Levante: His Life, No Illusion by Kent Blackmore, Levante

Details: This is the seventh installment in our award-winning series of Magical Pro-Files. The format for this biography of the great Australian illusionist Les Levante, is unlike any other book in our acclaimed series.

After discovering Levante’s unpublished autobiography, author Kent Blackmore spent five years researching the fascinating life of perhaps the last of the great touring illusionists.

Each chapter is divided into two distinct sections. First comes Levante’s personal memories of the many adventures he experienced while touring the world with his ever-expanding, full-evening illusion show. Levante’s words are followed by Mr. Blackmore’s considerable research wherein he adds greatly to the story, makes corrections and places into context Levante’s reminiscences. In describing his heroic struggle to the top of his profession, Levante provides a word’s-eye-view of show business during the early part of this century. Travel with Levante and Company as they visit Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and India. As a headliner in England’s music halls, Levante socialized with many of magic’s greatest names including Houdini, Dante, Goldin and Selbit, and he does not mince his words when describing these men, some of whom were his friends, some of whom weren’t. Levante – His Life, No Illusion contains over a hundred photos illustrating his long career and spectacular magic show.

An appendix describes many of Levante’s classic tricks and illusions that have been explained in magic magazines over the years. Tipped into each copy is a rare Levante poster reproduced in full color. Author: Kent Blackmore Description: 239 pages measuring 7 by 10 inches Hardbound with full-color dust jacket. #7 in our series of Magical Pro-Files Printed endsheets Tipped-in, full-color frontispiece Limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies Published in 1997.

Contents:

003 Frontispiece (color insert)
005 Limited Edition (“This is number 379 of 1,000 copies”)
007 Title Page
009 Table of Contents
011 Publisher’s Note (Mike Caveney)
013 Foreword (Gerald Taylor)
015 Introduction (Kent Blackmore)
017 A Note About the Format of this Book
019 Prologue – Les Levante
021 Chapter 1 – Early Years 1892 – 1920
047 Chapter 2 – Touring New Zealand and Australia 1920 – 1926
071 Chapter 3 – Asian Tours 1927 – 1933
099 Chapter 4 – Britain and “How’s Tricks?” 1933 – 1940
149 Chapter 5 – Back in Australia 1941 – 1954
173 Chapter 6 – Third World Tour 1954 – 1958
191 Chapter 7 – Final Bow 1959 – 1978
201 Appendix – Levante Magic in Printe
229 Acknowledgements
231 Index

submitted by Evan Shuster

• Publisher: Mike Caveney’s Magic Words
• Pages: 239
• Location: Pasadena, CA, USA
• Dimensions: 7″x10″
• Date: 1997
• Binding: hardbound

Contents: magiccafe.be – click for details

Found something wrong? Help us improve things by clicking here!