Look ...
http://www.indianagazette.com/articles/2......5653.txt

I was called by the writer for some info on Neff and performing "Life and Death"

It was an honor to be include in the article.

Coolness, I'm very intrigued by Neff stories.
Thanks Cardone!

Like I said opn the other Cardone post, nicely done article. Now I'm inspired to reread Pleasant Nightmares, the Neff bigraphy.

Pleasant Nightmares is great...not to be missed.

Good news article. Sadly, it sounds like there's virtually nothing -- not even a plaque -- anywhere in the town of Indiana, PA to commemorate Neff's existence and recognize his significant contribution to mid-century American pop culture. For all his faults -- and being an abusive, neglectful father ranks high among all human failings -- he still deserves to be noted as the unique and innovative entertainer that he was.

Wonder if SAM or IBM could arrange for a commemorative plaque to be placed somewhere in town, in a park or a downtown theater, perhaps.

Cardone, care to launch a little campaign to keep Bill Neff's reputation alive in his hometown?

Aside from Houdini's star on the Hollywood walk of fame, and that bust of Siegfried & Roy on the Vegas strip it's hard to think of any monuments to magicians. Are there any, anywhere, of Cardini, Channing Pollock, Dai Vernon, Blackstone, Kellar, Thurston?

Robert Houdin has a nice statue...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co......ois).jpg

Well deserved. Congratulations Robert Houdin.

Before magicians begin embarrassing themselves calling him "Bobby Houdin" I will remind everyone that the statue has his correct name engraved upon the base: Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.

We should all plan to have a marble statue carved of ourselves while we are still alive to supervise the carving and pay for it. Then store it in the garage and hope our relatives have sense enough to erect it in the town square instead of carting it off to the junkyard upon our demise.

I think that is a good idea Mark ... maybe we can all pitch in a bit of $ ...spead the word and lets see if it can be done .... I will email the writer and see if he has an idea too ..... more later.....cardone

Bust of Vernon at The Magic Castle, as I recall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pkwex7CCTs

That video does not do it justice .... no way ......

Neff was awesome and that life and death demo was pretty poor.

I spent one month of daily rehearsal making my Life and Death smooth and the routine tight......

Abusive? From the mouths of babes? I once knew a child that thrashed and beat house plants with sticks, disfiguring them and knocking leaves, stems, shoots off them if not outright killing them only because his mother showed a "love" towards and was into house plants, tending them, watering them, trimming them. I know wonderful woman artist that throughout the seventies painted great portraits of Native American images on irregularly shaped redwood burl slabs. Her daughter despised her for this.When the mother became ill and lost her home in the mid nineties she had to give up all her paintings and discontinue her "love" of art in order to move in with the daughter's family.
Etching out a living as a self employed person can sometimes be rough. It is trying and can take much time "away" from family. On the other hand, some children can have magnified jealousies much like sibling rivalry. Whereas others may take these distractions as common place in their upbringing and have no issues about the time their father or parent is consumed by occupation to put bread on the table, others such as Neff's son, even Edgar Bergen's daughter as written in her book, Knock on Wood are or were severely damaged by their own inordinate jealousies. If you want to add alcohol into the equation, read Willard the Wizard or tales of famed country western singers whose fathers drank a bit but their children are all the better by it and unscathed by not taking it personally.
The writer of Pleasant Nightmares did not do justice be presenting a lopsided view of Neff by a grown child, and I do mean child, that has not worked towards forgiveness nor considered his father's calling in a time when drink was more than socially acceptable, fostered on 50's television by practically ever show host, and etching out a living as a magician in the tail end of its golden years.
The boy, albeit middle aged, hides in a quasi Christian belief system that somehow rejects forgiveness. It only took a sentence or two to spell out that the grandfather was a surly man that most likely daily denounced his son, Bill Neff, for his love of drink while dad, shunned alcohol and certainly lit it be known to this young man left in his charge.
Bill Neff held the fort down. He was a trooper for sure.
Doc

Doc:

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

To me, I thought Bill Rauscher's book was well balanced. He went the extra mile by tracking down Bill Neff's son.

Gerry

I'm sorry,but that's not called going the extra mile, it's called research.

I hope you all do not mind a post from a non-magician. I am from Indiana, Pa (home of Bill Neff and Jimmy Stewart). I had never heard of Bill Neff but a friend of mind called me to let me know about Pleasant Nightmares. it turns out that I live in the house that Bill Neff lived in and the book has a full-page frontal view of the house. I also happen to find a picture of Neff and Stewart standing in the attic of my house that was published in Life Magazine.

As a result I did a search on Google to learn more about him and that brought me to this site.

http://www.indianagazette.com/articles/2......5653.txt

This is a link to the Indiana Gazette .. where a story on Bill Neff appeared 5/17/09