World’s largest magic club celebrates 100th anniversary, Winnipeg roots

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This article was published 29/06/2022 (1256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TRANSCONA

No amount of smoke and mirrors was enough to make the brotherhood disappear.

In the past 100 years, the International Brotherhood of Magicians has grown from humble roots in the Union Bank Building at 500 Main St., now the home of Red River College Polytechnic’s culinary and hospitality programs, into the world’s largest organization of professional and amateur magicians. Its ranks include giants of the industry such as David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy, and the brotherhood boasts over 10,000 members across chapters, or “rings,” in 88 countries.

To celebrate the anniversary, local members held a ceremony at the original headquarters on June 6, recreating the unveiling of the 1986 historical building plaque by setting the veil ablaze.

Transconian Melvin McMullen, better known by the stage name Len Vintus, founded the organization in 1922 at the age of 19. He rented an office on the seventh floor of the building at Main Street and William Avenue and set to work.

“He was absolutely driven. Wore a suit and tie and vest every day of his life that I knew him, until he went to the hospital with a stroke,” said Dean Gunnarson, a Winnipeg escape artist who became friends with McMullen until his death in 1999.

“What amazes me is he did all this with a typewriter. He never had a cellphone, smartphone or computer. Everything was a typewriter. He corresponded with these different magicians, got people to join, and by 1927 it became so large that the Americans took it over and it moved to the States,” Gunnarson said.

In 1925, McMullen met with Harry Houdini, while the escape artist was in town to follow up on a 1923 feat, during which he escaped from a straitjacket while hanging upside down from the former Free Press building at 300 Carlton St. (Gunnarson successfully recreated the escape in 1982.)

McMullen tried to convince Houdini to join the brotherhood, but the meeting did not go well.

Houdini, who had a reputation for having a formidable ego and quick temper, was already the president of the Society of American Magicians. He became abusive toward McMullen, Gunnarson said, and told him there was no need for the Manitoban’s start-up organization.

“Boy, was Houdini ever wrong,” Gunnarson laughed.

Gunnarson said McMullen worked hard to promote the craft he loved for the marvels it added to the world.

“Everybody sees a magician as a kid, and at some point in your childhood you believe in that sense of wonder. That’s what it’s all about — to try to keep that alive,” Gunnarson said.

The Winnipeg ring has now morphed into the Magic Club of Winnipeg, run in part by brotherhood member Carey Lauder. He’s helped teach a host of young magicians, including Darcy Oake. He said for some kids, magic provides a crucial confidence boost.

“It’s like kid Toastmasters,” he said, citing parents who told him their children gained the self-assurance to speak up in class and other such things.

Lauder, who also works at the magic counter at Toad Hall Toys, said McMullen’s legacy is a point of pride for the Winnipeg magic community.

“When people come into the store and ask about magic, we point out the door and we go, ‘The seventh floor, the third window over, that’s where Len Vintus founded the International Brotherhood of Magicians,’” he said.

Throughout his life, McMullen also served as a Transcona school trustee and city councillor, provincial manager of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, and deputy minister of Manitoba’s Department of Industry and Commerce.

Gunnarson said his tombstone is carved in the shape of the province and inscribed with the title: “Mr. Manitoba.”