From the July 6th, 1957 article "The magic world of Johnny Giordmaine
He began by hawking iron sandwiches and trick telescopes. Now he’s king of Canadian magicians, who can bamboozle with belly laughs at the drop of his rabbit-filled hat" by McKenzie Porter:
Ever since those days Giordmaine has blended his mystery wfith hilarity and billed himself as the Gay Magician or the Little Lcgerdemaniac.
The allusion to his stature is apt. for he resembles closely the average person's conception of a pixie or hobgoblin. Now fifty-eight, he is a fraction under five feet tall, weighs about a hundred and ten pounds and exudes a mingled aura of mischief and clairvoyance. He has grizzled grey hair that was once blue-black, a dark olive complexion wreathed with rubbery, ever-changing expressions, and big, brow'n mesmeric eyes full of mirth and monkcyshinc. He casts a spell over everybody he meets by twisting his body into an endless routine of theatrical poses, by a perpetual stream of double talk in a funny foreign accent, and by the practical jokes and conjuring tricks he pulls off in restaurants, stores, elevators or on the street.
Giordmaine is the prodigy of Doctor Harlan Tarbell. of Chicago, who advertises himself as an expert in "Mysteries of the Mind, Mentalism. Magic of the East, and Eyeless Vision,” and who. in spite of the bunkum, is still recognized as one of the world’s foremost teachers of professional sorcerers. It took Giordmaine two years to absorb Tarbell’s mail-order course of six volumes of lessons and five thousand illustrations. By the time he received his graduation certificate from the Tarbell Academy, in 1930, he could make a horse disappear inside a Union Jack, summon the ghost of John A. Macdonald. shuttle a mummy between two coffins, and create many other illusions whose principles have been known to tricksters since the days of the Pharaohs. His early specialty, always a wow at smokers, was the production from thin air of a six-foot blonde in spangles.
Tarbell, who has never forgotten Giordmaine, said recently, "He was the best pupil 1 ever had. He reminded me of a prankish little brownie.”
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