Magician Doug Henning

[Danny62]

I am not sure where to place this guy but I remember watching him on TV alot in the late 70's early 80's!

Magician, Entertainer. He is best remembered for his Broadway musical, "The Magic Show" (1974 to 1976), for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in 1974. Born in Winnipeg, Canada, he attended the McMaster University, graduating with honors in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Following graduation, he pursued a career as a magician, and created Broadway's first musical containing magic, called "The Magic Show," which was televised in 1974. Between 1975 and 1982, he created and starred in several television specials, aired on NBC and CBS, under the title of "Doug Henning's World of Magic." A writer and producer, he created a company, Doug Henning's Magic, Inc. to produce shows, and worked on Vedaland, a multi-million dollar project to build a magic theater adjacent to Walt Disney World in Florida. During an interview, he was once asked what he wanted to be remembered for, to which he replied, "Bringing magic back to the public's attention as a great art form." He died in February 2000, of liver cancer.

May 3, 1947-Feb 7, 2000

[djdeath-hag]

I always enjoyed him....he reminded me a whole lot of one of my brother's friends from high school....just the physical resemblence.

[JefeStone]

I liked him alot better than David Copperfield. David doesn't even look like the same person anymore. He looks like he's had more work than Joan Rivers!

[joplinfrk]

He was married to Barbara DeAngelis..remember her?

[Bake]

He was married to Barbara DeAngelis..remember her?

I recall that name, why?

I had forgotten about him until I saw this thread, I didn't even know he had died...he was good....I watched him all the time!!

[Death Hag Chris]

that guy creeped me out to NO end...that rainbow shirt, sitting indian style, bell bottoms, afro and weird mustache....ICK!!!

[onehunglow]

His best trick was making a million dollars disapear from Canada. He ripped them off.

[joplinfrk]

Barbara DeAngelis is a marriage councelor who writes books. She's been married several times.

[JefeStone]

Doug Henning reminds me of Mr Van Dreissen, the teacher from "Beavis and Butthead"

[nytkrew]

Never really liked him...

[hoxharding]

Doug was all glitter and rainbows.(and lots of hair)

[nytkrew]

Doug was all glitter and rainbows.(and lots of hair)

Ahhh the 1970s

[Harry in Connecticut]

I liked him alot better than David Copperfield. David doesn't even look like the same person anymore. He looks like he's had more work than Joan Rivers!

I liked Doug Henning better because he was happy and talkative.

Whereas Copperfield was always trying to look mysterious. For me, he came off as a self-centered dork.

[mommafreak]

Copperfield needs to make himself disappear. Henning was just much more down to earth.

[SueWahoo]

Doug was all glitter and rainbows.(and lots of hair)

For some reason, when hear of Doug Henning, I think of Shields and Yarnell, also.

Sue

[Gary]

Doug Henning reminds me of Mr Van Dreissen, the teacher from "Beavis and Butthead"

HA HA HA HA.....YES!!!

[Layla331]

had to love doug henning with the long hair ..big ole grin like" look at me i pulled one on ya"..and that gorgeous 70's porn star mustache..hadnt thought about him in a long time..that made me smile!

[joplinfrk]

Shields and Yarnell!! I loved their show. Especially the Klinkers!!

[Tugboat25]

Seemed like all he ever said was "Life...Is an illusion"...."Thank you very much"
(in that odd Doug Henning voice of course).

[Guest]

Plus he had an overbite you could have cracked open a keg of Heineken with.

[PiggyTx]

lol @ Screw. I barely remember him from when I was a kid....just remember him looking like a hippie.

[MorbidMolly]

His best trick was making a million dollars disapear from Canada. He ripped them off.

[RoRo]

I loved him !! I went thru a period when I was so into magicians! We went to vegas and I saw a show with him and John Davidson...aaahhhh the 70's...lol

[susalu]

For some reason, when hear of Doug Henning, I think of Shields and Yarnell, also.

Sue

and the Captain and Tenille!!! lol!


Sus

[Danny62]

That reminds me of Marshall Brodine...I think that is how you spell it?

I used to have a bunch of his magic kits in the 70's!!

[Danny62]

and that gorgeous 70's porn star mustache..

I had to check out a couple old porno's after reading this..Yep your right.

[MorbidMolly]

I had to check out a couple old porno's after reading this..Yep your right.

......LMAO

[Danny62]

......LMAO

I bet it was good to tickle the girls with!!!

[Kman0072]

Any info?




-K.

[Kathyf]

Doug Henning, who has died aged 52, was the most successful magician of his generation. He performed his magic on Broadway, in his own television specials and in countless nightclubs. At the height of his fame he was parodied on Saturday Night Live by Martin Short, another Canadian, who went to university with Mr. Henning.
Doug Henning's magic was several notches above the pull-the-rabbit-from-the-hat variety. He had studied psychology and worked with master magicians to become what he hoped was the thinking man's magician. He was an entertainer first, his shtick the moustachioed hippie in psychedelic clothes.
Houdini was one of his heroes. In his first television special, in 1975, Doug Henning recreated Houdini's Water Torture Escape trick before a live audience, so that the home audience would know he wasn't using trick photography. That show was seen by 50 million people, many more than ever saw Harry Houdini in his lifetime. Mr. Henning later wrote a book about the legend, Houdini: His Legend and His Magic.
But it was levitation that first attracted Doug Henning to magic, when he watched a magician's assistant on The Ed Sullivan Show seem to rise and float in the air. Levitation became one of the grown-up Doug Henning's favourite tricks; once he even created the illusion of levitating a suburban house.
But levitation was also his downfall.
Doug Henning later abandoned magic for yoga and ran for political office as a candidate of the Natural Law Party, first in Britain in 1992, then in the Toronto riding of Rosedale in the federal election of 1993. The Natural Law Party promoted something called "yogic flying," which took the form of the faithful hurling themselves a few inches into the air from the seated yoga position. Doug Henning promised that yogic flying and meditation would cure such earthbound problems as taxes, debt and disease.
At party headquarters at the corner of Roxborough and Yonge Street in Toronto the curious came to see the famous magician turned politician. The committee room was packed when he rose to speak. But candidate Henning managed only 817 votes and he retired from politics and the party. Like many sensitive entertainers before him, Mr. Henning first became involved with meditation in the 1970s. He had been introduced to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian holy man who had popularized transcendental meditation. The Beatles were among his early disciples. Mr. Henning became an enthusiastic follower, and in the early 1990s got involved in trying to build a theme park dedicated to TM.
"A lot of theme parks are just superficial," he said. "We hope to reach people on a deeper level, to stimulate their intellect, arouse their emotions and touch their inner human consciousness."
The park was to be called Vedaland, with Veda meaning knowledge. There were plans for levitating buildings, and the Maharishi had ambitions for nearby housing developments with a stress-free environment. The first park was planned for Florida. It was never built. The second was to be built in Niagara Falls. Doug Henning promised it would create jobs and put an end to the stress of the recession in Canada in the early 1990s. But the Niagara Falls Vedaland was never built.
Douglas James Henning was born in Winnipeg on May 3, 1947. His family moved to Oakville, Ont., when he was a young boy. After seeing the levitation trick on The Ed Sullivan Show, young Doug read books on magic at the library and practised at home with a magic kit. He performed for the first time at a friend's birthday party when he was 14. He then placed an advertisement in a local paper -- "Magician, Have Rabbit, Will Travel" -- and was soon performing at parties and on television in Toronto.
After high school he went to McMaster University, where he studied psychology. He planned to be a doctor but took two years off to work as a magician. He then applied for and received a Canada Council grant to study magic. Later he borrowed $5,000 and built some sets on which to perform magic tricks. In the early 1970s, he and a university friend, Ivan Reitman (the director of Ghostbusters), raised $40,000 and staged a rock musical with a magic theme called Spellbound. It set a box-office record at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto and launched Doug Henning on Broadway, where Spellbound, now renamed The Magic Show, premiered in May, 1974. The Magic Show ran on Broadway for more than four years, and Mr. Henning was nominated for a Tony Award. Two more Broadway shows followed, Merlin and Doug Henning's World of Magic, though neither matched the success of The Magic Show. Doug Henning married Debby Douillard in 1981. The couple lived in Los Angeles, where Doug Henning died after being diagnosed with liver cancer five months ago.

[Katie]

I didn't know he was gone.

[MorbidMolly]

He kind of creeped me out....

[Sock Puppet]

I really liked Doug Henning. Unfortunately later in life he fell for the "yogic flying" thing and discredited himself to a certain degree. He was a great magician though.

[Jack-O-Lantern]

Plus he had an overbite you could have cracked open a keg of Heineken with.

THAT'S what I remember about him...that overbite LOL !!! And he always seemed so HAPPY

[geekygirl]

I liked him alot better than David Copperfield. David doesn't even look like the same person anymore. He looks like he's had more work than Joan Rivers!

Yes, he does look like he's had work done! He has always creeped me out, saw him perform in person and I just got an aura of evil from him. And now the rape charge/investigation. Should be interesting.

[KCBee]

Not really familiar with Doug Henning, but I love David Copperfield. I find him very sexy.