THE BLURB:
The first edition of Alexander The Man Who Knows told the
incredible story of Claude Conlin's rise to fame as his
generation's premier mindreader. Just when you thought the
Alexander story couldn't get any more amazing, along comes
this new, greatly-expanded edition. Loads of new stories
that read like a Saturday afternoon movie serial and dozens
of new photographs that prove every one of those stories is
true.
Throughout this book, two very different stories unfold.
First there is the account of Claude Alexander Conlin, the
man who became perhaps the highest paid entertainer in the
field of magic. Starting out as a stage illusionist,
Alexander eventually discarded the large props and relied on
his tremendous skills as a showman to put over an act of
mentalism and psychic readings. As the turbaned Man Who
Knows, Alexander earned four million dollars over the course
of a relatively short career during the 1920s.
The second story that runs concurrently with Alexander's
theatrical career includes details on his seven marriages
(sometimes to more than one woman at once), time spent in
local jails and federal prison, his trial for attempting to
extort an oilman millionaire, his failed attempt to out run
the authorities in a high powered speed-boat loaded with
bootlegged liquor, and the four men that he admitted
killing.
It is not the kind of story in which you expect to find
names like Harry Kellar, Dr. A.M. Wilson, Harry Houdini,
Servais Le Roy, Howard Thurston, Floyd Thayer, Joe Dunninger
and Harry Blackstone but here they are, both friend and foe
alike.
From the gold fields of Alaska to s�ance parlors on the
Barbary Coast to the most luxurious theaters in North
America, the story of The Man Who Knows is a story like no
other.
Pages: 267 - 8" x 10" - Hardcover with dust jacket -
Illustrated with photographs, programs, advertisements and
diagrams plus twelve pages of full color, with 70 new
photographs!
Peek inside Alexander - The Man Who Knows
Introduction To The Second Edition
In the Introduction to the first edition of this book I
wrote: "I wish that I could say that this is the definitive
biography of Alexander. It is not. But it is probably the
closest we will get at this late date."
Boy, was I wrong.
Following the publication of the book in 2004, a mountain of
new material appeared, as if by magic. But, you ask, since
Alexander died in 1954, what could be "new?" Surprisingly, a
lot. And it came from sources previously unavailable to me.
One of the first persons to contact Mike Caveney and me
after the book appeared was Alexander's grand-niece, Cathy
Stevenson. It turns out that Cathy is the Conlin family
historian. Her grandfather, Clarence, also known as "CB,"
was Alexander's brother. Cathy had grown up hearing
unbelievable stories about her grandfather and great-uncle.
Later, she inherited a trunk full of material concerning her
grandfather's career as a stage mindreader, which paralleled
his more famous brother, Alexander. Clarence also had a
successful career as an attorney, defending high-profile
Hollywood clients, including family-friend, Alexander
Pantages.
In addition to material about her grandfather, Cathy had
also researched the Conlin family back to the time they
first came to America, which pre-dates previously published
accounts. She also had detailed data about the life of
Alexander's father, Berthold Michael James Conlin. And
perhaps most significantly, Cathy put me in touch again with
Alexander's 90 year-old son, John.
I had spoken to John briefly in 2002, during research for
the first edition. Understandably, he was reticent at that
time to talk about his Dad, as I am sure he was uncertain as
to how his contributions would be used. In November, 2005,
following the release of the book, I spoke about Alexander
at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. There I met Cathy and
other members of the Conlin family. I gave a copy of the
book to Cathy, who promised to pass it along to John.
Several months later I was back in Pasadena for a weekend at
Mike and Tina Caveney's home. I had been there less than
five minutes when Mike said, "Let's go see John Conlin." He
picked up the telephone and called the assisted-living
facility where John resides. The receptionist said John
would enjoy the visit. So, after winding our way through
Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles, Mike and
I arrived to have dinner with John Conlin.
John was touched that we would visit him. He had enjoyed the
book and had more details to offer. In-between bites of
peach cobbler, every one of my questions brought forth tales
that would be unknown by anyone but the son of "The Man Who
Knows." It was all brought clearly into perspective when
John showed us a picture of himself at age 5 standing next
to Harry Kellar, the Dean of American magicians, who died in
1922. Here we were in 2006, talking to a man who had
actually known Kellar! This was an especially jaw-dropping
moment for Mike, who had recently published Kellar's
biography.
Before we left that evening, John entrusted Mike and me with
four large, well-worn scrapbooks. They were filled with
family photos, dating back to the turn of the twentieth
century. Later that night, back at Mike's house, we both
studied the images into the early morning hours of the next
day and found many surprising revelations. John and his son,
Alexander, were gracious in allowing us to scan any
photographs that we found of interest, before returning the
scrapbooks to the family.
Back home, I kept digging. Recent leaps in technology have
made it easier to find information concerning the illusive
Alexander. In just a few short years, the world of
information has transformed from paper to pixels. Complete
files of newspapers are now searchable via the internet.
Previously, when one was researching a person through
newspaper files it was sometimes necessary to scroll through
hundreds of microfilmed pages to find one morsel of
information. If one knew an approximate date and specific
newspaper to search, the task was a bit easier. Without this
basic data, it was like looking for the proverbial needle in
a haystack. Now, after typing just a name or subject into my
laptop computer, online search engines can pick through
thousands of newspaper files in seconds, bringing forth more
information than Alexander would have ever dreamed possible
with his mystic turban.
When the first edition of Alexander sold out, Mike and I
made the decision that rather than reprint the book as it
was, a completely new edition should be created that would
incorporate this new material. Some parts of the Alexander
story have changed since the previous telling. Other parts
have been brought into clearer focus.
While Alexander is still cloaked in somewhat of a veil of
mystery, we have now been able to pull that veil aside just
a little bit more. I think you'll find, as I have, that the
man behind the curtain was even more amazing than his
carefully crafted stage persona.
David Charvet
September, 2006
MY COMMENTS:
This is an extraordinarly engaging examination of one of
mentalism's most colorful pioneers. Okay, so all of
mentalism's pioneers were colorful, but Alexander is
definitely one of the more significant ones. What's most
important is that, besides the very readable text and the
story, this book contains a wealth of rare illustrations and
other materials.
When I got hold of the original edition of the book, I
remember reading it in one sitting. I knew a bit about
Alexander but this brought his fascinating story to life and
kept me reading this until I finished. This new edition, as
explained in the blurb, has even more material, which is
another reason to get this.
It's a beautiful hardbound book (8"x10" with dust jacket)
that recounts the tale of an extremely popular figure in the
history of mentalism and that all mentalists should know.
This is a book that mentalists would be proud to keep on
their shelves and read and re-read over the years.
David Charvet
ALEXANDER
$65
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