Joseph McBee “Merry Mystifier and Komedy Kardist”

Columbus, Ohio originated a lot of magic history. It was the birthplace of Howard Thurston, the famous magician, and his brother Harry Thurston, the infamous magician. McDonald Birch was  born there, before moving to southern Ohio. It was also the home of two well-known magic dealers, U. F. Grant/MAK Magic, and Nelson Enterprises. An annual magicians’ convention, the Columbus Magi-Fest has been going strong for over eighty years.

Magicians' convention held in Columbus, Ohio in 1931.

The following throw-out card is for another Columbus magician a little less known, by the name of Joseph McBee. He called himself “The Merry Mystifier and Komedy Kardist in Vaudeville”. The front of the card has McBee’s image in an oval portrait, and the reverse of the card is a Bicycle Red Lotus back.

In the magic magazine The Sphinx for May of 1913, the Columbus magic club “The Mystic Ring” mentions that “Joseph McBee ‘Assisted by a Pack of Cards,’ mystified the audience with his clever manipulation and a number of his original card tricks.”

In October of 1913 McBee was elected president of “The Mystic Ring” in Columbus. The Sphinx for November, 1913 stated that “Mme. Herrmann appeared at the Broadway (a theatre in Columbus) week of September 29, presenting her beautiful act of illusions”. “The following week came our own Joseph (McBee). His act consisted of his splendid manipulation with cards and balls. When it comes to handling the cards, Mack is there”.

Broadway Theatre in Columbus, Ohio

When I began researching McBee, I assumed that maybe his claim to being in Vaudeville was a little inflated, as I had never heard of him. It seems I was wrong however, as I was able to find several references to him playing Vaudeville houses in several cities in the U. S. The Lumberg Theatre in Utica, New York ran this ad in the Herald Dispatch for February 8, 1916.

Newspaper ad with Joseph McBee billing.

Ladson Butler writing from Buffalo, New York in The Sphinx for March, 1916 said that “Joseph McBee, card manipulator played the Olympic Theatre the week of  March 7. His work was very smooth and absolutely clean, though a little fast. We had several pleasant meetings with him”.

Joseph McBee was a charter member when Columbus Ring No. 9, of the International Brotherhood of Magicians was formed in January of 1929. On February 5, of the same year the newly formed Ring held a banquet honoring Howard Thurston. At this banquet, according to The Linking Ring, Syl Reilly the vice-president announced “that the local organization had been named the Howard Thurston assembly (or Ring) No. 9 of the brotherhood”. Mention was made that McBee “did his clever card tricks” for the gathering. A pin back button was created for the banquet, and I have been fortunate in finding one of these with the name of a charter member of the Ring, Stanley W. Coulter.

From information I found, Joseph D. McBee was born on January 24, 1883, and died on May 29, 1967 at the age of 84. It appears that with the exception of when he was on the road performing, he lived most, if not all of his life in Columbus, Ohio.