doug henning wife

Henning liked the way it spun off a trick called The Zig Zag Girl, in which the performer divides an assistant into thirds. As we walk through his home, posters of great magicians past stand guard along the walls. "Dougy was supposed to speak that night and do some magic, and I was supposed to tell him when to go on stage." Steinmeyer went and saw a performance by George Goebel, a veteran magician with a grand-scale stage act. People like Jim come along once every two or three generations.. Its from the master thief. May-be. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Henning became intrigued by magic as a child when he saw a magician levitate a woman on televisions Ed Sullivan Show. His mother bought him a magic kit. Doug Debby met Doug Henning at a charity benefit at the Transcendental Magic is something that happens that appears to be impossible, he said in an interview with The Times. He was determined to learn enough from the veterans to put magic in a play. My brain fizzes with unsated curiosity. Its become like, lets talk about magic as a puzzle. He died in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, 2000, from liver cancer. He earned a Best Featured Actor (Musical) nomination for his work in the conceptual tuner, The Magic Show, in the 1974-75 season. Discover Doug Henning's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Into a notebook it went, and years later he excavated it for the play. The people are so pure. He married Debby Douillard in 1981. This story has been shared 141,467 times. Where was it taken you ask? The safe is locked before anyone looks inside, and after a beat, a burglar appears. Despite his enormous success in the US, Henning always considered Canada his home and was proud to tell people that he was Canadian, Nancy says. ", They were engaged within a week. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. He is a member of famous Writer with the age 53 years old group. I know it's weird to say, but somehow magic is immune from technology, he says. But what Steinmeyer intends to unpack for me is uncertain. He was a writer and actor, known for The Magic Show (1983), World of Magic (1977) and Doug Henning's World of Magic (1976). So as one of historys greatest conjurers of magic continues to explain and not explain the safe trick, I find myself wondering: If anyone can dig up the secrets behind many of Steinmeyers tricks, why is he so intent on hiding them? Magic, he says, is an opportunity to experience a deception without actually being threatened.. Steinmeyer allows that historically, the trick is that the woman pulls her knees up to her chest when the sawing happens. His wife is Debby Douillard (6 December1981 - 7 February2000)( his death), Barbara De Angelis (20 December1977 - 1981)( divorced). With his magic shows, he rejected the traditional tuxedo and top hat costume and prefered bright multi coloured casual clothing and tights. Of course, Im still hoping hell decide to lift the lid on his more guarded secrets, and Im alive to the fact that Im sitting in the room where much of his classified material is hiding in plain sight. | I mean its allas soon as people believe youre doing one thing, you can subvert it by doing something else., In Hiding the Elephant, his narrative history of magic, Steinmeyer points out what most of us already suspect or know: The secrets of magic are not true secretsthe answers are often right in front of us. When the safe is opened, the list matches up, item for item. Twenty-two years after his death he would have turned 75 this May Henning is still regarded as one of the greats by his peers, having blazed a trail for the likes of Siegfried & Roy, David Copperfield and Penn & Teller. Steinmeyer shows them to no one. ''It was like being a folk singer before Bob Dylan. Also learn how He earned most of Doug Henning networth? Magician Doug Henning a favorite of TV, Broadway and arena audiences died Monday in Los Angeles after battling liver cancer for the past five months. rights reserved. She was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and is the daughter of Lorelei (Frygier), a nurse, and Broadway. He is credited with reviving the magic show as a form of mass Doug Henning, the ebullient, shaggy-headed magician who sparked a renewed interest in the craft and breathed new life into some of history's most famous illusions, died on Monday in Los Angeles. The interview is notable for two reasons. My eyes flick across Steinmeyers studio, his array of artifacts and scale models. May 2, 2023, By Its important to me to create the largest wonder, Henning told The Times in 1984 before appearing at the Los Angeles Music Centers Ahmanson Theater. Doug Henning & His World of Magic (Dec 11, 1984 - Jan 27, 1985) Performer: Debby Henning [Assistant] The escape literally made him the worlds most famous magician (overnight). Steinmeyer has given the world more to tease apart than almost anyone on the planet. I nod. Doug Hennings income source is mostly from being a successful Writer. There are careful sketches of rotating, hinging mechanisms, drawings of altered cabinets and wardrobes enveloping phantom figures and annotated with measurements and enigmatic notations. At one point derided as crazy and a has-been, Henning insisted to one Canadian political reporter in 1994: Im a visionary., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Hollywood writers strike over streaming pay after talks fail, Models and climate activists hit the streets to protest the star-studded 2023 Met Gala, Gordon Lightfoot, mournful Canadian singer-songwriter, dies at 84, Tim Bachman, founding guitarist of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, dies at 71. Henning was approached by Broadway producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh about bringing a version of the show to New York. A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Mr. Henning made his American debut in ''The Magic Show,'' a rock musical that opened on Broadway in May 1974 and subsequently ran for more than four years. Discover today's celebrity birthdays and explore famous people who share your birthday. Education Rene Clement wrote: I remeber years ago they did a dueling magicians parody supposedly Henning vs. Copperfield. Its hard for people to comprehend this today, but he was like a rock star.. Doug Henning (Douglas James Henning) was born on 3 May, 1947 in Fort Garry, Manitoba, Canada, is a Writer, Actor, Soundtrack. Survivors include his wife, Debbie. During the early days, he practised at home for hours, says his sister, Nancy Henning. The feet are fake, he explains. | You can find books that lay out the mechanics of most illusions in sonorous detail, down to diagrams with measurements. Something bigger is happening, Steinmeyer says. He reveled in the intricacies of itthe different historical accounts, Charles Morritts possible motives, all the potential explanations. When Steinmeyer was 13, his father died, leading to what he describes as a hell of a year. As the family wrestled with grief, his mother encouraged him to attend a magic convention in Michigan with his friends, to plug into something that might distract or excite him. Doug is unique in that he didnt copy anyone before or after him, he says. In honor of that special day, I thought it would be appropriate to post the above photo of Doug and Debbie in May, 1986. NEW YORK -- Doug Henning, the mustachioed hippie magician who helped repopularize the craft in the 1970s with TV specials and Broadway shows, has died at 52. He felt he had achieved his goals in performing and he wanted to move along to other challenges, says Nancy. Here is all you want to know, and more! He begins a mesmerizing filibuster about the illusions evolution, citing his friend and mentor Alan Wakeling, who in the 1970s came up with an incredibly elegant design for the trick in which two audience members shackle the hands and feet of the woman, and instead of sawing the box in two, the magician stabs four blades through the sides. Steinmeyer sees Im not going to let the sawing-in-half trick go, and maybe against his better judgment, he relents. WebAfter Falling Under the Spell of Wife Debby, Doug Henning Hopes to Charm Broadway Again (Part.2) My friends said there was practically a flash of light, says Henning, 35. He is engaged, insightful, and animated, and he speaks about his life and biography with depth, but he deflects other questions that remind me of the conversational rope-a-dope magicians use, suggesting one thingSee these rings? Education It was a trick Houdini needed 20 seconds to perform; Mr. Henning did it in less than 10. Doug Henning hippie magician television tv Published by travsd Writer and performer Trav S.D. He never has, its possible he never will, and this doesnt bother him in the least. What happens, he says, is that an idea branchesyou start working on something and you go, Oh, it would really be good if it was like this. And you pursue that for a little while and you go, Yeah, thats not right. And then you go back and you pursue this for a little while, and this starts working. Newspapers Limited, 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8. He also created special effects for tours by his friend, Michael Jackson. It earned monster ratings, and NBC made the Emmy-winning special an annual event. Thats the point of my visitIm here to understand what Steinmeyer does and how he does it. He is survived by his wife of nearly 20 years, Debby. Two pages depict a giant industrial fanclearly an illusion in which the performer passes unharmed through the spinning bladesbut many of the others are impenetrable. There is a century-old magic trick that Jim Steinmeyer finds particularly fascinating. I asked one of his crew after the show if I might meet Doug and get his autograph. As one of the first illusionists to incorporate elaborate sets, Henning changed the way magic was presented. Inspired by Federico Garca Lorcas The House of Bernarda Alba, the play takes on gentrification and social strife in New York. So I press: But theres no room for her to., He smiles and shrugs as if to say, What more do you expect? Two other Steinmeyer illusions soon made a Henning TV special, and Henning eventually offered him a job helping launch Merlin on Broadway. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? "So I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around and we looked at each other. Its also, The date was October 9th, 1985. WebDoug Henning was born on 3 May 1947 in Fort Garry, Manitoba, Canada. It was indeed Rich Hall playing Doug Henning, as he had in a few SNL sketches during that time, but the sketch you speak of was actually titled "Dueling Magis" Soldering 101: How To Bond Wires, Cables, and More, How the Microwave Was Invented by Accident, How Noise-Cancelling Earbuds Actually Work. His wife is Debby Douillard (6 December 1981 - 7 February 2000) ( his death), Barbara De Angelis (20 December 1977 - 1981) ( divorced) Doug My last day hanging around with him, I ask Steinmeyer straight up: How does the sawing-in-half trick work? He added stage sets and dancers and speeded up the illusions. He abandoned his illusion magic for what he saw as real magic--the transcendental meditation and levitation ability of his friend and guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom he began to study in the early 1970s. Steinmeyer uses the mind-reading trick as a launchpad into a disquisition on how magic tricks evolve, which is fascinating, but it temporarily walls me off from a question Im eager to ask about the trick, or, really, any trick: How does it work? ''He was a kind of Peter Pan,'' Mr. Willmarth told The Associated Press, ''who led magic away from the tuxedo approach.''. He wears a khaki vest over a tie and pinstriped Oxford, a look that combined with his affable demeanor conjures him as a boy haunting Chicago-area magic shops in the 1950s, hobnobbing with performers, probing for tips. Its a time capsule, everything analog, and the audience arrives with a roiling, tipsy energy. Though the assistants silhouette appears at first to be human, it turns out to be Ramons dog. Rebecca Taylor Henning / AP. | Steinmeyer keeps his secrets out of reach as hours of conversation unfold. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. | Join Facebook to connect with Doug Henning and others you may know. Well, thosehe points to a stack of notebooksare all that. Winnipeg-born Henning fell in love with magic as a child. Encouraged students of magic to make their own props and equipment, and not rely on ready-made magic kits. Taking its name from basketball star LeBron James, the work comes to New York after runs at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Center Theatre Group. These positions had their rewards, he says, but he struggled with the compromises that come with corporate productions. At the height of his popularity in 1987, Henning dropped out. Magic is not about knowing how weve been deceived. ", Debby agreed, "It was like I blossomed right on the spot. "I will not have that in our house," she said. Huh. Steinmeyer and I eventually wile away almost an hour analyzing the early-1900s illusion with the thief and the safe. Henning spent his final years working with the Maharishi to build a meditation theme park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. In the Magic Castles showcase room, the Palace of Mystery, Greg Otto performs a comedy-laden routine (When a heckler pipes up, Otto looks toward the crowd and replies, I thought I told you to stay in the truck.) before Kyle and Mistie Knight deliver a classic big-stage performance heavy on audience participation. In the Close-Up Gallery, Tom Craven peppers his card, rope, and metal-ring tricks with a stream of old-world patter. Magic plus theater equals art, the 20-year-old psychology major argued, convincing the government in his native Canada to give him a $4,000 study grant with the goal of reviving magic as a theatrical art. He was previously married to Debby Douillard and Barbara De Angelis. CREDITS. ''When I was in college, being a magician was not the classiest thing to be,'' he said. Logan Culwell-Block Margaret Hall Given the nature of his business, he said, he had to be proprietary about sharing the way magic is accomplished. Once magicians manipulate audience members toward certain expectations, those expectations can be subverted, and the audience can be dazzled, and fooled. But after some back and forth, he had agreed to let me inside his world under an ill-defined agreement to stick to the basic principles of building magic tricks. If you know of a past magician not listed in MagicPedia, start a New Biography for them or Email us your suggestion. The illusion has been around for more than a century, and Steinmeyer has mentioned its timelessness and layers of innovation. Debby Henning was the wife, assistant, business partner and muse to illusionist Doug Henning. Theres no substitute for that, Steinmeyer says. Doug Henning, the ebullient, shaggy-headed magician who sparked a renewed interest in the craft and breathed new life into some of history's most famous Steinmeyer demonstrates a version of the sawing-in-half illusion. Henning sees no one at any. It just swept over me. United Archives via Getty Images / Getty Images Doug Henning is often credited with resurrecting magic as a theatrical art in the 1970s. You know, in terms of explaining how things work, he told me, I cant get into too much of that.. He was a writer and actor, known for. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! If I produce a 450-pound Bengal tiger, its going to create a lot more wonder than if I produce a rabbit.. He posed for photographs, signed autographs and then disappeared once again. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. A decade later, Henning was awarded a star on Canadas Walk of Fame a touching epilogue from a country that gave him so much, says McNally. At the time of my visit, Steinmeyer served as president (though his tenure has since ended), and we arrive about an hour before opening. At 53 years old, Doug Henning height '', After his success with ''The Magic Show'' and on television, Mr. Henning returned to Broadway twice, in the 1983 musical ''Merlin,'' and in a 1984 solo show, ''Doug Henning and His World of Magic.''. (His senior thesis was on hypnosis. In the more traditional world of magic, he brought a painted portrait to life and back again (The Artists Dream, performed by husband-and-wife team the Pendragons, among others) and designed a whole series of illusions in which the performer walks through a mirror, a wall, and a number of other impenetrable objects.

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