Tommy Windsor

Tommy Windsor was born Thomas Lowry in July 1906 in Marietta, Ohio. He once said that a good solid stage name would take him to the road to success and he was right. He performed on showboats, in tent shows, and also in mud shows. He was seen throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan on the Chautauqua Circuits as an actor and magician. Windsor would entertain his audiences with his cartoon drawing and chalk act titled “Brush Talks”. In between the creations he would add a little song to keep the audience amused. He would promote his show as “A Whole Week’s Entertainment in one Big Show.” 

While performing on the road, he met Jeanne Anders, whom he married. Jeanne was added to the billing of the show as “World’s Greatest Girl Ventriloquist”.  They toured their combined act from Zanesville, Ohio to Drexel, North Carolina. Audiences enjoyed watching Windsor perform his “Magical Street Faker” act and then be entertained, as Jeanne would converse with her ventriloquial friend, Jane Jones. 

Windsor wasn’t the run-of-the-mill performer who stuck to one type of act. He was able to present a full evening show by including rag pictures, hypnotism, dancing, magic, cartoon drawing, and he too had his own ventriloquist act. 






           The card, seen above, featured a green-and-black "Ace of Clubs" with ad copy, along with a handsome portrait of the performer on the back.  The same card also was produced with an aviator-style Fox Lake back. 

In his hometown of Marietta, Windsor was known as “The First Entertainer of the First City in the Northwest Territory”. His published works include How to Make Money at Trade Shows and Fairs with a One Man Show, Tommy Windsor’s Dye Box Book, Sixty-four Ways to Make Magic Pay, and Tommy Windsor's Pitch Act Book. Among his magic products he is best known for the creation of the Popcorn Dye Box. Magicians all over the world are still using this effect and many others of his creations today.

 

        When asked what he remembered most about his longtime friend, publisher Lee Jacobs mentioned, "Practically everything good I learned about selling magic I learned from Tommy Windsor.”