Ray Goulet – A Remembrance

On October 7th of this year, my dear friend Ray Goulet passed away after a long string of health-related issues. With his passing the magic world at large lost a wonderful friend, a talented magician, magic historian, and an all-around good guy. Among the many magical collectibles he preserved and treasured were scaling cards and his collection was impressive. It’s only fitting then that one of the remembrances given away at his viewing was a scaling card of sorts.

There were many different varieties of these cards at the viewing and all featured photographs of Ray (and often his loving wife Ann) in various stages of their magical lives. The one featured here shows a younger Ray on one side standing in front of Ask Alexander and Sorcar posters in his Mini Museum of Magic. The reverse shows an older Ray holding a proclamation with a smiling Ann in the background and a Jack of hearts index on each corner. 

Ray was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts January 20, 1930, and was a lifelong resident of Watertown. He often said that the real magic in his life was when he married his sweetheart and lifelong friend Ann M. Ford, in Saint Patrick’s Church October 12, 1949. They were married sixty-eight years. 

In a feature in the Boston Globe a reporter wrote, “For 40 years, Ray Goulet was the master of card tricks and illusions, vanishing and reappearing eggs, and a snake in a basket that could find a card chosen by an audience member. With his wife Ann, he created a traveling show and performed on 22 trans-Atlantic voyages, including once for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He made eggs disappear at the White House during the annual Easter Egg Roll in 1984.”

Magicians all knew of Ray and Ann through their Magic Art Studio at 137 Spring Street in Watertown. It was the center of the magic universe for the Boston area and much of the greater northeast. It is also the location of his Mini Museum of Magic which still contains wonderful magic treasures collected by Ray over his lifetime. It was Ray who approached me about being the master of ceremonies for the New England Magic Collectors Association (NEMCA) and I was honored to be asked. 

Although his responsibilities lessened in recent years with these bi-annual events, he was always the driving force behind its international success. 

I must tell you of the remarkable viewing that took place the day before his funeral. With Ann’s permission, photographers from the Joyce Funeral Home gained access to the Mini Museum and took high-resolution digital photographs of the walls and cases. Then they projected them on the entire back walls of the funeral parlor where Ray lay in repose. It was a stunning visual experience because it gave every one of the hundreds of friends attending the viewing the sense that it was being held within the walls of the museum which he loved so dearly. On video screens around the two rooms, a continuous loop of images of Ray and Ann with magic friends played.

Ray, of course, was very active in the Society of American Magicians and as is customary, a Broken Wand Ceremony was conducted. However, as with all things, Ray put his special touch on this somber ritual. After the text was read and it came time for Ray’s wand to be broken, and after the following words were read, “Compeer Goulet, when you were initiated into The Society of American Magicians you were presented with a Wand, Ancient Emblem of Mystery. It symbolized the Magic Power that was yours as you used your knowledge of magic’s secrets, and your skill in their exemplification. Now its power is gone. It is a mere stick, devoid of all meaning and authority, useless without your hand to wield it.” 

At this point it is customary to break the wand. However, it was announced that Ray had chosen instead, to pass his personal magic wand on to his dear friend Ryan Lalley who helped run Magic Art Studio and who cared so deeply and did so much more for both Ray and Ann. It was one of the most touching things I’ve seen during these rituals and I have done many of them.

The following day a funeral mass was held at Saint Patrick’s Church, the same place he married Ann many years earlier, and then police literally closed down Watertown as a funeral procession of mourners drove first past the Magic Art Studio where a large memorial flower arrangement covered the door, and then past Ray and Ann’s house where neighbor’s waved Ray goodbye from their porches. Finally it wound its way to the cemetery where friends laid roses on his casket, a representative of the military played taps, and as everyone filed out, a recording of Frank Sinatra singing “I Did It My Way” played.

I will close this tribute to dear Ray with this line from earlier in the Broken Wand ritual that always moved me emotionally. It goes, “We shall miss Ray and we shall remember him. And no greater tribute can be paid to any person than this; to say that he lives on in the hearts of his friends!” He certainly does and will continue to do so for many years. Memorial donations may be made to Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or online at www.stjude.org.