Harry Lorayne
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Harry Lorayne (born 1926) is an American magician and a memory-training specialist and writer who was called "The Yoda of Memory Training" by Time magazine. He is well known for his mnemonic demonstrations and has appeared on numerous television shown including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His book The Memory Book was a New York Times bestseller. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians.

Life and career

He grew up in New York's Lower East Side and he learned sleight of hand at the Hamilton Fish Park in the 1930s. At age 18, he began to perform as a table magician at Billy Reed's Little Club at 70 E. 55th St. in New York. The actor Victor Jory, noted for his role as a magician detective, was a regular visitor to the club. Lorayne started performing memory tricks for Jory and Jory's enthusiastic response changed Lorayne's approach to performing.[1]

He began appearing on national (he had his own TV show in 1951, called The Prof. Magic Show)television in 1963, first on I've Got a Secret, where he demonstrated his ability to remember everybody's name in the audience and later appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and numerous other television shows including Jack Paar, The Merv Griffin Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Regis Philbin Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, That's Incredible, David Susskind. He was a regular performer (23 times) on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.[1]

To demonstrate his memory, Harry Lorayne would stand beside the president of the club he was visiting and be introduced to each member. The number of members of a club could reach up to 1,500. After an hour and a half, Lorayne would speak about memory for about 20 minutes and then ask if anyone had a question. He promised that he would pay any questioner whose name he could not remember a thousand dollars. He always remembered the names of every member of the audience.[citation needed] Lorayne also made news by memorizing and recalling information from phone books with no errors. Did the above a few times, but on just about every personal appearance, he would meet all the people in the audience, then he would open his show by asking all the people he met to please stand. He'd ask them to sit down as, and if, he pointed to each person and said his or her name. He sat down everyone in the audience - always! He had a memory school in New York employing such instructors as Darwin Ortiz. His video course (MEMORY POWER) was used as part of the training of many top corporations.

Writer and publisher

In 1958, Lorayne published Secrets of Mind Power. The book tells readers how to improve their thinking skills for success. In Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan writes that he read Lorayne's book shortly before breaking through as a music star after finding it in the book collection of a friend.

Most of his writings have been on the subject of memory for a general audience. For amateur and professional magicians, he has also publishing quite a few books and videos/DVDs on card magic. Magic magazine included him in a list of the 100 most influential magicians of the 20th century.[2] In 2005 he wrote Lorayne: The Classic Collection for magicians, an updated collection of his first four magic books of the 1960s. Since then, he's written The Classic Collection, Volumes 2 and 3, and Special Effects.

For twenty years, Lorayne wrote and published the monthly magazine Apocalypse, which were eventually published in four large volumes. He is also a columnist for Genii (magazine) magazine. Lorayne is the author of the NY Times bestseller The Memory Book.

In 2007, Lorayne published Ageless Memory, which he called his legacy book.[citation needed]

Publications

How To Develop a Super Power Memory (1958)
" Harry Lorayne's Secrets of Mind Power (1961)
Close-Up Card Magic - 1962
Personal Secrets - 1964
Page-A-Minute Memory Book (Paperback - 1996)
The Harry Lorayne Memory Isometrics Course, Geneva (publisher), (1968)
My Favorite Card Tricks - 1965
Dingle's Deceptions - 1966
Best of Bill-fooled
Deck-Sterity - 1967
Miracle Math - 1968
Reputation-Makers - 1971
Rim Shots - 1973
Afterthoughts - 1975
The Epitome Location - 1976
Tarbell #7
The Magic Book - 1977
Star Quality - 1979
Quantum Leaps - 1980
Doug Edwards Packs A Wallop
Best of Friends, Vol. 1
The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel
Trend Setters - 1982
Best of Friends, Vol. 2
The Himber Wallet Book
Best of Friends, Vol. 3
The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play ( 1986)
Miracle Math' - 1992
Super Memory, Super Student: How to Raise Your Grades in 30 Days Little Brown and Company (1990)
How to get Rich Using the power of your mind (Paperback - 2003)
Ageless Memory: Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young (2007)
Remembering People (The Key To Success) (2008)
"Personal Collection" (2001)
The Classic Collection, Volume 1 - 2005
The Classic Collection, Volume 2 - 2008
The Classic Collection, Volume 3 - 2010
Special Effects
"Best Ever 4-Vol. DVD set
Personal Collection - 1999

Columns

Apocalypse Magazine - 1978-1997
References

1. a b "Interview with Roger Dreyer", "Dead Magicians Society", 2010
2. Profile, Magic, May 1999