I have this throw-out card for “Thomas Prestidigitator”. It
is one of my favorites
as it has color in the card, and in the top right hand corner it has Thomas as Herrmann “The Great”. This tells me that for Thomas to impersonate Alexander Herrmann in his performance, his audience would have to know who Herrmann was. Therefore this card must go back a long way into the past.
as it has color in the card, and in the top right hand corner it has Thomas as Herrmann “The Great”. This tells me that for Thomas to impersonate Alexander Herrmann in his performance, his audience would have to know who Herrmann was. Therefore this card must go back a long way into the past.
When I tried to do a search on F. W. Thomas, I found just a
few minor references. However, “The Linking Ring” for June of 1949 had a column
entitled “Del-lightfully” by Dell O’Dell, one of the best known female
magicians of the twentieth century.
To quote Dell : “Do you remember Dr. Denton’s sleeping
garments? The woolen ones with feet in
them and a trap door in the rear? F.W.
Thomas is the guy who manufactured them.
Membership card is No. 3700 I.B.M.
He lives in the country near La Jolla, Calif., for the winter but in
Michigan the rest of the year. He is now
in his 80th year. When 19 he
was the only magician in Toledo,
Ohio. Magic was always his hobby and he
has fond recollections of Herrmann the Great, The Davenport Brothers, Kellar,
Houdini and was a personal friend of Thurston.
Mr. Thomas gave a terrific 45-minute show at the home of Howard and
Melva Chernoff of La Jolla, Calif”.
This gave me a lot of info on Thomas, but not his first name.
So I searched using his I.B.M. No. 3700. Then it started to come together as I
found an “In Memoriam” page from “The Linking Ring” giving his first name and
the date of his death. The following is what I have found.
Frank W. Thomas was born on August 25, 1869 in Toledo, Ohio.
According to “The Seven Circles” magic magazine in 1931, Thomas was the president
of Dr. Denton Knitting Mills of Centreville and Klinger Lake, Michigan. It
stated that “he deserted the professional rolls (of magicians) and began to
make our children more comfortable at night”.
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| "Ladies Home Journal" Ad 1921 |
When I searched for more information on Dr. Denton, I was
completely surprised to find out about the company’s early history from a site
called the “Colon Magic Museum” in Colon, Michigan. Colon to those of us
interested in magic, is known as “The Magic Capital of the World” due to its long history of magic shops and it being the home of Harry Blackstone Senior. Dr. Denton’s
Garment Mill in Centreville was located in St. Joseph County, the same as
Colon. This is all just a remarkable magic related coincidence.
Looking for Frank Thomas and his time with Dr. Denton Mills,
I was able to find a patent filed in 1924 where Thomas had “invented a new and
useful Sleeping Garment”. This basically was an improvement to the manufacturing
of their (pajamas with feet) design.
As Dell O’Dell pointed out in her column quoted above, Thomas
never completely lost his interest in magic, and even at the age of 80, he was
still performing. After living in Michigan and California in his later years,
he was buried in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Frank W. Thomas passed away on
September 3, 1949.
My grandmother, Zella, was housekeeper for the Thomas family at their "cottage" on Klinger Lake, Michigan for many years. Mr. Thomas coaxed her into coming back to work when she was in her 70s, being a sort of companion/housekeeper for Mrs. Thomas, saying he would see that she was "taken care of the rest of her life". He and his family did not follow through very well on that promise. They sent a small check instead.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I always slept in Dr. Denton sleepers when we were children. They had feet in them and were quite comfortable. In 1939 when the Thomas family went to the World's Fair, we were able to visit my grandmother at the Thomas "Cottage" at Klinger Lake, Michigan which was great fun for us. There was a married couple, the maid and chauffeur and my grandmother stayed in touch with them for many years. I believe his name was Ray Phillips and she may have been named Dorothy.