Background
It has many years since the first on-line bulletin board dedicated to magic collecting/history was established on Richard Robinson’s Spider Net. This was when the internet was in its infancy and dial-up bulletin boards were just beginning to establish on-line communities. Richard asked me to moderate Spider Net’s Collector’s Forum and what great fun it was. This was the beginning of a place to exchange ideas and ask questions in real time that has radically changed the way magic is collected and researched today. As the web matured Spider Net became allmagic.com, and the Collector’s Forum grew into Magical Past-Times. With Richard’s tireless support and technical guidance MPT grew and expanded into one of the leading websites dedicated to magic history. I edited MPT until a number of years ago when Todd Karr kindly offered to manage the site. I jumped at the chance, but sadly the side is now defunct. Since then I have been tracking down information on several rather obscure magician