The Magical Adventures of Robert F. Brown
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The Magical Adventures Of Robert F. Brown “The Magic of Make Believe” By Dale Lorzo Robert Forester Brown “The Magic of Make Believe” By Dale Lorzo Bob Brown is celebrating that he is about to become a nonagenarian and leaving the octoge- narian years behind. Another first for Mr. Brown! Bob has become a Master Salesman and Master Magician while traveling the road to his ninetieth birthday. Now, Bob Brown would be the first to say, that he may not be the very best magician in the world. Now don’t get it wrong, Bob’s “Magic of Make Believe” is a very smooth, high quality, polished and entertain- ing act. However, he is one of the very best at what he does, and that is promoting and mar- keting his magical talents! This fact alone, has allowed him to travel and see the world while staying in the finest hotels! One would not be able to attain this high stature in the enter- tainment business if one was not a quality performer. It all began, when Robert Forester Brown was born on Friday, July 22, 1921, in Sacramento, California to James A. and Grace E. Brown. Mr. Brown was a $200 per month accountant, for the State of California. Times were tough for him trying to raise a family of eight, in the years leading up to the Great Depression. Bob was the second born with an older brother, James. Next came his fraternal twin sisters, Margaret and Marion, born on April Fools Day. What a surprise for their parents! Then along came Theodore and his youngest brother, Richard. The family lived on 23rd street, between O and P streets in midtown Sacramento. When Bob was a child, the Brown family would move to four different locations on 23rd street. It wasn’t until Bob got married that he had an address that did not have 23rd street in it. In time he would move to the more prestigious Land Park Area of Sacramento. Like so many other kids, the magical adventure for Bob Brown all started with a Gilbert Mysto Magic Set #1 which he received for Christmas at age 11. Sets #2 and #3 arrived under the tree for the next two Christmas’. He was now beginning to feel like a “real magician”, since he knew so many magic tricks. Bob continued his interest in magic by reading through Hoff- man’s Modern Magic. Magic would be a big part of Bob’s life for ever after. An entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to hard work struck Bob at an early age. Like so many boys in their pre-teen years, he wanted to find a way to earn some money. Their opportuni- ties were to either open a sidewalk shoeshine stand or deliver newspapers. He took the latter choice and became a paperboy for The Sacramento Bee, delivering papers on his bicycle. Dur- ing this time, he discovered F&R Weideman Novelties at downtown, near 7th and K Streets selling novelties, gifts and also a little magic. The Sacramento Bee newspaper sponsored a big Christmas Show at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium for several years. When Bob was about 14 years old, he went to one of those shows. There was a magician on the bill, Arthur Bull form Oakland, California. Bob went up to Mr. Bull after the show and told him he was a magician, too, and that he really liked the torn newspaper trick that he did in the show. Now, Bob figured, since it was just a newspaper, it would not be an expensive trick to learn. He asked the magician if he would teach him the trick. Arthur asked him if he knew about magic catalogues? Bob’s answer was, no! The magi- cian suggested that Bob write to a Thayer’s Magic Studio, in Los Angeles and ask for a cata- logue. Bob did. Every day when he came home, he asked his mom if the package had arrived. This went on for many days. When it finally arrived, and Bob opened the catalogue, he was in heaven! Here was a boy’s lifetime of dreams. Oh, so many magic tricks to buy! He spent many 1 hours perusing all the tricks and there was the Torn and Restored Newspaper, so he bought it. Bob was now on his way to being a great magician! All of Bob’s youth was not just devoted to just the classroom, and then running home to play with his magic. While attending Sutter Junior High School, he also took up music and played the alto clarinet. Upon articulating to Sacramento High School, he wanted a bigger sound. Bob was now part of the school’s Military Marching Band, playing the bass drum. His penchant for performing before people, would guide him the rest of his life, although the emphasis would turn toward legerdemain. In 1939, the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) held their annual convention in San Francisco, to coincide with the World’s Fair on Treasure Island. The teenage Bob Brown headed west to San Francisco, to join in these magic festivities. He remembers staying at the Y.M.C.A. for only $3 per night. During this event, he saw many magicians perform, including Art Gross who was only nineteen and producing wonder fans of cards out of thin air. After the World’s Fair closed, Art became an assistant to Arthur Bull and his “Francisco’s Midnight Spook Frolic.” Art would later move to Sacramento and become a very good friend of Bob. This teenage Sacramentan also made friends with Lloyd E. Jones, a pharmacist and semi- professional magician who was active in the Oakland Magic Circle (OMC). Lloyd was also a dealer in magic tricks and books. In time, he would have the largest magic library, in the United States. Bob could now be found frequenting many of the OMC meetings and events, as there was not much magic happening in Sacramento at the time. Sometimes he did not return back home about 2 or 3 AM, after spending an evening sharing magic with friends. He remembers that on one of his visits, where an attorney who also did magic, invited Bob over to his house to view his collection of tricks. The attorney would sometimes go out and do magic shows for a couple of his clients in the afternoons. Bob was impressed at the attor- ney’s ability to make a good living and also getting paid to go out and do magic. Bob thought, “What A Life!” He never dreamed that he himself would one day do the same thing. During this time, he was also able to visit one of the outstanding magic dealers at the time, Golden Gate Magic Company in San Francisco run by a gentleman named Tom Dethlefsen. A different type of magic took place, when Bob was introduced to the girl his friend was da- ting, she worked at the Martha Washington Ice Cream Parlor. The young lady behind the counter at the ice cream parlor on J Street, between 31 and 32 streets, was Norma Jane Ma- han. She dished up the most delicious ice cream, while working there during her senior year of high school. Bob was attending Sacramento City College at the time, studying aeronautical engineering. When it came time for the Sadie Hawkins Day dance, instead of asking her boy- friend, Norma asked Bob to the dance. This was the downfall of the romance with her boy- friend, and the rest is history for our budding magician. In December of 1942, when Bob was 21 years old, Norma Jane Mahan became Mrs. Robert Forester Brown and they would raise four wonderful boys who would all go on to have suc- cessful careers in their own right: Robert, Junior (born in 1943), became a doctor, Steve (1949) a real estate investor, David (1952) a certified public account at Lake Tahoe, California and Garrett (1956) a hydrologist engineer in Boise, Idaho. Robert’s son, Russell, one of Bob and Norma’s eight grand and great-grandchildren, would become a magician like his grand- father, doing table magic while working at restaurants in Hollywood, California. Right after graduating from City College, Bob went down to Los Angeles to work in the air- craft business. Saturdays would once again find Bob talking shop with other magicians, this 2 time at Thayer’s Magic Studio. Here he met Marvyn Roy and they became life long friends through magic. The United Sates was now in the middle of World War II, so shortly after being married, Bob said goodbye to Norma and enlisted in the United States Air Corps. He figured he was just about to be drafted, so he enlisted in the Air Corps to further his engineering ed- ucation. The Air Corps became the aviation arm of the United States Army Air Forces, just before World War II broke out. After the war, it became the United States Air Force. Bob was about to become one of 2.4 million airmen in charge of almost 80,000 aircraft. Bob received his basic and technical training in Florida. After which, he was transferred to Chanute Field near Chica- go, Illinois. While stationed there, Bob made good use of his spare time by taking the oppor- tunity to visit Ireland’s Magic Shop in Chicago, run by Laurie and Francis Ireland. After Lau- rie’s death in April of 1954, Francis married Jay Marshall three months later and would even- tually rename the store, Magic Inc.