Magic Castle in the Hollywood Hills
Located in the hills just away from the noise and bright lights of Mann’s Chinese Theater, the neighbourhood is right near the Hollywood Bowl and below Outpost Road, a common place for celebrities to live. Driving up the steep and curving drive gives a full view of the Magic Castle, which looks like a Disney-esque fairytale palace, though it also looks a little like the house in Psycho, and gives the feeling that this isn’t quite the place for Mickey and Minnie.
Down on Hollywood Boulevard is Hollywood Magic, which is apparently the last “real” magic shop in California. It sells the standard joke and trick items; masks, bangers, wigs, plastic dog shit and so on, but near the straitjackets at the back are the classic stage illusion gadgets that look like as fragile as an invention made in a garden shed, but are tried and tested since the beginning of magical times.
After some conversation, a silver-haired guy in his 50’s called Newell drew out a pack of cards and did trick after trick, then casually mentioned the Magic Castle. Every Angeleno knows about the Magic Castle: to get to the front door is a feat in itself, as it is a strictly Members-Only club, and members have to be magicians accepted to the Academy of Magical Arts or “have a desire to support the art of magic”. Even then you have to be “of good moral character and financially responsible” as a magician member, and as an associate you also have to be nominated by a member “in good standing” – which probably means that people who reveal the secrets of magic are not welcome.
The Academy is a non-profit organisation and attendance at meetings, lectures and events is expected – out of state residents are even asked not to apply for the Junior Group, which is for people 13-19 years old. It is also tough to get into: you cannot be a beginner, you have to audition, and naturally, men have to wear “a nice shirt”.
Either way, it is an expensive desire – current joining fees depend on the month you join, and currently for Magicians it is $252-$600, with California-based associate members hit the hardest: $598-$1,100. There is an annual renewal fee as well, so no wonder regular lectures, events, meetings and a huge private library are part of the deal.
Even with a members card, you’re not guaranteed immediate entry: reservations and dinner bookings are compulsory and essential, with sittings at 6.30, 8.00 and 9.15pm, so that you can make it to every one of the three theatres: the Palace of Mystery, the Parlour of Prestidigitation (try saying that after a vodka and tonic) and the tiny Close-Up Gallery for the evening performances, which are also scheduled for several times throughout the night.
It’s strictly over-21’s – except for Sunday Brunch – and the dress codes are rigorously enforced at all times, as the website and phoneline make quite clear: it’s business attire for men and evening wear for ladies. You simply have to look the part. Then the owner of Hollywood Magic, Jeff Thomas, walked up and handed over a card with his membership number on it – exclusivity and magic was within reach!
Going through the front doors feels like being transported back in time; the stained glass windows and murals make for an almost gothic atmosphere, and give the feeling of leaving of the city, and going somewhere special.
Built in 1908 by the Roland B. Lane Family, it became the Mecca for all things magical in 1963, when Bill and Milt Larsen and their magician friends decided to form an Academy, with this as their clubhouse. It still has the same musty smell that it must have had then, like a kind of Victorian time capsule.
After paying an entrance charge of $15, members and guests have to say “Open Sesame” to the owl with shining red eyes in the bookcase. After a moment’s nervousness about having just imitated Ali Baba, the bookcase slides apart like the doors in Star Trek, revealing a red-carpeted corridor and the sound of chatter in the distance.
Immediately you notice that the nostalgia for magic and magicians is almost reverential; on every wall are endless posters, playbills, props and memorabilia for what could be called the “golden age” of magic, a time of Houdini, rather than Seigfried & Roy, when tricks were marketed with lurid posters as “amazing feats unlike anything you will ever see” and were spectacles meant to truly amaze.
The Magic Castle is spilt into three large floors and a basement, and feels rather like a fairground haunted house; there are corridors and stairs that lead to small rooms and other sections of the building, but you’re not quite sure how you got there – even though they give you a map.
As you might imagine, Harry Houdini, the “handcuff King”, gets a lot of wall space, and he has a room named after him on the second floor. Handcuffs he used in his escapology feats are a major feature – including the only pair he couldn’t open – and you can hear the voice of the great man on a recording of an old wax cylinder, the precursor of vinyl records. In this room is the first of the many starkly lit, green-baized tables that are used for close-up magic – tricks of the “pick a card” and disappearing card variety – in front of a small crowd.
This table is also used for sÃ?©ances, after Houdini told his wife that he would try and contact her for ten years after his death. Sadly, despite many attempts, he never returned. People still try to cross into the spirit world to reach him on the anniversary of his death, and this room can be hired for your own attempt on a “Demons” night.
Spirits are a major feature of the Magic Castle; a lady called Irma was a family friend of the Lane’s and loved to tickle the ivories of their piano – so much so that mean old Mr Lane moved it into the tower. Desolate, Irma vowed that she would haunt the house, and when the piano was unearthed in the attic and returned to “Irma’s Room” on the second floor, she soon returned and now invisibly plays for visitors – anything from classical, to The Beatles, to even Britney Spears!
Spirits can also be found at any of the five bars: the Grand Salon, which is decorated with a beautiful selection of colorized slides of “coming attractions” from the old Los Angeles Hippodrome Vaudeville, the Palace of Mystery bar, which was originally a 17th Century London pub, the WC Fields, which has his trick pool table on display, or the Hat & Hare.
Finally, there is the Owl Bar, just up from the “Open Sesame” bookcase. It had just six stools, and the walls were covered with owls of every kind – stuffed, jewelry, novelty and ornament – as a celebration of the Academy logo, which looks like Hedwig from Harry Potter. The barman said that there is another ghost in the castle; apparently one of the performers dropped dead mid-show years ago, and is regularly seen in the theatre.
Despite this being an ideal opportunity, the staff do not dress up as Gandalf and Merlin; it is very much old style tea-shop and butler uniforms for everyone, and they seem to hover from room to room, so you never quite now how many staff are around – they just are.
After some spirit-hunting, the opulent Victorian dining room beckons visitors. Plush and olde worlde, it is in the shadow of a huge Tiffany chandelier, and has 160 year-old etched stained glass from the Imperial Restaurant in Scotland.
After dinner, guests walk down a corridor on the same floor to reach the Parlour of Prestidigitation. A tiny theatre with seats originally from the original Santa Monica Opera House, it had a small red-curtained stage and is lined with posters for magic shows past and present.
Tonight it featured an Australian lady “fresh out of Las Vegas” called Sophie Evans. Her sledgehammer wit and card tricks fell rather flat, and her finale – a levitating table – seemed rather lame, as she seemed to be clearly checking for the wires, levers or trap door that made the trick work.
On the other hand, the volunteers she picked did give a good idea of the kind of people that go to the Magic Castle. Smartly-dressed all, of course, but they were not quite the buttoned-down and reverential crowd implied. For one thing, drink had clearly been taken. This is a rare thing in California at the best of times, because normally if someone has more than two drinks and laughs too loudly, people start talking about AA.
There seemed to be a number of very giggly tourists from the far East, and possibly some from Germany, as the two magicians performing in the Palace of Mystery were from there too. There were also definitely members present, as there were too many flowing ponytails and innovative facial hairstyles to be just normal tourists.
The penultimate evening show at 10pm was almost full, and the lively crowd barracked host John Stetson (a witty, chubby-faced guy you could see working as MC at boxing matches in Las Vegas), but he kept his cool and displayed a couple of impressive feats of mind-reading.
He was very excited about the aforementioned German magicians Jorgos and Nils Bennett, who both seemed very young and had that white-faced mime “wow!” expression that quickly moves from being funny to quite sinister.
As for their costumes, hair and music, it certainly seemed to have an 80’s flavour to it; Jorgos seemed to favour the delights of a Toto/Tangerine Dream combo, then there was a medley of A-Ha tracks. His skills involved materialising a lot of cards and balls from thin air. Nils Bennett performed some spirited stage illusions, using flames and explosions to make a full-size cube that was big enough for him to stand inside.
From the look of the Magic Castle and the fun, historical ambience it creates, visitors might expect Houdini to emerge in a puff of smoke, saw a woman in half and then disappear into thin air, but it felt more like a very charming and elegant cabaret taking place on a ghost train ride – which might be how some people see magic these days.
With the likes of David Copperfield performing what are called “spectacles” and magicians performing at every casino, cruise ship and entertainment venue, the ideals that the 150 original members held dear must seem rather baffling to some of the 5000 members today, though walking through the corridors, it was clear that the Magic Castle is a magical family album.
