
#Houdini magic shop yelp movie#
This shop also carried movie quality masks, plaster skulls, tombstones and other macabre merch. Cast Members were also known for their fun banter as they performed tricks and demonstrated the products for sale. Here East Coast guests could find cards, hand tricks, masks, puzzles and gags.

However, the Main Street Magic Shop still turns a healthy trade to this day and will occasionally offer magic classes, demonstrations and more!īecause of the popularity of the West Coast shops when Walt Disney World opened up the House of Magic could be found holding pride of place on Main Street USA. It specialized in similar merchandise to Merlin’s including hand magic and illusion tricks.īoth magic shops remained at Disneyland until Merlin’s Magic Shop closed in January of 1983 and was turned into the Briar Rose Cottage. You can see a picture of the shop above from the 1960s. aptly named Main Street Magic Shop located right in the heart of it all on Main Street USA. In 1957 a second magic shop opened at the theme park. The Fantasyland shop was so popular that when the Disneyland Hotel finally opened two years later in 1956, Taylor & Hume opened a toy and trick shop called Taylor & Hume’s Magicland right on the property. Those that remember back to Merlin’s may remember that Steve Martin was one of the employees there and even developed his “arrow-through-the-head” gag based on merchandise in the store! Remembering back on his Disneyland days Martin recalls, “I knew every nook and cranny of the shop.”
#Houdini magic shop yelp license#
When Disneyland first opened back in July 17, 1955, Merlin’s Magic Shop was adjacent to Sleeping Beauty Castle and was under license to a firm called Taylor and Hume. The shop was located in a Tudor Cottage and the original inventory featuring items like rubber masks, practical jokes, comical teeth, false eyelashes etc!

Used here by Ford Motor Company.When it comes to whimsical and wonderful hidden treasures at Disneyland, one of our favorites has to be the Main Street Magic Shop! As a matter of fact, Disney has a history of infusing a bit of extra magic into there theme parks! That’s why we here at MickeyBlog thought we’d share with you a bit more about the hidden treasures you’ll find at these stores! The same puzzle became a popular advertising specialty. "By this, our clients will surely remember our salesmen!" The Buttonhole Puzzle became one of Loyd's most successful puzzles, and it created the phrase "to buttonhole" someone. After his time was up, Loyd accepted his dollar with the words: "In return for a $10,000 life insurance policy from NYLI, I'll take the thing right off of you!" Now McCall was impressed. If not, you owe me one." McCall pulled and pushed and, in short, spent 30 minutes of his valuable time trying in vain to remove the stick. If within half an hour, you've got the stick out without cutting the cord, I'll give you one dollar. Loyd took McCall by his lapels, stuck the cord through the buttonhole, and the stick in turn through the loop. "What's the purpose of it?" he asked Loyd. The stick looked like a policeman's billy club and was slightly longer than the loop.

Loyd returned to McCall the next day with a small stick attached to a loop of green cord. He was commissioned to design an advertising puzzle that salespeople could use to make their clients remember their message. Puzzle inventor Sam Loyd originally created this puzzle for the New York Life Insurance Company. This pencil was invented by the puzzle inventor Sam Loyd and is known as the Magic Holetite Pencil or The Buttonhole Puzzle. "The Magic World Of Ford" pencil was one of the promotional items. This corporate roadshow showed off vehicles made by Ford and Ford-owned brands like Lincoln Continental, Mercury, Comet, Falcon, and Thunderbird.Ī brochure was given-out with write-ups on all the Ford cars, and magic tricks children could learn. Six units traveled the country for four years and began a twenty-two-year association with the Ford Motor Company. This was the beginning of "The Magic World of Ford," a three-million-dollar road show. When he failed to produce the correct card, Fox instructed Ford to look out of his office window, where Fox had hired a skywriter to write "ten of clubs" in the sky, which was the correct card. He had Ford choose a playing card from a deck, and Fox attempted to find the selected card. During the interview, Fox offered to show Ford a card trick. In the early 1960s, Fox met with William Clay Ford to pitch the possibilities of a magic presentation to promote the latest models of Ford automobiles. In 1944 he was one of the first magicians to perform at a trade show.įox realized early on that performing for corporate audiences is more profitable than nightclubs and private events.

Karrell Fox was one of the magician pioneers performing magic at industrial and corporate events.
