Dell O'Dell was the stage name of Odella Newton (20 October 1897 – 5 February 1962)''Don't Fool Yourself: The Magical Life of Dell O'Dell'' an American magician regarded in her profession as a pioneer who provided a role model for modern female performers. She was noted for being one of the first magicians to appear on television, on her own show, ''The Dell O'Dell Show'', on ABC's local station in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1951. She was also one of few American women to have her own circus, the Della O'Dell Society Circus, which toured the Midwest in 1925 and 1926. Before becoming one of the most popular female magicians on the night club circuit during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Dell O'Dell also performed in vaudeville and burlesque. Her skills included juggling furniture and lecturing on physical culture. At an early stage of her career, she acquired the rights to the comedy magic act of Frank Van Hoven (1886-1929) and created her own versions of his burlesque magic tricks. At the height of her career, she was billed as "The World's Leading Lady Magician" and "The Queen of Magic."

Career

Odella Newton's father Lucky Bill Newton (1859-1937) ran his own circus, and she began learning juggling from the performers on his circus when she was young. Odella developed a strongwoman act and "could climb up one side of a ladder and down the other with a sofa balanced on her chin". She developed a style that featured snappy patter and cute rhymes, which became something of a trademark. During the 1930s, Newton entered

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, using the stage name Dell O'Dell. She subsequently became a comedy magician. In 1931, she married Charles Carrer (1898-1971), a famous juggler from Zurich, Switzerland, who sometimes assisted in her show and rebuilt and repaired props for her. She became a pioneer of television magic when ''The Dell O'Dell Show'' began transmission on a local station in the

Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on 14 September 1951. She thus pre-dated several other noted pioneers of television magic, such as Mark Wilson, whose first television show began in 1955, and

Richiardi Jr Richiardi Jr. (often billed just as Richiardi, and sometimes as Aldo Richiardi), was the stage name of magician Aldo Izquierdo (24 November 1923 – 6 September 1985), who became famous for dramatic and gory stage presentations of classic stage ill ...

who made the first of his record run of appearances on

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

in 1956. O'Dell wrote frequently on the subject of magic. For eight years in the 1940s, she contributed a column titled "Dell-lightfully" for the magicians' magazine ''

The Linking Ring ''The Linking Ring'' is a monthly print magic magazine published by the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) for its members since 1922. It is based in Bluffton, Ohio. In 2007, Samuel Patrick Smith, a magician, author and publisher based ...

''. She also produced a number of books of tricks and performance routines, including ''Presenting Magical Moments'' (1939) and ''On Both Sides of the Footlights'' (1946), though both books were ghost-written for her. Her "Stamp Album" presentation was published in volume 4 of the ''Tarbell Course in Magic''. O'Dell died age 64 of

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...

and left her body to

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

for scientific research. Her husband Charlie died on December 25, 1971. In 2014, Michael Claxton's biography of O'Dell, Don't Fool Yourself: The Magical Life of Dell O'Dell, was released by Squash Publishing.

References

External links

Picture of Dell O'Dell at the National Library of Australia

Web site devoted to Dell O'Dell by The Houdini Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odell, Dell American magicians 1897 births 1962 deaths Deaths from multiple myeloma

Career

References

Further reading

External links