From the curator of the Johnny Giordmaine tribute site:
I am very excited to bring you news about the latest addition to JohnGiordmaine.com, the online tribute to Canada's most beloved children's magician (Johnny Giordmaine, 1898-1974).
Brian Lumley, who used to work for Doug Henning, provides the first ever-in-print anecdotal evidence of Johnny's influential mentorship with Doug.
Since I reposted Doug's 1989 "retirement from magic" letter last December (first published in Genii) in which he thanked "the late John Giordmaine" ahead of Dai Vernon, Slydini, Jay Marshall and others, I have tried to find a reason why Doug thanked Johnny first and foremost. Theirs must have been a very special kind of mentorship and friendship but nowhere in any of the magical history literature has there ever appeared any documented evidence for it.
Until now.
Brian Lumley recalls a very special "Spellbound" backstage tour in late December 1973 which Doug gave Johnny mere hours before Johnny's heart attack which would ultimately prove fatal. With this breakthrough recollection we at long last have the very first eyewitness account in print of what it meant to Doug to have Johnny as a friend and mentor.
Only now can we really begin to appreciate the reasons why Doug Henning thanked "the late John Giordmaine" first in his "letter of retirement".
This story appears nowhere else to date to the best of my knowledge. It will hopefully open the door to future further research into Johnny's pivotal influence on arguably Canada's most internationally famous magician of the 20th century.
You can read all about it, exclusively, here:
www.johngiordmaine.com
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