Marshall, Frances Ireland
(1910-2002)
Frances was the owner of the Chicago magic shop Ireland Magic Co., which she later named Magic Inc. She was, perhaps, the most influential woman in the male dominated field of magic. Her entire life was spent with magic, as a performer, writer and promoter. She was married to magic inventor L.L. Ireland until his death in 1954, and then married magician Jay Marshall. As Mrs. Ireland, she was the founder, in 1938, of Magigals, an association for female magicians (today called Women In Magic).For more than five years, Mrs. Marshall appeared every Sunday in the "Funny Paper Party," a program on WGN-TV featuring Chicago Tribune publisher Col. Robert McCormick.
Wrote: You Don't Have To Be Crazy (1946), With Frances In Magicland (1952), Kid Stuff (six volumes/1954-75), How to Sell by Magic (1958), The Sponge Book (1960), The Success Book (four volumes/1973-84), The Happy Birthday Business (1978), My First 50 Years (1981), Those Beautiful Dames (1984), Come Out Flying, the long running Around Chicago column in the Linking Ring Magazine and many other books, booklets, manuscripts and articles. If You're the M.C. (with Jay Marshall), Table Book by Frances and Jay Marshall