Wizards of Baghdad

	February 1961	The New TOPS
	DETROIT'S WIZARDS OF BAGHDAD by SILKY SULLIVAN At the Detroit Ring 22 meeting in Decem­ber two Guests were introduced. Mr. Thos. Mcguire of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Mr. Wm. Brown, Manager of the Fox Theatre. They stated that the Twentieth Century Fox people were pick­ing 20 magicians who were going to tour 300 cities throughout the United States. These are the Cities that are having the ear­ly showing of the new Magical Movie the "Wizard of Baghdad". Again as usual the Detroit Ring had a full house. Each magician had his chance to perform his favorite trick of the evening. Names were taken of all those who would be interested and available for this work. Those chosen were Ron Bauer, who is do­ing magic on Friday and Saturday evenings at the Kenwood Lounge here in Detroit. In our opinion he is one of the best Close-up men you will see. Roy Kissel who just completed performing before over a million people, at the National Auto Show here in Detroit's new Cobo Hall. Roy did his clown act and it was great. The third mem­ber to be chosen was yours truly, Silky Sullivan. In our Oriental costumes we would travel to different cities in Michigan and Ohio. We were to do 5 minutes or so on T.V. Child­ren's Shows, Orphanages and Children's Hospitals. This was to give us ample pic­tures for advertising the movie. Many interesting things happened to us during this tour. By the way, we traveled alone. Ron Bauer was caught in a snow storm near Grand Rapids and was lucky he didn't have to sleep in his car. Roy Kissel, who traveled from Traverse City to Ohio found his car going down a steep embankment during a snow storm like it was a flying carpet. Fortunately for Roy he was not hurt nor was his car. For old Silky my big thrill was doing these magic shows in front of sick children and bringing a little laughter to them just before Christmas. It seems that sick chil-	dren, more than ever at Christmas time, need this so much. My eyes were not dry when I walked out. Twentieth Century Fox gave us an ample supply of comic color books to hand out. This was my first time on T.V. and having an opportunity to do 3 T.V. Shows in the Detroit area was an ex­perience that we won't forget. Especially the last show which was taped in Windsor. Canada. It enabled me to go home and with our three children Kathy, Tommy and Mike see myself perform. So here is an idea for you that might pay off. Contact your Theatre managers where the "Wizard of Baghdad" will be shown and give a pitch on doing magic on his stage before the show. This would pay off for the theatre and for you. It was worth our while in more ways than one so states Ron Bauer, Roy Kissel and Silky Sullivan.
		Detroit's three "Wizards of Baghdad", Ron Bauer, Silky Sullivan and Roy Kissel. A polka-dot handkerchief 'changed color', the 'dots' were dropped into the folds of a banner, when the banner was shaken out the 'dots' spelled out the name of the film. Magical props made by Abbott's.