John Mulholland (born John Wickizer) (9 June 1898 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

– 25 February 1970 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an American magician, author, publisher and

intelligence agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

Early life

Mulholland was born on June 9, 1898, in Chicago, Illinois.''Contemporary Authors: First Revision, Volumes 5-8''. Gale Research Company, 1969. p. 806 His parents were John and Irene Wickizer. While still at school Mulholland started his professional magic career from 1913. He was educated at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and College of the City of New York. Mulholland supplemented his income by teaching industrial arts at

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

during 1919–1925.

Life and work

Mulholland learned the art of magic as a teenager with John William Sargent, President of the

Society of American Magicians The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and ...

. Mulholland was a professional magician for two decades, working in small companies and large stage shows. He ran one of the first magic workshops and was from 1930 the editor of the magical trade magazine '' The Sphinx''. He published many books on magic and its history. Mulholland was a close friend of

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American Escapology, escape artist, Magic (illusion), magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his Escapology, escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to ...

. Mulholland asserted that "Houdini once told me that he considered no man to be a magician until he was able skillfully to perform the

cups and balls The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the ba ...

." His other friends included

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1 ...

Harold Ross Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death. Early life Born in a prospector' ...

and Bert Terhune. Mulholland married Pauline Pierce on May 17, 1932. In 1939, he was the only foreign officer in the British Magical Society, and by that time had studied his craft in 42 countries. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he wrote a spellbook for soldiers. His collection is now owned by

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 ...

. In 1949, Mulholland was issued a public $10,000 challenge. John J McManus (Magic Collector) issued the challenge in the Conjurors' Magazine (June 1949, Vol 5 Issue# 4). The full page ad called for Mulholland to re-create his famous 'Hooker Rising Trick' under controlled stage conditions with McManus providing the necessary props. Failure to answer the challenge or to correctly recreate the trick would call for publicly accepting the story of his trick as an 'exaggerated myth'. He left his editorial position at ''The Sphinx'' in 1953, officially due to health problems but in reality it was a cover for him to work for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. During the Cold War, Mulholland was paid by the CIA to write a manual on deception and misdirection. Copies of the document were believed to have been destroyed in 1973, however, copies later resurfaced and were published as "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception". In 2008, magician Ben Robinson authored ''The Magician: John Mulholland's Secret Life'' which documented his work with the CIA. He was the editor of the Conjurer's Journal and was the only living magician listed in the book ''Who's who in America'' immediately after the death of

Howard Thurston Howard Thurston (July 20, 1869 – April 13, 1936) was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio, United States. His childhood was unhappy, and he ran away to join the circus, where his future partner Harry Kellar also performed. Thurston was deeply ...

. Mulholland was also a member of Inner Magic Circle (honorary vice-president),

International Brotherhood of Magicians International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) is an organization for both professional and amateur close-up and stage magicians, with approximately 15,000 members worldwide. The headquarters is in St. Charles, Missouri. There are over 300 ...

and

. Mulholland is attributed with having been the first person to collect Magic Tokens.

Skepticism

Mulholland had criticized the claims of

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

and exposed the tricks of fraudulent spiritualist

mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

. His book ''Beware Familiar Spirits'' (1938) revealed many of these tricks.The New Books. ''Review of Beware Familiar Spirits''. The Saturday Review. November 26, 1938. p. 24Coleman, Earle Jerome. (1987). ''Magic: A Reference Guide''. Greenwood Press. p. 120 A review which highly praised the book, stated that Mulholland had "been sworn at, threatened, and even shot at while acquiring the information". In 1952 for '' Popular Science'', he published a skeptical article on

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

s and

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...

Books

Articles
''Secrets of the Fortune-Telling Racket''
'' Popular Science''. January, 1931. ith Michel Mok
''Magicians Scoff''
'' Popular Science''. September, 1952.
The Journal of Necromantic Numismatics
many articles concerning Magic Tokens. 1965-1970. Books * ''Magic in the Making'' (1925) * ''Quicker than the Eye'' (1932) * ''The Magic and Magicians of the World'' (1932) * ''The Story of Magic'' (1935) * ''Beware Familiar Spirits'' (1938) * ''The Girl in the Cage'' (1939) * ''The Art of Illusion'' (1944) * ''The Early Magic Shows'' (1945) * ''The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception'' (1953) :* * ''Practical Puppetry'' (1961) * ''John Mulholland’s Book of Magic'' (1963) * ''Magic of the World'' (1965) * ''The Magical Mind – Key to Successful Communication'' (1967)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulholland, John 1898 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers American magicians American skeptics Critics of parapsychology Critics of Spiritualism Harry Houdini Historians of magic People of the Central Intelligence Agency UFO skeptics Writers from Chicago