Foye´ “The Magician Deluxe”

The internet can work wonders when it comes to doing research on the history of magic and magicians.  I found this throw-out card some time back on eBay.  I was able to get not only the card, but the original printing plate that was used to make it.  It was for a magician who called himself Foye´, “The Magician Deluxe”. 

Many months into the future, I was attending a book and paper/ephemera show.   A dealer told me that he had just bought a box of magic memorabilia that morning from another dealer before the show opened.  The dealer told me he would have it at another antique show the next month if I wanted to see the stuff.

Handwritten advertisement assumed to be written by Foye´ Pearson

 

When the next month arrived, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the box of memorabilia belonged to a magician whose name was  Foye´ E. “Al” Pearson.   In the lot were several professional photos of Foye´  and his wife Marie (It looks like Al and Marie were in show business together), along with a few magic props, some blueprints for illusions, and even his wallet with an old Ohio Driver’s License.  I bought everything that related to Al and his personal history.  Then the research began.

I have not been able to learn a great deal about Foye´ , but I did find a few things.  Foye´   Emerson Pearson was born on May 4, 1908 in Delaware County, Ohio.   As a young man he lived in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.  By the time he was around eighteen, he was a member of The International Brotherhood of Magicians, holding member # 702.  The only reference I could find on him and his magic career, was that he attended the first ever magicians’ convention held in 1926 by the I.B.M. in Kenton, Ohio.

Dante's use of "The Magician Deluxe"

 

I also found in the “Linking Ring” in 1926 an ad for Harry Jansen as Dante “The Magician Deluxe” in which he sends his “Season’s Greetings”. Now, I wonder, who called themselves “The Magician Deluxe” first?  It could be that the young Al Pearson liked  the way it sounded, after seeing the Dante ad. But maybe, Dante came across one of Foye’s throw-out cards and appropriated the name for himself.  We will never know for sure.

While his interest in magic was strong enough to have had a throw-out card and photos made, magic did not become his lifelong vocation.  According to his obituary which I found online, Foye´ was a retired Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army.   I am guessing that he probably went into the service during World War II as I found some documentation pertaining to his involvement in campaigns in the Pacific.  I also discovered that he ended his career as an Army recruiter in central Ohio.  Foye´ passed away on April 23, 1981 at the age of 72. His wife of many years preceded him in death by 3 months.

Al Pearson during his Army career

 

In March of 2015, 34 years after his death, there was an estate sale of the belongings of Mary K. Pearson Wolfinger in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.  In the auction listing there were two theatrical trunks of magicians’ effects once owned by her late brother Al, also known at one time in the distant past as Foye´  “The Magician Deluxe”.