‘A magical city’: Winnipeg’s history of magic, escape artists and magicians

Len Vintus, along with magician Doug Henning, are pictured at a ceremony unveiling a plaque on the Union Bank Building, the first site of the offices of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1986. (Manitoba Historical Society/Transcona Historical Museum)

Winnipeg may not be the first city that comes to mind when people think of magic, but its influence on the history of the medium is wide-ranging.

The city boasts several well-known magicians who called the city home, was a popular spot for magicians to visit in the early 20th century and was even the birthplace of one of the largest organizations in the world, the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM).

“Winnipeg for one reason or another, has always been a magical city,” said Dean Gunnarson, a local escape artist, during a recent interview with CTV News.

Magical history

Winnipeg was one of the stops on the vaudeville circuit from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, particularly the Orpheum Circuit, the popular chain of theatres in the west. Acts would arrive by train, play shows in Winnipeg, and then hit the rails for their next tour.

“Winnipeg was the hotbed of vaudeville in in the 1900s,” Gunnarson said. “All the great acts came to Winnipeg. And there was an old saying that if you could make it in Winnipeg, you could make it everywhere, because the Winnipeg audience had seen so much that you know they knew good acts and bad acts, and so all the magicians came.”

Bruce Thompson, a magician and magic historian for Winnipeg, said the first big name magician to perform in Winnipeg was Adelaide Herrmann, the wife of fellow magician Alexander Hermann, and one of the first female magicians. The “Queen of Magic,” as she was known, performed with her nephew Leon at the Winnipeg Theatre in 1898.

“They were a big hit, a big success,” Thompson said. “She mentioned it in her memoirs when she made that first initial push as a new show. And Winnipeg got mentioned because I guess there was something about it she felt was an achievement.”

Other well-known magicians from the era that performed in Winnipeg include The Great Blackstone, Cunning the Jailbreaker, Lieutenant Albini and probably the most famous magician of his era, Harry Houdini.

Houdini was a performer on the Orpheum circuit in Winnipeg and, in 1923, staged a famous escape in downtown Winnipeg, removing himself from a straitjacket while being suspended upside down.

How Winnipeg influenced magic

Winnipeg was the home of two magicians who helped influence magic over the years.

Among them was Len Vintus (born Melvin McMullen) who lived in Transcona, and created the Winnipeg Wizards, the city’s first group of magicians. When magicians came to the city, he would often drive them around the city and introduce them to the Wizards.

He had bigger ambitions, however, and created the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1922 at the age of 19, with the office located in the former Union Bank Building near City Hall. He held membership number 1 until his death in 1999, and the IBM counted Siegfired & Roy along with David Copperfield as members.

Gunnarson called Vintus a friend and a mentor and said he had met every famous magician who had performed in North America until his death and would correspond with them via letter.

“Len used to have an old typewriter,” Gunnarson recalled. “Everything he did was correspondence, typewriting, mailing, and I used to tell him if he had a computer, he could have ruled the world; he was so organized and dedicated.”

Doug Henning was another name, with Thompson calling him the man who saved magic in the 1970s with his popular Broadway show.

“In the early 1970s, magic was in the doldrums,” Thompson said. “You might see them as an act on a variety show somewhere, but otherwise they were in the children’s entertainment ghetto, and they weren’t taken seriously anymore.”

Thompson said Henning never forgot where he came from. A program for his Broadway show in his possession, signed by Henning, notes in his biography that he was proud to be from Winnipeg.

“When he was off from touring and having relaxation, he’d be back in the Winnipeg area hanging out with family and friends, and everywhere he went, he would do little impromptu magic for people,” Thompson recalled. “We owe Doug a lot. Every magician who’s going somewhere right now on television or doing big touring shows, it’s all because of what Doug did.”

When Len Vintus met Houdini

One of the major stories in Winnipeg’s magic history involved Len Vintus getting a meeting with Harry Houdini when the latter was in town in 1923.

Vintus had written to the famous magician and escape artist, trying to get him to join the IBM. He received correspondence from Houdini, asking to meet him backstage at the Orpheum Theatre in Winnipeg.

According to both Gunnarson and Thompson, the meeting did not go well.

“When Len walked in, he had assumed that Harry was going to be willing to join the IBM, but Harry was kind of baffled by it, saying, ‘What is this thing?’ You know, waving the invitation at him,” Thompson said.

Houdini was the leader of the Society of American Magicians at the time, which was the larger of the two organizations.

“Len felt it was too Americanized,” Gunnarson recalled. “He wanted international, and Houdini said, ‘No, I’m sorry, we don’t need this organization. We have the biggest and the best, and I’m the president, so we don’t need some 19-year-old kid trying to start something that’s not going to succeed.’”

Depending on who you talked to, Thompson said, Len and Houdini either got into a serious disagreement where they had to be pulled apart, or they had words and departed calmly.

While Houdini did not join the IBM, Vintus was able to attract Harry Blackstone Sr., Houdini’s biggest rival at the time, to join the organization.

Houdini died three years later, on Oct. 31, 1926. Thompson believes Houdini would have eventually joined the IBM if he had lived longer, simply because the organization was growing and had a worldwide focus. Today, the IBM boasts roughly 15,000 members from around the world, larger than the Society of American Magicians boasts with around 5,000 members.

Making history reappear

Thompson is trying his best to make sure Winnipeg’s magic history doesn’t disappear.

For the past several years, he has been working to purchase several artifacts that have come up at auction, including posters for performances in Winnipeg and letters from famous magicians. Among his most recent purchases was a lettergram signed by Houdini from 1923.

“I think it’s fascinating to find this material that’s still out there,” he said.

Thompson says his eventual hope is to open up a space to display the items and showcase the history.

“All the magicians who come up now deserve to be able to see their own history,” he said.