David Copperfield’s book reveals photos of Las Vegas Magic Museum – The Hollywood Reporter

One of Las Vegas’ undisclosed treasures is magician David Copperfield’s famous private magic museum, located in a warehouse off the Strip that has been occupied by the likes of Taylor Swift, Guillermo del Toro, Hugh Jackman and the producer visited for many years. Jason Blum.

Now, Copperfield has published a book documenting his numerous memorabilia, from Harry Houdini’s Underwater Torture Chamber and Richiardi Jr.’s spinning saw. until the rifle that killed the magician Chung Ling Soo after one failed attempt to catch his famous bullet. Marvel.

In David Copperfield’s History of Magic (Simon & Schuster, $35), he uses objects from his collection as accents to tell stories of the fascinating, sometimes demonic, and creative wizards who preceded him. and why they deserve attention.

Among other items, his collection includes a dress attributed to Adelaide Herrmann, the self-proclaimed Sorcerer Queen of the 1800s; Buatier de Kolta’s Expansion Die, an “extremely difficult feat … actually increased from eight inches to three and a half meters in the blink of an eye”; Howard Thurston “The Disembodied Princess”, a trick in which his assistant’s head and legs stay in place while her midsection disappears.

Copperfield spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his further plans for the museum, including its long-term preservation, why he never attempted a bullet-catching trick, and how his own magical secrets ended. like on the lunar surface.

What is the holy grail object that you would like to get for the museum?

The holy grail will be the conversation with those people. The subjects open the door but the story is the key point.

You made the Statue of Liberty disappear famously in 1983. In recent years, several people have tried to explain how you did it, including the audience standing on some sort of lazy Susan The giant rotates so slowly that no one notices. What do you say to it?

You know, it’s awesome. There are so many versions of how I do my job, and people are surprised when they go on the internet – ‘Wow someone’s leaking your secret.’ Guess what? You know who made that? I did the method videos in the wrong direction. People really believe those methods are real when really they are just a fantasy to fool people.

Have you ever wanted to do bullet catching tricks?

No, because you don’t want some kids copying you. I did a lot of dangerous things. I escaped a building that was about to explode, but it was a difficult thing for a child to do. I did an underwater run in a water tank and a show in a tight jacket and went over Niagara Falls. Hard to duplicate.

I am amazed that you have coins in the museum that President Lincoln held in his hand.

They passed him. It’s a classic magic. It’s not done much nowadays where you do penetration of traversing objects. In this case, it’s through someone’s hand. It passed to Lincoln. Lincoln loves magic and I love it.

Have you made any changes to the magic museum recently?

It turned out great. We have built a library, a research center. We just did a tour last night for a guy who worked at Tannen’s magic shop when he was 14 years old in 1954. I recreated the shop at the museum. Everyone started crying and was very emotional. It’s a lost world that really shapes the lives of so many people. So many cultures have been informed by the idea of ​​shared wonder.

Your entire museum begins with a collection of items you’re given, doesn’t it?

In the beginning, there was a guy named John Mulholland. He is a friend of Houdini but is a historian of magic and a performer. He also worked for the CIA on the use of magic techniques during the Cold War and even before. His collection was sold, given to the Players Club in New York, and settled there. People keep taking things out there secretly. In the end, another guy bought it. He got into legal trouble and it was put up for auction by the government. What happened was that I was brought in to buy it. It will be split. Someone said to me, ‘You can’t let that happen. Collection is a very important thing. ‘ I bought it, and I didn’t really watch the history of magic that much at the time. I am actually inventing new illusions. I went forward. I never looked back.

So what has changed in your perspective?

Looking back, I really should have looked back. After I bought the collection to rescue it, I learned about the stories of all these people. It’s all about the incredible stories of real people who changed history and changed the world using technology and using techniques that never existed before. First they exist as magical and social effects that benefit by using them in everyday life.

What kind of invention?

The first smart home to exist is thanks to the magic effect. Now every grocery store, the door opens by itself. That started as a magical effect. Movies, cinemas are magical effects. You will go and watch an oncoming train and it was the magician George Méliès who decided we would tell stories with this. He bought Robert Houdini’s theater and performed his magic and then adopted this new technology. If you have seen the movie Hugo, it tells the story very well.

One of the first illusions created by Houdini, is called Pure Ascension. Ether, the chemical that can put you to sleep, was a whole new thing in the 1840s and everyone was talking about it. Well, a chemical you can put on your nose and people fall asleep. Oh my God. An unbelievable thing. He incorporated it into the show by engaging his young son and inspiring audiences. He put that idea on board to bring up the current conversation. Twenty years ago I was in France and some French historians got my hands on the gimmick for That Pure Flight, the original by Houdini, and I started to cry. That was the beginning of everything I was into. Like Guillermo del Toro went to the museum a few years ago and he saw all things Méliès. He was very emotional and he said, ‘Well, that’s the beginning of everything. That’s why I do what I do. ‘ Because Méliès started an entire culture of using cinematic technology to tell stories.

Are there any further plans to expand the museum?

The next steps are all magic sets. I have the most amazing magic collection. We’ll be doing a collection of those and puppets, all owned by Edgar Bergen, Shari Lewis and Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger, and more. I have all of those.

How will you preserve the collection for a long time?

I’ve spent three decades putting these stories together and my goal is to support it, make sure there’s enough money to create a foundation that sustains it. And to make sure that people can go through there on the basis that will keep its secrecy. I can’t really get public tours of the museum. There are many secrets involved.

So you’re saying that there are secrets of other magicians that you don’t want to reveal that are in the museum?

Thousands and thousands of them. That is all. There are more books about magic they talk about than about everything but medicine. That’s how much literature there is. Shamans love to preserve their heritage and secrets through books and those things are kept very precious and maintained.

And all the secrets to your illusions also somewhere in the museum?

My stuff is really in a very special place. We put all my secrets etched into a nickel plate that will last forever. Nickel will last for billions of years. It’s all miniaturized and you need a microscope to see it. And we blew it up in space and it actually landed on the moon with a lander last year. And so my secret is actually on the moon. That bundle of knowledge could be found someday. It’s amazing to step out of the house and think, ‘Things that I’ve touched and worked with all my life, I’ve preserved in a non-biodegradable form on our moon, this is incredible.’

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A version of this story first appeared in the November 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.