The Amazing Kreskin
American mentalist (1935–2024)
The Amazing Kreskin (born George Joseph Kresge Jr., January 12, 1935 – December 10, 2024), also known as Kreskin, was an American mentalist who became popular on television in the 1970s. He was inspired to become a mentalist by Lee Falk's comic strip Mandrake the Magician, which features a crime-fighting stage magician. He always presented himself as a mentalist, never as a psychic, who operated on the basis of suggestion, not the paranormal or supernatural.
Early life and education
George Joseph Kresge Jr. was born on January 12, 1935, in Montclair, New Jersey, to a Polish father and Sicilian mother and grew up with his younger brother in West Caldwell, New Jersey, where he would reside for most of his life. His father worked for a battery manufacturer. Kreskin attended Seton Hall University, earning a degree in psychology. He worked for several years as a clinical psychologist while developing his act.
Career
From 1972 to 1975, Kreskin's television series The Amazing World of Kreskin was broadcast throughout Canada on CTV and distributed in syndication in the United States. It was produced in Ottawa, Ontario, at the CJOH-TV studios.
“The Amazing Kreskin” enters the record as american mentalist (1935–2024). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Amazing, Kreskin and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Amazing Kreskin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Amazing, Kreskin and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q573671. VIAF identifies the subject as 53376360. The Library of Congress control number is n94027640. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 2024, 1972 and 1975.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Amazing Kreskin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Amazing Kreskin primary sources, The Amazing Kreskin archive and Amazing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Amazing Kreskin”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Amazing Kreskin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.