Dai Vernon

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Dai Vernon (born David Frederick Wingfield Verner June 11 1894 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - died 1992 in Hollywood, California) was a Canadian magician. He was nicknamed Dai after a newspaper used it, instead of David. (Welsh nickname for David). One misconception is they mistyped his name. Among magicians he is also known as The Professor and The Man Who Fooled Houdini. Harry Houdini often boasted that he could not be fooled if he saw a card trick performed three times. Vernon performed a version of a trick called Ambitious card for Houdini seven times, and Houdini could not figure out how it had been done. Vernon used the "Man Who Fooled Houdini" for years following this in his advertisements.

Vernon, along with Ed Marlo, were the most influential close-up magicians of the 20th century. Among magicians, he is credited with inventing or improving many standard close-up effects with cards, coins, and other small items. The "standard" Cups and balls routine is his, and his 6-ring "Symphony of the Rings" remains one of the most popular Chinese linking rings routines in use to this day.

Image:ProfessorandLarryJennings.jpg

Vernon spent the last thirty years of his life as Magician-in-Residence at the world-famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles, California. There he mentored numerous well-known magicians including Ricky Jay, Persi Diaconis, Doug Henning, Bruce Cervon, Larry Jennings, and John Carney.

In November of 2005, Karl Johnson wrote The Magician And The Cardsharp about Vernon's early days of tracking down card cheats to learn new tricks.

In June of 2006, the first in-depth biography of Vernon was released by Squash Publishing entitled Dai Vernon: A Biography, *Artist * Magician * Muse 1894-1941 (first of planned two volumes) written by Canadian magician David Ben.

[edit] Trivia

The character of "The Professor" (played by Hal Holbrook) from the movie Shade was based on Dai Vernon, and the character Vernon (Stuart Townsend) was named for him.