I really should have posted this Friday night but I got home too late. Friday was the 50th anniversary to the day of the debut of The Magic Land of Allakazam on the CBS Saturday morning schedule. October 1, 1960, the show hosted by master magician Mark Wilson premiered…and it would be tough to overstate its importance to the world of magic. There had been magic on TV before that but never in such large doses, never in such a prominent way. Before Allakazam, magic was a filler…a novelty spot included in some shows and not a lot of others. There were a lot of producers and network-type people who believed magic could not "work" on television; that home audiences would just assume the impossible thing they were witnessing was accomplished by camera trickery. Mark Wilson proved otherwise.
All this week, the Magic Castle up in Hollywood has been transformed into an Allakazam Museum. The place is full of pictures and props and costumes from the show. The programming is themed towards the show, as well. In the big showroom, Mark's son Greg is performing…with a little help from his Dad. And present also is Greg's mother, Mark's spouse and the most famous of all magician's assistants, the enchanting Nani Darnell. The assistants in Greg's act were even wearing some of Nani's old costumes from 50 years ago.
I wanted to get there this week but one thing after another seemed to be preventing me…until my friends Paul Dini and Misty Lee half-dragged me there. That they did it on the night that marked the 50th anniversary was a special bonus. I saw The Magic Land of Allakazam that first morning it debuted a half-century ago. To be sitting there, three feet from Mark Wilson (age 81) as he did a card trick was very, very special. (Though I may have spoiled something for Paul. They were showing a film clip of a joke involving magic from the show and I couldn't help but turn to him and whisper the punchline before they showed it. Well, why shouldn't I remember it? It's only been fifty years since I've seen it.)
That's all I wanted to say…just that I was there and I was very glad I was there. Thanks, Paul and Misty.