Robert James Albo (May 8, 1932 – February 21, 2011) was an American physician, surgeon and amateur illusionist. He was for 40 years team physician for the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

as well as the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

. At one point he held the largest private magic collection in the world.

Early life and education

Robert Albo was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, on May 8, 1932, and grew up in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. He attended Berkeley High School, where he played basketball and helped lead the team to Tournament of Champions title in 1949. After high school, he briefly worked as an animator for

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

before studying pre-med at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he was captain of the basketball and baseball teams. He was offered a contract with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

, but declined it to pursue a medical career.

Medical career

Albo received his medical education at

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

(UCSF), graduating in 1959. He remained at UCSF for his internship and residency, and later became a professor of surgery there. His first professional job in sports medicine was with the

Oakland Seals The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. The ...

hockey team. He became team physician for the

in the early 1970s, and in 1999 became the Warriors' Director of Medicine. He was also the head team physician for the

and

Oakland Oaks (ABA) The Oakland Oaks were a charter member of the original American Basketball Association and the first West Coast basketball team to win a major professional championship. Formed in February 1967, the team played in the ABA during the 1967–68 and ...

. He specialised in general, vascular, and oncological surgery.

Magic collection

Albo was an amateur illusionist, and held a collection of magic apparatus that grew to be the world's largest, with over 4000 items. Albo used it to write his well regarded series of books, ''Classic Magic With Apparatus''. Originally intended as a trilogy, it eventually grew to 11 volumes. It was followed by further books focused on the magic of

Okito Tobias "Theo" Leendert Bamberg (1875–1963) was a professional magician. Born in the Netherlands, Bamberg performed under the name ''Okito'' which is an anagram of Tokio (Tokyo). His father had been court magician to King William III of the Ne ...

and Thayer. In 1992, selected items from the collection were displayed over three of the terminals of

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

. In 1994, Albo agreed to sell the entire collection to

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

, though some items were not transferred to Copperfield until 2010. Albo was a partner in the Palace of Magic shop in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and Magic Island in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

Bibliography

* ''Classic Magic Series'' ** I - ''The Oriental Magic of the Bambergs'' (1973) w/ Eric C. Lewis & David Bamberg ** II - ''Classic Magic With Apparatus'' (1976) ** III - ''More Classic Magic With Apparatus'' ** IV - ''Further Classic Magic With Apparatus'' ** V - ''Still Further Classic Magic With Apparatus'' ** VI - ''Final Classic Magic With Apparatus'' ** VII - ''Classic Magic Index'' ** VIII - ''Classic Magic Supplement'' ** IX - ''Additional Classic Magic With Apparatus'' ** X - ''History and Mystery of Magic'' ** XI - ''Laboratories of Legerdemain'' *** ''Magic of the United States'' *** ''Magic of France'' *** ''Magic of Germany'' *** ''Magic of England'' * ''The Ultimate Okito'' * ''The Ultimate Okito Addendum'' * ''The Ultimate Okito Encore'' * ''The Ultimate Thayer'' * ''Thoughts on the History and Mystery of Magic''

Awards

* The

Academy of Magical Arts The Magic Castle is a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California and it bills itself as "the most unusual private club in t ...

Special Fellowship (1983) * The Academy of Magical Arts Literary & Media Fellowship (1988) * The John Neville Maskelyne Prize 1989

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albo, Robert 1932 births 2011 deaths American surgeons American sports physicians University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni Historians of magic Academy of Magical Arts Literature & Media Fellowship winners Academy of Magical Arts Special Fellowship winners