Henning, Douglas James

▪ 2001

“Doug” 

      Canadian magician (b. May 3, 1947, Winnipeg, Man.—d. Feb. 7, 2000, Los Angeles, Calif.), helped revive interest in magic with his traveling act and a series of Broadway shows and television specials in the 1970s and early '80s. He was a master magician who reprised many of the sensational escape acts of Harry Houdini, his idol. Henning also brought a lighthearted approach to his craft, interjecting comedy into shows he typically performed while wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and jumpsuit. The Magic Show, a musical in which Henning mixed magic with rock music, opened on Broadway in 1974 and ran for four years. He returned to Broadway in the musical Merlin (1983) and a solo show, Doug Henning and His World of Magic (1984). His television specials, which aired yearly from 1975 to 1982, garnered one Emmy Award and seven Emmy nominations. He quit magic in the mid-1980s to devote himself to transcendental meditation.

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