The Magic Cafe Forums - Aldini Remembered

I’ve searched the Café for a thread on Aldini, but haven’t found one … so here goes.

Back in the late 1960s I was a competitive swimmer and my typical schedule involved swimming two, two-hour workouts a day. The training regimen was pretty intense and my parents felt I could benefit from a “distraction” that could take my mind (and body) away from swimming every now and again. I’d always loved magic but had no formal training in it, much less any books or quality props. Basically I tinkered in magic up to that point, learning whatever I could from the few magic books we had in our local library.

One summer day my mom announced we were going for a drive, but she wouldn’t tell me where we were headed. It turns out our destination was a place called “Bentley’s Trading Post” in Santa Ana, which I think was more or less a pawn shop with a magic counter hidden inside. I’d never been to a “real” magic shop outside the two that Disneyland operated at the time, so I was like a kid in a candy store at Bentley’s! My first purchase was “Royal Road to Card Magic,” a Chop Cup and Aldini’s salt shaker. Mr. Bentley told me that Aldini was a local pro who visited his shop often and if I was really serious about magic I might want to see if Aldini would take me on as a student.

Long story short, over the next several years I became a regular at 11712 Fredrick Drive in Garden Grove.

Aldini (Alex Weiner) was an interesting guy and in regards to magic he forever changed my life. He was the person who first took me (as a kid) to the Magic Castle and it was Al who introduced me to Dai Vernon, Joe Berg, Charlie Miller, Al Goshman and a bunch of other magicians I didn’t yet know enough to recognize. It was Al who helped me build my first routine and it was Al who showed my dad how he built his suitcase table, so my dad could build me one just like it (which he did). It was Al who loaned me some of his own props so I could practice and learn them before going out and buying or building my own. He taught me about roughing fluid, milk pitchers, 20th Century Silks, his “Slate of Mind,” how to cut and restore rope, and much more.

But in all the time I spent with him, I never knew much about the man himself. I only met his wife a few times and though I’m pretty sure he had kids, I never saw or met any of them. Al did talk a little bit about his professional life as a magician, but never about anything else. It wasn’t until years later I learned he was somehow involved with one of the magic shops at Disneyland (Owner? Manager? ). I also had no idea he’d served in the army during WW2. I still know nothing about his childhood, where he grew up or how he spent his final years after we lost touch when I went off to college in 1973. I left magic for a few years and didn’t get back into it until around 1976, but by then I was living in West LA and traveling in different magic circles.

I now regret not staying in touch and trying to learn more about Al as a person. He was always very kind to me and even his critiques of my performances (of which there were many) never left me feeling discouraged or down on myself. I remember him speaking with a sort-of lisp or some other articulation-related issue and being visually impaired myself, I always felt like Al somehow knew and related to my teenage struggles, anxieties and fears.

The only serious talk I remember ever having with him was about the challenges of becoming a professional magician. “It’s a d**n hard life,” he said, and even as a kid I could see his point. My family wasn’t rich by any stretch, but compared to what I saw of Al’s very modest home and lifestyle, we were on easy street. “Get your education and a good paying job with benefits,” he advised, telling me I’d always love magic more if I kept it as a hobby or what we now refer to as a “side hustle.” I took his advice and although I did make decent money for many years by performing much of the magic I learned from Aldini himself, that money always supplanted my “good paying job with benefits.”

In that little talk Al also told me he thought that magic was changing and that many of the performing for $$ opportunities he’d had over the years, would no longer be as plentiful. Al’s bread and butter was doing parkour-style magic at “Blue & Gold” banquets, Kiwanis Club events, Elk’s Lodge meetings and school shows. Some of that still exists, of course, but Al foresaw that the opportunities for performing magic professionally were changing and so too, was the type of magic being performed. I can’t remember the last time I saw a paid performing magician doing tricks using the “Crystal Silk Cylinder,” or the “Temple Screen” or the “Hippity Hop Rabbits” or the “Aldini Bowl Production.” If Al were alive today it would be interesting to hear his take on magic as a profession in our modern context.

Al died in 1989 at the age of 71, only four years older than I am today. He’s buried in Riverside National Cemetary with his wife, Roslyn, who passed away in 1997. I can’t find anything about either of them on the internet … not even their obituaries. There’s a very brief entry on Aldini in Magicpedia and MagicTricks.com, but aside from that it’s as if my magic teacher simply vanished into the obscurity of history.

If anyone reading this knew Al, worked with him, hung-out with him, etc., I’d love to hear your stories … the good, the bad and the whatever! While he maybe wasn’t one of the “giants:” of magic, he definitely had an impact on the art and he’s left us with many bits and pieces of his creativity. It’d be nice, I think, for Al to be remembered here.