporaries. Where Houdini and Thurston and Kellar traveled with huge amounts of apparatus and props, Malini developed an act mostly on sleight of hand routines. But he learned that it was his personality that was the real selling point. His ability to garner publicity was similar to that of Houdini's. He did do rely upon exciting dangerous escapes however, rather his small close-up effects bordered on the miraculous and he made sure to present them before influential people.

Max died in Hawaii on October 3rd, 1942. He is buried in the Waldheim Jewish Cemetery 1400 Des Plaines Ave, Forest Park, IL 60130, Gate 47, Lot 137, Section D, Row 11, Grave 6. He is buried next to his first wife Lizzie Katz, though his grave is unmarked.

IN the October 2012 issue of Genii Magazine there is a fantastic article by David Ben about Max Malini, I encourage you to pick it up as it contains a wealth of new information on Malini.

IF you have a photo of the grave you'd be willing to share, please email me at carnegiemagic@aol.com

Harry Houdini - Grave

 This is by far the ultimate in magic graves. It's beyond grand and probably out of place in a Jewish Cemetery. But it's all Houdini. In 1916, Harry Houdini decided have a massive marble monument built for the family plot he purchased at the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, NY. He had his father and mother and older brother Herman moved to the family plot.

The entire Houdini family is here, with one exception, Bess, his wife. She is listed as being buried here but she is not. Because Bess was Catholic, she is in a different cemetery. There are two graves that have no tombstone, apparently the stones need to be repaired and have remained unrepaired for a long time. Those graves are of Leopold and Gladys.

Recently, the Houdini Museum in Scranton PA took it upon themselves to have the bust recreated and restored to the gravesite. The original has been destroyed by vandals and then a duplicate was later stolen. Suffice to say the Houdini grave has not been treated kindly over the years.

It should be noted that Houdini started the tradition of the 'Broken Wand' Ceremony. This is a ceremony conducted after the passing of a fellow magician. A magic wand is broken to signify that their earthly magic has passed on. As far as I know, the Broken Wand Ceremony is carried out every Halloween at the Houdini Gravesite by the Parent Assembly #1.

David Devant's Grave

David Wighton, known professionally as David Devant was an English Conjurer during the early part of the 20th Century. He had already become a well known name in his country before he teamed up with John Nevil Maskelyne at St. Georges Hall.

He was born in Holloway London on Feb 22, 1868. Besides being a magician he was a pioneer filmmaker. He had one of the very first movie projectors in England and would show his movies along with his magic shows.

David Devant was the first president of the Magic Circle. He wrote several books that I know of 'My Life in Magic',  'Secrets of My Magic', 'Woes of a Wizard' and 'Our Magic'. There is another book I found by Devant called 'Tricks for Everyone' which was probably more of a pitchbook sold after his shows or in the theatre lobby. All of Devant's writings are available from MiracleFactory.net. S.H. Sharpe wrote a book about Devant called 'Devant's Delightful Delusions'. If you look into the works of Jim Steinmeyer you'll see that he is heavily influenced by Devant.

David Devant died at 6:30 p.m. on October 13th, 1941 after having suffered for years from a debilitating form of paralysis. He is buried at the Highgate Cemetery in North London.