Doug Henning

By the early 1970s stage magic was on its way to becoming a dated amusement. Doug Henning pulled it back, and he did it not by inventing new material but by replacing what a magician was supposed to look like.

Key achievements

1. From Canada; returned magic to the centre of popular entertainment through Broadway and television specials.
2. Discarded tails and formal affectation for a bright, approachable stage persona.
3. Revived a declining art of stage illusion and bridged it to the next generation.

A magician who studied psychology

Henning was born on 3 May 1947 in Fort Garry, Manitoba. Growing up in Winnipeg, he is said to have been captivated by a levitation he saw a magician perform on The Ed Sullivan Show.

What is interesting is that he did not go straight into magic. He took a degree in psychology at McMaster in Ontario.

After graduating he won a $4,000 grant from the Canadian government to fund the study of magic. A government awarding a grant for research into conjuring is unusual in itself.

With that money, and a good deal more that he raised himself, he built a stage show called Spellbound, which ran chiefly in Toronto. That was his starting point.

A form in trouble

At the start of the 1970s, stage illusion was losing momentum.

The golden-age manner — white tie and a certain solemnity — read as antique to younger audiences. The problem was not the material. The bearing of the performer had drifted out of step with the times.

Changing the costume

What Henning did was swap that bearing wholesale.

No tails. No airs. He walked on with long hair in colourful clothes and performed with visible delight.

This was not a superficial adjustment. It was a claim that a magician need not be an imposing figure who knows something you do not. Here was a performer standing on the audience’s side of the wonder, astonished alongside them. That position widened the role considerably for everyone who came after.

That a psychology graduate should have focused on where the audience stands may not be a coincidence.

1974, Broadway

In May 1974, Henning opened the musical The Magic Show on Broadway. The following year he was nominated for a Tony Award for it.

A magician starring in a Broadway musical and being nominated for a theatre award. How exceptional that is becomes clear as soon as you look for precedents.

Fifty million

Then, in December 1975, NBC broadcast the special Doug Henning’s World of Magic.

More than fifty million people watched.

That is not a theatre’s worth of people. In a single evening, fifty million saw the same performance. An audience of that size returned to a form that had been in decline.

Afterwards

In later years Henning became a student of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, stepping away from the magic stage to devote himself to that work.

He died on 7 February 2000 in Los Angeles, at fifty-two.

The stars of the next era grew up among the audience he won back in the 1970s. David Copperfield’s television specials began in 1978. The next performer walked through the door Henning had opened.

Notable works

• The Broadway musical The Magic Show (1974), which brought him a Tony nomination
• The NBC special Doug Henning's World of Magic (from 1975); the first drew over 50 million viewers
• Spellbound, the early self-produced show he staged in Toronto

Chronology

Only years that could be verified are listed.

1. 1947 Born on 3 May in Fort Garry, Manitoba, Canada
2. 1974 The Magic Show opens on Broadway in May
3. 1975 Receives a Tony nomination for The Magic Show; in December, the NBC special Doug Henning's World of Magic draws over 50 million viewers
4. 2000 Dies on 7 February in Los Angeles