Doug Henning received his first box of magic tricks on his 7th birthday, but it wasn’t until he saw Peruvian magician, Richiardi Jr., levitate a woman on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 that he experienced “the sense of wonder” associated with magic.
Doug performed for family and friends throughout his teenage years and, after the family moved to Oakville, Ontario. In 1967, he enrolled at McMaster University to study psychology, continuing to perform, often in the coffee houses and clubs in Yorkville, and as far away as the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. In 1971, Doug applied to the Canada Council for a grant to study magic. He parlayed that grant into lessons with two of the world’s master magicians, Tony Slydini in New York, and Dai Vernon in Los Angeles. Doug returned to Toronto, and with fellow McMaster student Ivan Reitman, staged Spellbound, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in December 1973. The show, directed by Reitman, broke box office records.
With a new book and score, Spellbound opened a four-and-a-half-year run on Broadway on May 28, 1974, as The Magic Show. In 2975, NBC broadcast Doug Henning’s World of Magic, a live-live broadcast to over 50 million people. In the U.S., six out of every ten television sets tuned into the Doug Henning special.
Over the next ten years, Doug had seven more NBC television specials, two other shows on Broadway including Merlin, which ran nine months at the Mark Hellinger Theatre and was nominated for five Tony Awards, conducted several tours of major theatres throughout Canada and the United States, and was the first magician to headline a show in Las Vegas. His long runs at Caesar’s Palace and the MGM Grand transformed Las Vegas into the magic capital of the world.
