I am very say to report on the passing of Glenn Falkenstein. I always hate sharing this kind of news, but for details you can look here: http://bit.ly/dpYT33

Very Sorry to hear this.

- Mary Mowder

Very sad to hear, we have lost another legend in our industry.

Charlie

Very sorry to hear this.
I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife several years back at one of Kramiens Jamborees. They performed the seance room, it was a great show they put on.
Bob.

My condolences go out to his family. He was a great entertainer, and a very kind man.

I have a very special connection to Glenn: he got me started in magic.

I was eight years old when I first met Mr. Falkenstein: his son Mike and I were in the same Cub Scout Pack. Every year he would do a magic show for us, in the auditorium of Westport Heights Elementary School in Los Angeles. His first show for the Cub Scouts, and that of another magician (whose name I cannot recall) at our annual school carnival (where I was one of the audience volunteers who got to come on stage and help) instilled in me a love of magic.

My parents used to go to The Magic Castle with Glenn during those years, and thanks to my mom's descriptions I had a vivid picture in my young mind of The Castle. I can remember vividly a show that Glenn did at El Camino College, where he, blindfolded with his steel mask, divined all sorts of personal information about the guest he had invited on stage from the audience. (That guest, it turns out, was my father.)

About twenty years ago I was trying to get in touch with Glenn, but I had no idea where he was living. I decided to write him a letter, put it in an envelope with his name but no address, then put that in another envelope addressed to The Magic Castle, with a request that they mail it to him (and an explanation of how I knew him). The management did not mail him the letter. Instead, they handed it to him that evening when he arrived for his shows: he was booked that week. The next day, Glenn phoned me and invited me and my family to The Castle for Sunday brunch. I'll never forget seeing him walk into the dining room as we were eating, and look around the room. I told my wife that that was Glenn. "Do you know what he's looking for?" I asked her.

"What?"

"He's looking for an eleven-year-old kid."

I walked up to Glenn and reintroduced myself, and introduced my family. He said that he was looking for someone who looked like my father; that, alas, was futile, as I look nothing like my father.

Glenn and Fran were in the Palace that afternoon, so we got to see their show. Afterward, Fran mentioned that her son-in-law did some close-up magic and offered to put him in touch with me. Unfortunately, that never happened.

(Interestingly, that Sunday was the day I met Rich Cowley for the first time. That's a story for another day.)

A few years later we got to see Glenn and Fran at Universal Studios just before Halloween, and a couple of years later we saw them in the Parlour at The Castle. At Universal Studios we met them after their show, and a woman came up and pleaded with Glenn to tell her fortune. Glenn told her that it was all an act, and that they didn't believe in fortune telling, clairvoyance, and so on, but the woman was adament. Interestingly, when we saw them at The Castle, Glenn began the act by saying the same thing: that they didn't believe in fortune telling, clairvoyance, and so on. I wondered how many such women had pleaded similarly, prompting the pre-show disclaimer.

I'm very sad to hear of Glenn's passing. I'm swamped with work, and trying to get ready for a ten-day vacation starting next week, but I really want to get to The Castle this Sunday to give my condolences to Fran.

Glenn was very, very special to me.

Bill,

That is such a great story.

In my opinion Glenn was first class all the way.

No matter how many times I saw his act, it was always like watching it for the first time. To me he was a great showman.

Once I remember being called up to assist him with his spirit cabinet routine. I greatly enjoyed every minute of this.

Gerry

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