As a young boy (1958) I saw a magician named Kara Kum(e).
He had a one hour show and also did "spook shows"
at Southern movie houses. Do any of you folks remember
him or know anything about him?

At the end of his show he invited the audience
to write to him care of "Universal Studios".
I rushed home after the show and dashed off a letter to him.
Several weeks later I received a "note" from Universal stating that
they had no idea who the person was that I had written to.

Thanks in advance
dabru

Google Kara Kum magician and you will find a lot of reference material.

W0W...It is good to know that I am not
the only person who rembers him.

Thanks

This guy is some strange pup. Take a look here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTilgQMmMAw

Pretty much standard fare for a spook show of the 1950's and 1960's. He had a Will Rock guillotine, a Super-X, a Dagger Chest, and several costumed characters.

Kind of like Silkini in a turban.

He also "materalized" James Dean, picked a few pockets,
did some cigarette productions and caused pot after pot
of feather flowers to spring up from nowhere! As I recall
he opened his show by eating fire.

My home town, Fayetteville, N.C.,is adjacent to Fort Bragg
and during the midnight show he received a lot of heckling from the
drunk troops. I remember that he said,in broken english,
"Before I come back to dis dump Houdini will reincarnate and
walk the earth again!" Which was greeted by jeers from the audience.
During the black-out section of his "spook show", fights
broke out among members of the audience.

What I loved about his show was that it allowed me
to see many of the effects listed in my beloved
"Magicland" and "Ireland" catalogs, as well as a few Robert Nelson items.

On the way home from the theater that night, more fights broke out
on the bus I was riding. Military men just seemed to have more
"spirit" in those days.

Through the kindness of it's author, I have discovered that the
book "SpookMasters" has a chapter devoted to Mr. Kum.
That, along with the "Youtube" video, has sent me into a deep
state of longing.

Reminds me of the show I was in "Francisco's Midnight Spook Show" - what a blast and what a great learning curve!

A few more bits of info and the footnotes for where I found them.
A small photo of Kara Kum has been included as an attachment.

Kara Kum
Kara Kum's real name was Wladyslaw Michaluk. He became famous for his outlandish advertising campaigns which some believed overstepped the boundaries of good taste. He used graphic images and scantily-clad women in many of his ads. His shows sported titles such as Crawling Thing of Planet 13 and Cannibals of Curitiba. He combined traditional spiritualism effects such as spirit paintings with more ghastly offerings such as decapitions and sword penetrations. One very unique feature of his Crawling Thing show was the materialization of Lady Godiva.

http://home.insight.rr.com/magical/performers.htm
.......................................................

Ghostmasters
Mark Walker, Cool Hand Communications, Inc., 1991

The most comprehensive source on the phenomenon of the midnight ghost show. Walker's book is thoroughly researched and filled with great photos. Walker provides a brief history of the midnight ghost show, and then devotes several chapters to the most popular and prolific ghostmasters. The photos and anecdotes make this book a great read. Highly recommended!

http://home.insight.rr.com/magical/books.htm

...............................................

Info on "Francisco's Midnight Spook Show" can also be found at

http://home.insight.rr.com/magical/performers.htm

Maybe Mr.Biro can tell us more.


dabru

Click here to view attached image.

It has come to my attention that the pictures and
information appearing on the links that I listed above
are from the book SPOOKMASTERS by Mark Walker.

I have ordered this book, which is now out of print,
from a used book seller, and I am looking forward to reading it.

dabru