This week’s star magician is Jack Trepel, a magician and florist who lived across the street from Houdini and served as the president of the Parent Assembly of the Society of American Magicians.
The photograph below, from the cover of the February 1943 issue of GENII, shows Trepel delighting radio star Mercedes McCambridge with a floating card trick when she stopped into his New York City floral shop.
Perhaps his shop was also the source of that lovely corsage? (The source of McCambridge’s pristine and oddly-textured hat, however, will remain a mystery.)
Special Collections at PPL 
Jack Trepel was my great-uncle. I know that he lived in Brooklyn near Houdini, who mentored him as a young boy. Jack joined the SAM Parent chapter in NYC in 1909 when he was just 15 years old. When Houdini moved to 125 St. in Manhattan, Jack ended up living on the same block a few buildings down. Sadly most of his history and relationship with Houdini is lost now.
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