“Mysterious” Brown

I recently acquired two throw-out cards for a magician who called himself “Mysterious” Brown. When I started to research his past, I came up with a lot of interesting facts, and even a tie in to a previous post I did. Of the two cards below, the one on the left has a blue Bicycle Nautic back, and the one on the right has a blue cross-hatch pattern of unknown origin.

I have a pretty good idea as to when these cards were produced. I found a couple of newspaper references that used the same image as on the cards. They are both from The Star Press in Muncie, Indiana. The one on the left is from 1932 and on the right from 1934.

Mysterious Brown was born Dota Claudius Brown on March 3, 1913. In his early years he lived in the state of Indiana. He would have been about 19 when that photo on the throw-out cards was taken, so he, like so many others, got interested in magic at an early age. According to all the newspaper articles I found on him, he performed magic on a steady basis.

Image by Heritage Auctions.

During World War II, he was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. During his time of service, Lieutenant Brown was awarded a Purple Heart and a Silver Star Medal for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action” against the enemy. I found his Silver Star Citation on the internet, and also newspaper accounts.

From the Angola Herald for August 8, 1947 and the Steuben Republican for September 26, 1945.

Brown met his first wife Lillian when both were in the service, she being enlisted in the Marines. When the war was over, Dota and Lillian were students and graduates of the Chavez School of Magic.

They settled in California, and were very active on the magic scene. Besides magic, Brown was an art teacher and an accomplished artist in his own right. I even found some of his paintings for sale online. Here is one of them.

In exchange for teaching old time movie actor Max Terhune magic, Terhune taught Brown ventriloquism. Here is where the link comes in on an earlier post I did on this site. Brown’s ventriloquist figure was named Harley, and Harley was the first figure ever made by George “Mandroop” McAthy, whom you can read about here. There is even a group photo on McAthy’s post showing the Browns along with George McAthy and his son Gary.

From The Linking Ring for October 1954.

Dota C. “Mysterious” Brown had a long, varied, and interesting life. Unfortunately, he outlived his wife Lillian, and his second wife Erika. When he passed away on October 10, 1996 at the age of 83, he was survived by his wife Aini. Mysterious Brown was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photo by Anne Cady.