Devo – “The Magician from Dixieland”

While going through my throw-out cards looking for something interesting, I ran across a card for DEVO “The Magician from Dixieland”.  This card has always caught my eye as it reminds me of Devo, an alternative rock band from the seventies and eighties.  I thought I would try to find out what this earlier Devo was about.

 What I discovered was that Devo was in reality a much better known magician by the name of Benjamin R. Badley.  Badley was born on December 26, in either 1895, 1897, or 1898 (depending on various sources) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

As a young boy, his aunt took him to a performance of Leon Herrmann.  Other magicians followed, such as Karl Germain, and Eugene Laurant.  A local magician, Felix Guidry gave him a copy of Hoffmann’s “Modern Magic” and his future was set.  Bart Whaley’s “Who’s Who in Magic”, states that he moved to Saint Louis in 1916 and performed as Devo “The Magician from Dixieland” in roadshows of the southern states until around 1918.  He served in the Army during World War I. During this time he added hypnotism to his act.

 

Badley was a charter member and the first president of S.A.M Assembly No. 8, and also was one of the founders of Ring No. 1 of the I.B.M, both in St. Louis. His day job was working for the St. Louis Engraving Company as an estimator.

Badley had a long involvement with magic and wrote for various magic magazines and liked to collect books and photographs. Ben Badley passed away on October 2, 1950 in Saint Louis.

I found four throw-out cards of Badley in my collection. The Devo card has a blue Bicycle Tangent No. 2 back which was first used in 1907.  The card depicting Badley pulling a rabbit out of a hat has a Jack of Diamonds on the other side and is signed by Badley.
 

The two remaining cards offer up red and black variants of the “6 or 7” cubes illusion which were used in a different form on the backs of other throw-out cards. Judge Brown wrote about this illusion in another post concerning a Deland “Watch the Dice, 6 or 7” card back. These two cards for Badley have blank backs.

I should also mention that there was another Devo in magic. Carl Devo was a British Music Hall magician who got his start in the late 1800’s. While he did not last long as Carl Devo, under his real name of Will Goldston, he went on to fame as a magician, magic dealer, author and publisher of many magic books.

The rock band Devo released an album in 2010 entitled “Something for Everybody”. When looking at the total variety of throw-out cards that have been produced over the years by all of these magicians, including Devo, “The Magician from Dixieland”, the same can be said…something for everybody!