Milt Larsen
American businessman (1931–2023)
Milt Larsen (April 9, 1931 – May 28, 2023) was an American actor, writer, performer, lyricist, magician, businessman, speaker, and the creator of The Magic Castle, a private club for magicians and enthusiasts.
Early life
Larsen and his brother, Bill Larsen Jr., were both in television and grew up in a family of magicians. Their father, William W. Larsen Sr., was a performing magician and Los Angeles defense attorney. Their mother, Geraldine, was an early TV pioneer children's entertainer known as The Magic Lady. In 1936, Larsen's parents began publishing Genii, the Conjurors Magazine, which is still in publication. In 1999, Magic magazine selected the Larsen Family as one of the 100 most influential magicians in the 20th century.
The Magic Castle
The Larsen Brothers' father died in 1953, his dream of a place for magicians to gather and swap trade secrets over drinks unrealized. In 1961 Larsen met Tom Glover, the owner of the hillside property which included the Hollywood restaurant The Yamashiro.
Larsen told Glover about his father's idea of a clubhouse for magicians, and Glover agreed to Milt's proposal to transform the Lane mansion on Glover's property, below The Yamashiro, into The Magic Castle, a nightclub for magicians and home of the Academy of Magical Arts.
Larsen leased the property and restored the French Chateau mansion to house the club.
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This entry incorporates text from “Milt Larsen” 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.