Magic Stories

Walter “Zaney” Blaney’s and the Houdini Museum

On Ring 2100 todaythere was agood question, “Why is Terry Bergen, the curator of the Outagamie County Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin, so adamant in her desire to expose Houdini’s number one trck, Metamorphosis.

In the Houdini display, a part of the whole museum, she wants to have a sub trunk there with the gimmick exposed, and allow children of all ages to crawl in and out ofthe trunkto “get the feel” of Houdini’s tricks. She says this will be “educational” for everyone, and education is her purpose at the museum.

She hasn’t a clue as to what magic and magicians are all about, why we keep our secrets to protect our illusions and tricks, that keeping our secrets is absolutely essential if the general public is to enjoy our magic.

You would think it would be obvious to her, or to anyone, that if you know there is agimmick in the trunk, you are no longer going to be mystified. No matter how good the presentation, if you have been told the secret, there will be no delight, wonder or astonishment. But Ms. Bergen obviously failed her Class 101 in magic. And yet she is the curator of The Houdini Museum…thus my designation of Ms. Bergen as “the wrong person in the wrong job and the wrong time”.

I was fortunate to get Mark Wilson and David Copperfield to devote some of their valuable time and each speak with Ms. Bergen for over an hour by phone.

Mark and David both said she was a “stone wall”. Her ego was not going to allow anyone to change her mind from her “brilliant idea”.

There have been a number of Wisconsin magicians who have talked with her, also many letters from around the world. The more letters she got the more she disliked magicians. How dare they intrude into HER domain.

We finally realized the only approach would be to try to convince the various business leaders in Appleton, those who fund the museum (like the Convention and Visitors Bureau and others who try to attract people to Appleton) that it would be wrong to defile Houdini by exposing his secrets to the general public.

Ms. Bergen then became enraged at magicians trying to “steal her funding” .

Yet she thinks nothing of “stealing magician’s secrets”. So what started as a rational and respectful attempt to educate her as to the magician’s code of ethics simply failed. So the gloves are off now, and we are cordially hoping to convince “the higher powers that be” in Appleton that it would be to their advantage and to the museum’s advantage to respect the magician’s code.

Their are a handfull of dedicated Wisconsin magicians who are spending a good deal of their time and talent in this pursuit. And the presidents of the major magic societies have also made contact with the wiser business people in Appleton. Let’s hope that we all win this one for the the art of magic.

Walter Zaney Blaney



On Ring 2100 todaythere was agood question, “Why is Terry Bergen, the curator of the Outagamie County Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin, so adamant in her desire to expose Houdini’s number one trck, Metamorphosis.

In the Houdini display, a part of the whole museum, she wants to have a sub trunk there with the gimmick exposed, and allow children of all ages to crawl in and out ofthe trunkto “get the feel” of Houdini’s tricks. She says this will be “educational” for everyone, and education is her purpose at the museum.

She hasn’t a clue as to what magic and magicians are all about, why we keep our secrets to protect our illusions and tricks, that keeping our secrets is absolutely essential if the general public is to enjoy our magic.

You would think it would be obvious to her, or to anyone, that if you know there is agimmick in the trunk, you are no longer going to be mystified. No matter how good the presentation, if you have been told the secret, there will be no delight, wonder or astonishment. But Ms. Bergen obviously failed her Class 101 in magic. And yet she is the curator of The Houdini Museum…thus my designation of Ms. Bergen as “the wrong person in the wrong job and the wrong time”.

I was fortunate to get Mark Wilson and David Copperfield to devote some of their valuable time and each speak with Ms. Bergen for over an hour by phone.

Mark and David both said she was a “stone wall”. Her ego was not going to allow anyone to change her mind from her “brilliant idea”.

There have been a number of Wisconsin magicians who have talked with her, also many letters from around the world. The more letters she got the more she disliked magicians. How dare they intrude into HER domain.

We finally realized the only approach would be to try to convince the various business leaders in Appleton, those who fund the museum (like the Convention and Visitors Bureau and others who try to attract people to Appleton) that it would be wrong to defile Houdini by exposing his secrets to the general public.

Ms. Bergen then became enraged at magicians trying to “steal her funding” .

Yet she thinks nothing of “stealing magician’s secrets”. So what started as a rational and respectful attempt to educate her as to the magician’s code of ethics simply failed. So the gloves are off now, and we are cordially hoping to convince “the higher powers that be” in Appleton that it would be to their advantage and to the museum’s advantage to respect the magician’s code.

Their are a handfull of dedicated Wisconsin magicians who are spending a good deal of their time and talent in this pursuit. And the presidents of the major magic societies have also made contact with the wiser business people in Appleton. Let’s hope that we all win this one for the the art of magic.

Walter Zaney Blaney

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