I was just reading Thayer's Catalog vol. 2 and it mentions a performer named Gerrie Darsen.
It's under item No. 1034 called Our Latest Flower Growth, which is a rather expensive set of props for producing a bouquet of flowers. The ad boasts it's used by Gerrie Darsen in her act.

So I was wondering. This is one of the most expensive items in the catalog and it tries to sell itself by invoking this female magician. It seems Thayer assumed professional magicians would know her and would want to imitate her. Must be someone famous.

And yet google returns nothing on her. Neither does archive.org nor conjuring archive.

Does anybody know who Gerrie Darsen was?

It's a misspelling in the Thayer Catalog. It should read as Gerrie Larsen (aka Geri Larsen) She was part of the famous Larsen Family of Magicians. Her husband was William Larsen Sr. (founding editor of Genii magazine and the Academy of Magical Arts) and her sons were William Larsen Jr. and Milt Larsen (who realized their father's dream of a private clubhouse for the Academy to meet in when they opened The Magic Castle in the 1960's).
At one time the Larsen family owned Thayer Magic Co. after Floyd Thayer retired and sold the business to the Larsens.

https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=William_W._Larsen,_Sr.

https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Geri_Larsen

https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bill_Larsen_Jr.

https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Milt_Larsen


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By the way, here is a photo of one version of the Thayer Flower Growth props. (this one is in the collection of David Charvet).
This version has a round tube instead of the conical tube shown in the catalog illustration

Thanks for clearing that up, David. I didn't know about her. And there's even a video of her from 1949!


That prop looks amazing BTW. Really living up to their tag line. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, she was one of the early magicians who performed on television. Thanks, I had not seen that clip before. At that time , most magicians did not want to to work on television or have their acts filmed , because the prevailing line of thought was if people saw you for free on television, why would they pay to come see you in a live show ? Plus the demands of a weekly (or daily!) televised magic show meant you had to have a lot of material so you weren't repeating tricks (kind of helps if you happen to own a magic company, in terms of having a lot of material to use).

When the Larsen's purchased the Thayer Magic Co. from Floyd Thayer, they traded houses with him. He moved into their former home in Pasadena and they moved into his home in Los Angeles known as Brookledge , where the famous Thayer Studio of Magic was located (and also functioned as a residence). Brookledge remains in the Larsen family to this day.

https://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Brookledge

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-......ory.html



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