It saddens me to write this post after the sudden and untimely passing of my friend, Tom Blacke, earlier this year. (Typically, at the time of his tragic demise, he was serving as a volunteer at the FFFF convention in Batavia, NY). I had long wanted to write this post, as Tom's talent and devotion to magic and passion for collecting and magic history well warranted an entry on this site. I wish I had gotten to this sooner. According to one bio available online, Tom, who was born Thomas J. Carrier:
"had a multi-faceted career and life. First and foremost, he was an extraordinary entertainer, including magic, escapes, pickpocketing, mentalism and hypnotism performing around the world. He was featured in numerous periodicals, news and television shows around the country. He was nominated for Lecturer of the Year at the prestigious Magic Castle. The Harvey Award was bestowed upon him by the Invisible Lodge and he held numerous world records, one of which is on permanent display at the Guinness World Record Museum in Niagara Falls, Canada. He was a member of the Magic Circle of London, Magic Castle of California, New England Magic Collector's Association, Society of American Magicians, International Brotherhood of Magicians, International Escape Artists and the elite FFFF (Fechter's Finger-Flicking Frolic). On May 23, 2011, he received his very own Ripley's Believe It Or Not! cartoon for the fastest escape from handcuffs underwater. He was, also, a former member of the Friars Club in New York.
He was a former personality(Tommy J) on local radio and announcer for the former Newport Grand Jai Alai.
Among his other life time achievements, he was an accomplished ten pin bowler, an avid duck pin bowler and member of the National Duckpin Association, as well as, author of several books on magic and non-magic related "
I first met Tom in 2016, when I visited Ray Goulet's museum and shop where he was, as was his habit, donating his time to help that esteemed magic establishment continue operations. Tom introduced me to Ray, and secured an invitation for me to attend the Yankee Gathering that fall, where I met, among others, co-contributors Tom Ewing and Gary Frank, and we soon concocted the notion of creating this blog. Thus, in a large sense, Mr. Blacke was responsible for Propelled Pasteboards.
As seen on one of his promotional cards above, Tom held world records for escape feats. He was often billed as the "World's Fastest Balloon Artist," a remarkable talent he demonstrated at the NEMCA convention.
He served as an active member of NEMCA and was an avid magic collector and historian. In fact, Tom shared with me a piece of artwork from his collection which is quite remarkable: he owned the original draft artwork (seen here) for Ricky Jay's Cards as Weapons poster, something we will be featuring in another post. He obtained that artwork in a most remarkable way: in a world of eBay, magic auctions and crazed bidding, Tom politely asked the artist for his draft, and the artist obliged.
On a personal note, Tom was a kind friend whose company I always enjoyed. He will be missed.
-Judge Brown
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| Brown and Blacke, circa 2016 |
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