Johnny & me

Like countless other North American kids of all ages I was entertained and delighted by this wonderful magician right up to his passing in early 1974. But I really only got to know Johnny in the last few years of his life. Like so many others before and after me, I was inspired by him to take up magic as a hobby and later to seek a career in the creative and performing arts. (Johnny helped me in this endeavour too, appearing in my first-ever documentary made in Super 8 while I was still in junior high school). However, Johnny was more than just a professional mentor, he was a genuinely joyful human being with great spiritual depths. If I haven't quite lived up to his level of kindness and generosity of spirit so far in my adult years then the failing is entirely mine. It isn't for want of ideal role models. - jp

(Photo above - me and Johnny and Anna Giordmaine, 1973.)

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This site was made on a Macintosh. Many thanks to Lisa for the scans! For the record - I make no money from this site. I created it purely out of respect and appreciation for its subject.

Website Curator: John Pellatt

E mail - m a g i c at v c n dot b c dot c a (remove all spaces)

Original text and images copyright 2008/9/10/11/12/13/14/15. All other material on this site from personal collections used by permission and/or believed in public domain, reproduced for educational, historical, non-profit purposes only. In the event that any contemporary copyright holder objects to the use of any work herein, said work will be removed upon written request containing proof of current copyright ownership. You may copy but please credit this site if you reprint anything.

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RELEVANT LINKS

(Updated May 2015; all seem to work.)

 

(LISTED IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER - LINK TO ME & I WILL LINK TO YOU!)

 

Canadian Magicians Archive, John Giordmaine entry:

http://canadianmagiciansarchive.homestead.com/g.html

"Sleight of Hand", an engaging television documentary about Johnny:

http://www.whitepinepictures.com/seeds/iii/29/index.html

Toronto's oldest magic shop, The Browser's Den, which has helped promote us:

http://www.browsersden.com

The Canadian Association of Magicians has kindly linked to us:

http://www.CAMMagic.org

The aptly named Magic Biography site has also linked to us:

http://www.magicbiography.com

Brent Smith at The Vanishing Rabbit donated the poster on pg 22:

http://www.vanishingrabbit.com

Johnny's page at Genii Magazine's Magicpedia now links to us:

http://www.geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/John_Giordmaine

"Canada's Magic" referenced us on 1/19/11, the 37th anniversary of Johnny's passing:

http://CanadasMagic.blogspot.com

Thomas Baxter's personal recollections of the legendary Arcade Magic shop:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070521011758/http://home.cogeco.ca/~tombaxter/lib1.htm

Toronto's IBM Ring 17 featured us in their September 2011 e-newsletter:

http://www.ibmring17.com/