After all these years I still love magic
Hey there friends of Ronjo,
In 1969, I was only 3 years old.
There are three things I remember at age three.
The first was Christmas 1969. We lived in an apartment in Copiague Long Island. All I remember about it is a staircases going up leading to the kitchen and my Mom gave home made Christmas cookies to the paperboy.
Near that apartment was a park Peppermint Park. My parents tell me I lived in it every chance I had. I recall my parents taking me to this park many times even after we moved to Centereach at age 3. A far trip at about 45 minutes away. The reason they kept taking me back was this park had a giant top hat which I loved and begged to go to. No other park we could find had this hat. It had a ladder going up to the brim and a descending ladder going inside of it and a small tunnel at the base to get in and out of it. I remember loving this hat! But I do not remember it at age 3. I know have spent many hours in this hat. Probably from age 2-9.
Another early memory was a man walking on the moon. I doubt I learned his name at the time but I do remember my mom & I were watching TV and she was explaining to me what we were watching. I remember the fuzzines of the TV broadcast. That was real magic a man walking on another "planet."
My other early memory was when I received my first magic set on my birthday in August. I remember the box it came in, a thick white cardboard box was with a white gloss paper cover of a character of a boy in a top hat & cape glued to the top of the box (and under where the top went over the bottom. We had to tear through the seam of the lid & the base to open it). The box was about 12" x 9" x 3"
It was a cheap set made with cardboard cut outs and it had a wood wand.
I do remember there was not much else in the set. Maybe 4 tricks and a wand.
I vividly remember one effect it came with, 3 cardboard rings. One yellow, one red & one green. Each had Chinese symbols on them. The effect was to guess which color ring they gave by feeling it behind your back. I used this effect for several years. The method was very clever it used a center circle also covered in Chinese symbols. I remember that the symbols on the disc were "stupid" as the disc was part of the method and never seen by the audience. "They decorated the hidden item, I thought why?"
I do not remember anything magical previous to this but I know this was not my first encounter with magic. I remember being unsatisfied with the magic wand that came with the set because it was all black with dripping paint marks on it and had no white tips. "No white tips. How lame." All these years later, I wish I had saved that stick of wood.
I sadly can not recall anything else about it. If anyone knows the name of the set I am talking about, or has a picture of it or anyone actually has one and want to sell it, Please contact me at Pete@ronjo.com.
Growing up, I'd be wide awake in the early morning, 5 or 6 Am wow, Mark Wilson's Magic Circus. I'd be riveted to the tube with Bozo, Dick Cavet & Bob McAllister Wonderama, HBOs Hocus Pocus It's Magic & Mumbo Jumbo It's Magic, Henning's & Copperfield's early specials and saw Harry Blackstone on Broadway.
I remember summer trips to Hershey Park PA. All I cared about was going to the Renolyds Alumimun Theater in the park to see the Mark Wilson Produced magic show. Every year I had hoped to see Wilson himself perform but it was always some other team of magician's & assistants. (If anyone out there know who these performers were in the 1970's please let me know). I would be interested if they would be names I would recognize now. My guess is yes.
At 5 years old, I met RONJO. That was 1971. He was a demo guy in a mall Kiosk. I'd go there every Saturday and buy a new trick from this great magician. Though I did not know Ronjo at the time.
In 1974, Ronjo opened his first store and I was a customer for life.
Sometime in the 1970s, Sid & Mary Kroft had a TV show called Lidsville. It had a magic theme and a top hat. A boy saw a magic show, sneaked backstage and saw the magician's hat (Charles Nelson Riley's hat). The hat grew and the child got sucked in to this hat and transported into in a magical place called Lidsville, where everyone was a living breathing giant hat of various types. And Riley played an evil magician in this other dimension. This took me back my days of living inside the giant top hat in Peppermint Park.
From about 1979-1984, I drifted away from magic but it still held a special place in my memories. I sort of thought it was childish and didn't bother much with it anymore.
Then I discovered Tom Mullica & David Williamson, there brand of humor and off beat magic is just what I need to see. It brought me right back into it and I've never looked back.
If you are too young to know who they are and you like comedy, take my word for it get a hold of their videos.
So thank you Tom & David, if it weren't for you, I'm sure I'd be somewhere else and probably not very satisfied.
I apprenticed here at Ronjo around 1986 and began working here full time in 1989 through present.
I still love magic. I am still learning more. And it is wonderful.
Until tomorrow my friends.
So long,
Pete
In 1969, I was only 3 years old.
There are three things I remember at age three.
The first was Christmas 1969. We lived in an apartment in Copiague Long Island. All I remember about it is a staircases going up leading to the kitchen and my Mom gave home made Christmas cookies to the paperboy.
Near that apartment was a park Peppermint Park. My parents tell me I lived in it every chance I had. I recall my parents taking me to this park many times even after we moved to Centereach at age 3. A far trip at about 45 minutes away. The reason they kept taking me back was this park had a giant top hat which I loved and begged to go to. No other park we could find had this hat. It had a ladder going up to the brim and a descending ladder going inside of it and a small tunnel at the base to get in and out of it. I remember loving this hat! But I do not remember it at age 3. I know have spent many hours in this hat. Probably from age 2-9.
Another early memory was a man walking on the moon. I doubt I learned his name at the time but I do remember my mom & I were watching TV and she was explaining to me what we were watching. I remember the fuzzines of the TV broadcast. That was real magic a man walking on another "planet."
My other early memory was when I received my first magic set on my birthday in August. I remember the box it came in, a thick white cardboard box was with a white gloss paper cover of a character of a boy in a top hat & cape glued to the top of the box (and under where the top went over the bottom. We had to tear through the seam of the lid & the base to open it). The box was about 12" x 9" x 3"
It was a cheap set made with cardboard cut outs and it had a wood wand.
I do remember there was not much else in the set. Maybe 4 tricks and a wand.
I vividly remember one effect it came with, 3 cardboard rings. One yellow, one red & one green. Each had Chinese symbols on them. The effect was to guess which color ring they gave by feeling it behind your back. I used this effect for several years. The method was very clever it used a center circle also covered in Chinese symbols. I remember that the symbols on the disc were "stupid" as the disc was part of the method and never seen by the audience. "They decorated the hidden item, I thought why?"
I do not remember anything magical previous to this but I know this was not my first encounter with magic. I remember being unsatisfied with the magic wand that came with the set because it was all black with dripping paint marks on it and had no white tips. "No white tips. How lame." All these years later, I wish I had saved that stick of wood.
I sadly can not recall anything else about it. If anyone knows the name of the set I am talking about, or has a picture of it or anyone actually has one and want to sell it, Please contact me at Pete@ronjo.com.
Growing up, I'd be wide awake in the early morning, 5 or 6 Am wow, Mark Wilson's Magic Circus. I'd be riveted to the tube with Bozo, Dick Cavet & Bob McAllister Wonderama, HBOs Hocus Pocus It's Magic & Mumbo Jumbo It's Magic, Henning's & Copperfield's early specials and saw Harry Blackstone on Broadway.
I remember summer trips to Hershey Park PA. All I cared about was going to the Renolyds Alumimun Theater in the park to see the Mark Wilson Produced magic show. Every year I had hoped to see Wilson himself perform but it was always some other team of magician's & assistants. (If anyone out there know who these performers were in the 1970's please let me know). I would be interested if they would be names I would recognize now. My guess is yes.
At 5 years old, I met RONJO. That was 1971. He was a demo guy in a mall Kiosk. I'd go there every Saturday and buy a new trick from this great magician. Though I did not know Ronjo at the time.
In 1974, Ronjo opened his first store and I was a customer for life.
Sometime in the 1970s, Sid & Mary Kroft had a TV show called Lidsville. It had a magic theme and a top hat. A boy saw a magic show, sneaked backstage and saw the magician's hat (Charles Nelson Riley's hat). The hat grew and the child got sucked in to this hat and transported into in a magical place called Lidsville, where everyone was a living breathing giant hat of various types. And Riley played an evil magician in this other dimension. This took me back my days of living inside the giant top hat in Peppermint Park.
From about 1979-1984, I drifted away from magic but it still held a special place in my memories. I sort of thought it was childish and didn't bother much with it anymore.
Then I discovered Tom Mullica & David Williamson, there brand of humor and off beat magic is just what I need to see. It brought me right back into it and I've never looked back.
If you are too young to know who they are and you like comedy, take my word for it get a hold of their videos.
So thank you Tom & David, if it weren't for you, I'm sure I'd be somewhere else and probably not very satisfied.
I apprenticed here at Ronjo around 1986 and began working here full time in 1989 through present.
I still love magic. I am still learning more. And it is wonderful.
Until tomorrow my friends.
So long,
Pete
posted by Ronjo Magic at 1:51 PM
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