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e-man Special user HILTON HEAD,SC 880 Posts |
Does anyone out in there know what became of this magician,,?
I saw him @ The Magi-Fest 76 and then then POOF! Without a trace? Just curious Reguards
我被烹调
ERIC HELVENSTON |
hugmagic Inner circle 7665 Posts |
Tab was a yong man whose parents had considerable wealth. They loaded him on a plane took him to Owens and told him to pick out three illusions. He bought a bunch of stuff from Horace Marshall. I last heard from Tab in 1983. He passed away not too long after that. It was shame as he did a flair for the performing and the money behind him to make it possible to succeed.
Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
e-man Special user HILTON HEAD,SC 880 Posts |
Thank You for your response,I too thought he had a presence,and was going to take off into Magic-land,Sorry to hear of his demise.He could not have been very old in the early 80;s (I saw him at a covention in (Gallion,Ohio)also
Regards
我被烹调
ERIC HELVENSTON |
Gary Michaels New user Farmington Hills, MI, USA 8 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-01-03 17:26, e-man wrote: Here's a Tab Halley story: Tab was a fairly good friend of mine in the early '70s (when he was working at King's Island) and remained in Columbus' magic "inner circle" until a series of pranks he and my friend Bill Krech played on one another escalated. I was probably 19 at the time (Tab would've been 17 or 18 and Krech the same) and he and Bill had been doing things like putting a skunk in the other's rabbit production box backstage, replacing loads in a Square Circle with dirty laundry etc. This went on for several months. I wasn't involved in any of this because I was strictly a close-up worker and they were both my pals -- although Bill and I were closer. Finally, at the 1974 Magi-Fest, Tab purchased a really expensive Botania from the late, legendary Horace Marshall. The three of us were sharing a room at the Neil House in downtown Columbus, where the convention was being held, and Krech decided to hide the Marshall flowers -- not telling me that he'd done so. In fact, I didn't even know that Tab had bought them. When Tab came back to the room a few hours later, he asked us where his Botania was. Bill told him that he hadn't seen it (and I'd never laid eyes on it) -- so Tab and I searched the room, finding nothing, and Krech told him that they must have been stolen. Tab stormed out, yelling at us that this was clearly a conspiracy and referencing the earlier "pranks"... This was the last night of the convention and at maybe 10:00 PM I got on an elevator, loaded down with bags of the magic I'd bought, as well as my luggage. I pressed the DOWN button and the elevator stopped a few floors lower. Incredibly, a "disguised" Tab (odd overcoat, weird old man's hat, sunglasses, a big umbrella etc.) got on -- with a brutish looking young thug -- also wearing sunglasses. Both were dripping wet because it was raining pretty hard outside. Tab stopped the elevator between floors. Then he started asking me where his flowers were, hitting me again and again with his umbrella (always the fair fighter). I didn't know what to say because I really had no idea what was going on -- this was between him and Krech. So he grabbed my bags of new magic and threw them against the elevator wall, by the sound of it, breaking some of the contents. Then he ordered the heavyset thug to beat me up. The whole thing probably would've been funny had I not been a 6'2" 160 lb. weakling. About the same size as Tab was, now that I think of it Finally he realized that I was right, that I had no clue as to the whereabouts of his Botania, and he and the other guy started the elevator again and let me go. I ran out of the hotel, into the parking garage, where I found Krech. He told me that he'd had Tab's flowers in his Camaro's trunk the whole time, so we got into his car and drove to Bill's parent's house. Because of the rainstorm, we were drenched when we arrived. Mrs. Krech pretty much freaked out when we got there and told her what had happened. Bill's dad was a doctor (as was Tab's, I believe) so the two sets of parents were friends. Mrs. Krech got on the phone immediately and reamed Mrs. Halley a new one -- of course Mrs. Halley didn't believe a word of it but I had the bruises to prove it. And Bill had the Botania, so Tab pretty much had to admit what he'd done. Turns out he'd driven to the OSU campus and paid a frat guy to come back to the hotel to beat me up. That was pretty much the end of Tab on the Columbus magic scene. He was blackballed from the IBM and Kirkendall's "Magic Hobby Club" without a second thought. A few years later, I was working close-up at several magic conventions throughout the Midwest primarily. In 1979 or so, Tab called me and left me a message asking me if I'd help to teach him some close-up -- a weird notion indeed. But I returned the call, and his mom answered. "Is Tab there?," I asked. "There's no one living here named 'Tab'," she replied. "C'mon, Mrs. Halley -- everyone knows your son's name is 'Tab'," I said. "Oh -- you mean Don?," came the response. "Sheesh, Mrs. Halley -- he was even called 'Tab' in high school! He's been using that stage name for years! Even at King's Island!"... She demurred and got him on the phone and Tab and I chatted a bit. I took him under my wing for a few weeks and taught him some card and coin work. Until this point Tab had been a fairly sober guy, but he'd gotten into cocaine and was a little more serious about that than he was about magic by then so the "lessons" didn't go on for too long. Maybe a few weeks. Eventually (in 1983 or so) he died of an overdose -- cocaine almost certainly, although his parents refused to acknowledge anything of the sort. They -- especially his mother -- had been stage parents from day one, being very wealthy and having literally spent tens of thousands of dollars on his act. Only the best equipment (Owen Bros. illusions, virtually all of Marshall's very expensive flower effects etc.)... so they were real enablers. So to answer your question, Tab was probably 25, maybe 26 when he passed away. There's an In Memoriam for him (and others) from Upper Arlington High School's 1975 graduating class at http://www.ua75.com/in_memoriam.htm ~Gary |
hugmagic Inner circle 7665 Posts |
Gary,
I never heard this story but I sure can see how it happened having known Tab on a casual level. Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
Kevin Connolly Inner circle New Jersey 1329 Posts |
Gary,
That was some story. Thanks for sharing. Kevin
Please visit my website.
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andrew martin Veteran user 394 Posts |
Ta thanks . I saw him here in Toledo in early 80's.
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