Piece of Winnipeg’s magic history disappears

A piece of Winnipeg’s magic history has vanished, and internationally renowned escape artist Dean Gunnarson is offering a $500 reward to anyone who can make it reappear.

The plaque marked the birthplace of what has become the world’s largest organization of professional and amateur magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which was founded in Winnipeg more than a century ago.

Gunnarson said fellow magician and local magic historian Bruce Thompson discovered the disappearance Tuesday while on his way to work.

“It breaks my heart that somebody would steal this to either throw it in a dumpster or for scrap metal.”

Thompson returned to inspect the site and found what appeared to be evidence it had been forcibly removed.

“It looked like it had been pried off,” Gunnarson said, adding a bolt remained in the wall and nearby flower beds had been disturbed.

Thompson contacted people associated with the building to determine whether the plaque had been removed intentionally, but no one could account for its disappearance.

“It breaks my heart that somebody would steal this to either throw it in a dumpster or for scrap metal,” said Gunnarson, who added that a police report had not been filed yet.

Thompson is attempting to determine whether surveillance footage might show what happened.

The plaque was unveiled June 6, 1986, in a ceremony attended by then-mayor Bill Norrie, renowned Winnipeg magician Doug Henning and Len Vintus, who founded the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1922.

The organization went on to have more than 10,000 members in 88 countries as of 2022.

The ceremony was recreated in June 2022, when local magicians celebrated the organization’s centennial by setting fire to a veil covering the historic marker at the Union Bank Building at 500 Main St., which is now home to Red River College Polytechnic’s culinary and hospitality programs.

Vintus, whose real name was Melvin McMullen, was a 19-year-old Transcona resident when he rented an office on the seventh floor of the Union Bank Building and began building an international network of magicians.

Working with two American magicians, Jim Gordon and Don Rogers, he established an organization that would eventually attract some of the biggest names in magic, including David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, and Lance Burton.

By the late 1920s, the organization moved its headquarters to the United States. Today, its local chapters are known as “rings.”

Gunnarson said the plaque’s disappearance represents a loss not only for Winnipeg but for magicians around the world.

“It’s not just important to magic history or Canadian history,” he said. “All the great magicians since 1922 … have been a part of this organization.”

For Gunnarson, the loss is also deeply personal.

Vintus, who died in 1999 at age 96, was a close friend and mentor who entrusted Gunnarson with preserving his legacy.

Before his death, Vintus passed along a collection of magic magazines, correspondence and other memorabilia documenting his decades of involvement in the organization.

Gunnarson has spent time sorting through the collection, which includes letters and other materials connecting Vintus to some of the most famous magicians of the 20th century.

Among his discoveries was a Christmas card sent to Vintus by legendary escape artist Harry Houdini in 1923.

Houdini famously escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside down from the former Winnipeg Free Press building at 300 Carlton St., during a visit that year.

Vintus later attempted to recruit Houdini to the fledgling brotherhood, but the legendary escape artist, who was already president of the Society of American Magicians, declined.

Gunnarson, who recreated Houdini’s Winnipeg escape in 1982, described Vintus as the “George Washington of magic” for his role in establishing the international organization.

“He was such a go-getter,” Gunnarson said, recalling how Vintus built an international network through letters and a typewriter, long before computers and email.

Vintus was also a passionate advocate for Manitoba, Gunnarson said, noting his tombstone in Transcona bears the inscription “Mr. Manitoba.”

“He loved Manitoba and did everything he could to promote it over his lifetime,” Gunnarson said.

The disappearance comes during another significant anniversary for the magic community. This year marks a century since Houdini’s death on Halloween in 1926.

Gunnarson, who was born in Winnipeg and now lives near Riding Mountain National Park, has performed escape acts around the world. He was visiting Winnipeg for his mother’s 80th birthday when he learned the plaque was missing.

He hopes publicity surrounding its disappearance will encourage someone to come forward before the historic marker is destroyed.

Gunnarson said anyone with information can contact him through social media. His priority is recovering the plaque rather than seeing anyone punished.

“We don’t want anybody to have to get arrested or anything like that,” he said. “We just simply want the plaque to return to where it really should be.”

kelly.riess@winnipegfreepress.com