I have been fascinated with Dean Powell since I first lectured on him at a 1986 meeting of the Magic Collectors’ Association. At that time I produced some cursory lecture notes that hardly did him justice as the Dean of American Magicians, a position bestowed upon him by both the National Conjurors’ Association and the Society of American Magicians. I have just completed a comprehensive biography of Powell scheduled for publication in 2018. For purposes of this posting, I will touch briefly on his career and in particular, the scaling cards he used throughout his lifetime.
Powell was born in Philadelphia on March 1, 1856. When he was just a child his father took him to see Signor Blitz, Robert Heller and other magicians of the period. His early interest in magic was sparked by a series of magic tricks published in a general circulation children’s magazine called “Our Young Folks.”
Over the course of his lifetime he performed magic
