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John Northern Hilliard (1872 - 1935) was a Rochester newspaper man and clever amateur magician.

Biography

Hilliard was dramatic critic with The Chicago Herald and later on the staff of The Rochester (N. Y.) Post Express. After moving to New York, he met Howard Thurston while a reporter on The New York World and became interested in magic. John was credited with securing the master magician with his first engagement on the stage. Several years later Thurston induced Hilliard to give up his newspaper work and become his personal representative.

With the urging of Floyd G. Thayer, John starting writing for Thayer's Magical Bulletin magazine. In 1925, Hilliard became an advance man for The Thurston show. During this time he accumulated notes on what he was learning about magic. In 1932, Carl Waring Jones urged him to turn his notes into a book, offering to publish it. But Hilliard suddenly died of a heart attack in 1935 while in a hotel room in Indianapolis.

Read more about John Northern Hilliard…

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-[[File: PercyAbbott1.png|right|thumb|200px|[[ Percy Abbott]]]]
+[[File: JNHilliard.png|right|thumb|200px|[[ John Northern Hilliard]]]]
-'''Percy Abbott''' (b.1886-d.1960) was an Australian magician and magic dealer who founded [[Abbott's Magic Novelty Company]] in Colon, Michigan.
+'''John Northern Hilliard''' (1872 - 1935) was a Rochester newspaper man  and clever amateur magician.
 == Biography ==
+Hilliard was dramatic critic with The Chicago Herald and later on the staff of The Rochester (N. Y.) Post Express. After moving to New York, he met [[Howard Thurston]] while a reporter on The New York World and became interested in magic. John was credited with securing the master magician with his first engagement on the stage. Several years later Thurston induced Hilliard to give up his newspaper work and become his personal representative.
-Abbott was born in Sydney, Australia in 1886 as one of four children. Orphaned as a youngster, Abbott and his siblings moved in with an aunt who charged the children for room and board.
+With the urging of [[Floyd G. Thayer]], John starting writing for [[Thayer's Magical Bulletin]] magazine. In 1925, Hilliard became an advance man for The Thurston show. During this time he accumulated notes on what he was learning about magic. In 1932, Carl Waring Jones urged him to turn his notes into a book, offering to publish it. But Hilliard suddenly died of a heart attack in 1935 while in a hotel room in Indianapolis.
-Early interests included theatre and magic; Abbott took part in amateur theatrical productions as a boy, and soon thereafter, discovered magic; it was the latter pursuit, along with its allied art, ventriloquism, to which he would devote the balance of his life. In his early 20s, Abbott found himself performing regularly in Sydney and other Australian towns, eventually taking a position with the New York Novelty Co., a firm that supplied magicians with the tricks of their trade. Abbott eventually broke away from the firm to open his own supply house for conjurers, called Abbott's Magic Novelty Co., located on Pitt St. in downtown Sydney. He continued performing locally and through the Pacific, and was reportedly one of the first magicians to perform the Sawing a Woman in Halves illusion in Australia.
-After a short time, Abbott turned the reins of his magic shop over to his brother Frank and left Australia permanently. He toured the Orient, and eventually landed in America, in 1926, and attended the first annual conventions of the [[International Brotherhood of Magicians]]. It was at one of these affairs that Abbott met [[Harry Blackstone, Sr.]] The two men agreed to form a partnership and thereby established the Blackstone Magic Co. in the small village of Colon, Michigan.
-The Blackstone Magic Co. lasted for only 18 months, closing its doors in 1929. Four years later, after working on [[Coney Island]] with [[Jean Hugard]], playing school shows throughout the Midwest, and marrying a girl from Colon named Gladys Goodrich, Abbott opened another magic shop in the small Michigan town, this one bearing his name. The Abbott Magic Novelty Company began advertising in trade journals in 1933, and by 1934, was a going concern, having introduced a successful magic trick to the fraternity that sold well enough to keep the small business solvent. The effect, suggested to Abbott by a dentist from Saginaw, Michigan, Dr. [[Boris Zola]], was the barehanded vanish of a shot glass full of whiskey, and was called "Squash."
- [[Percy Abbott|Read more about Percy Abbott....]]
+[[John Northern Hilliard|Read more about John Northern Hilliard…]]

Magicpedia:Today's featured article: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:23, 20 February 2026

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