March 2007

RichardHatch

Richard HatchPHOTO: JEFF GRASS

50 MUM March 2007

“The more a magician reads about magic,the more he realizes how much morethere is to learn and how many more

magic books there are to read.”

Robert Lund (1925-1995), FounderThe American Museum of Magic

The Accidental Magic Bookman

Born in California, raised in Germany, and edu-cated at Yale University, how did Richard Hatchwind up in oxymoronic Humble, Texas? And howdid this same fellow go from having a Master ofPhilosophy in Physics to being a respected magichistorian, German translator, and successful pub-lisher and book dealer in just a few years? “Mywife and parents would also like to know whathappened,” Richard says with a smile.

Richard Clawson Hatch was born May 24,1955 in Pasadena, California where his father,Eastman Nibley Hatch, was completing his doc-toral studies in nuclear physics at the renownedCalifornia Institute of Technology. When he wasjust three years old, the family moved to

Germany where his father worked for a clandes-tine branch of the U.S. Government for twoyears before completing a year of post-doctoralresearch at Heidelberg University. AttendingGerman kindergarten, Richard began to learn thelanguage at this early age, but it would not payoff until years later.

When Hatch was six years old, the familymoved back to the United States and to Ames,Iowa, when his father was offered a tenured posi-tion with the Physics Department of Iowa StateUniversity. In 1964, Richard received his intro-duction into magic when he was given a copyof The Golden Book of Magic by The GreatMerlini (Clayton Rawson). Soon, he was doing

March 2007 MUM 51

By Bill Palmer

quick wit and genial manner. Although he hadbeen invited for an afternoon Kafeeklatsch(coffee and cakes), no one wanted him to leaveand he stayed for dinner as well. When hesomehow managed to steal Frau Ettengruber’swatch off her wrist without anyone, least of allher, catching him, there seemed to be no limitto his powers of persuasion.” The fact thatRaxon spoke several languages fluently andbilled himself not as a magician, but as aTäuschungkünstler, a word he had coinedwhich literally means “perfomer of decep-tions,” also made a powerful impression.

Richard quickly lost interest in apparatusmagic and began to practice classical sleight ofhand. Henry Hay’s Amateur Magician’sHandbook became his bible. He began to pur-chase any magic books he could find, inGerman and English. Through Bora’s MagicStudio in Frankfurt, Richard was able to buysome back issues of The Linking Ring andbecame an I.B.M. member. He also attendedmonthly meetings of the local branch of theGerman Magische Zirkel in Frankfurt. And itwasn’t long before Hatch was giving paid per-formances: the first one at the U.S. ArmedForces elementary school’s Halloween festivaland another for a 12-year-old neighbor’s birth-day party.

One of the highlights of his stay in Germanywas attending a lecture on magic history givenby Alexander Adrion at the University ofFrankfurt. Richard had received Adrion’s bookZauberei Zauberei for Christmas, as well as thethen recently published first German edition ofRobert-Houdin’s memoirs, which Adrion hadedited. Adrion kindly signed both books andencouraged the youngster’s interest. Richardstill has the knots from the rope that was cut andrestored that evening.

Alexander Adrion was the intellectual faceof magic in Germany at the time, playing arole similar to that John Mulholland,Milbourne Christopher, and Ricky Jay havefilled here in America. Adrion was the man themedia would contact if they needed specialinformation about magic. He also performed ina style he called Kammermagie or “chambermagic,” which was to inspire some of Hatch’slater work.

At the end of his year in Germany, theEttengrubers gave Richard a farewell party atwhich Bora (Emil Weinbruch, not to be con-fused with Borra, the famous pickpocket) andhis assistant Tamara performed, as well as vis-iting American professional Roland Khan(Roland Hill) and his wife, who had been tour-ing military bases with a nightclub act. Hatchhas lost touch with Bora, but sees Roland Hillevery few years at the Los Angeles Conferenceon Magic History.

Upon his return to the United States,Richard’s interest in books had taken root andhis practice and performance of sleight-of-

magic shows in the basement for family andfriends, performing tricks gleaned from thebook. The climax of the show was the removalof brother Joe’s shirt to demonstrate that hisarms had been sawn through.

Richard enjoyed this kind of excitement. Anearly interest in hypnosis, which was encour-aged by maternal grandfather Calvin Clawson,DDS, led to playground experiments in mes-merism. However, a painless ear piercing of aclassmate during recess resulted in a banning ofhypnosis from Sawyer Elementary. and, saysHatch, “ended my career as a hypnotist.”

In 1966, he visited the Circle Magic Shop inNew York City, where he purchased a MilkPitcher and an E-Z Hat Loader, and with theaddition of the Color Changing Knives, aGrant’s Square Circle, Dove Pan, and miscella-neous other props that he would purchase fromLoftus Magic in Salt Lake City, he soon had arespectable show to present at family gatherings.

Christmas of 1968 brought a copy of HenryHay’s Cyclopedia of Magic and the bookencouraged Richard’s interest in magic’s liter-ature and its history. The fact that the leg-endary T. Nelson Downs was a native of near-by Marshalltown made a strong impression.

In the summer of 1969 the family movedone last time, from Ames to Logan, Utah,where his father had been appointed aProfessor of Physics at Utah State Universityand would later be Dean of the Graduate School.Although both his father and his mother, theformer Anne Clawson, had been born andraised in Salt Lake City, three of Richard’sgrandparents had been born and raised in ornear Logan in Utah’s Cache Valley, and hisHatch grandparents had been married in theMormon Temple there. According to Richard,“One of my great-grandfathers, Charles W.Nibley, a Mormon convert from Scotland,practiced polygamy (a common practice sanc-tioned by church teaching at the time) andhoused his three wives in different homes onthe same street. The homes were rumored to beconnected by tunnels, but I have not been ableto confirm the rumor as fact.”

After spending his ninth grade year inLogan, in the summer of 1970, the family wenton a camping trip in Europe, a journey thatproved a turning point for Richard’s progressas a magician. After traveling through Franceand Germany, Richard opted to remain inGermany a year and stay with family friends inNieder-Erlenbach, a village near Frankfurt.There he attended the Georg-BuechnerGymnasium in nearby Bad Vilbel and quicklygained a speaking and reading fluency inGerman. But more importantly, RuthEttengruber, the mother of the family withwhom he was staying, was so intrigued byRichard’s hobby of magic that she called alocal television studio and obtained the phonenumber of a professional magician, Fredo

Raxon, who lived in nearby Koenigstein imTaunus. She called Raxon and invited him tomeet with her visiting American guest. WhenRaxon accepted the invitation he became thefirst sleight-of-hand magician Richard had everexperienced at close quarters.

“Raxon arrived in a large Mercedes, whichmade an immediate impression,” Richardrecalls. “He was impeccably dressed and pulledeveryone into his circle of admirers with his

What this review in the Logan JuniorHigh student newspaper didn’t men-tion was young Richard’s tailcoatbelonged to his great uncle, HastingsClawson, who managed the secondDean of the S.A.M., FrederickEugene Powell.

52 MUM March 2007

hand magic began to flourish. After complet-ing the 11th grade he attended the 1972 I.B.M.convention in Buffalo, New York in June, stay-ing at a nearby Y.M.C.A. It was his first con-vention, so it made quite an impression. He sawEddie Fechter, Walter Cummings, and GeneGordon, and recalls that Tom Mullica was help-ing Duke Stern run the Abbott’s booth. ButRichard knew where the real magic was andspent most of his money with Phil Thomas andAnthony Vander Linden on books. The rest ofthe summer was spent at Phillips ExeterAcademy in Exeter, New Hampshire where hetook French (which he had begun to study injunior high), Russian (which he had studied inGermany), and acting. He performed in theschool talent assembly, his two big tricks beingProfessor Cheer’s Rope Trick and Slydini’sTorn-and-Restored Newspaper, another effecthe had learned from a book.

After graduating from Logan High Schoolin 1973, Richard spent the summer working inSalt Lake City, living with his grandparentsand learning the art of dice stacking fromSenator Crandall’s manuscript. He began thesummer staying with hismaternal grandparents, theClawsons, who found theconstant sound of the clat-tering dice rather annoy-ing, especially when tryingto watch their favorite tele-vision shows. So he movedin with his grandfatherHatch, who was not dis-turbed by the noise in his much larger home,allowing him to practice without restriction.

“I eventually acquired the knack of dicestacking,” says Hatch, “and though I havenever found a way to use it professionally, onone occasion I did find an opportune momentto showcase the fruits of my summer-longeffort. It was about 20 years later at a MartinNash lecture at Charlie McFarland’s house inKingwood, Texas. During a break Nash andanother magician were looking at Charlie’sdice stacking equipment. Neither of themcould get the dice to stack.” The excuses wentback and forth: “The surface is all wrong,”and, “The dice aren’t the right size for thecup.” Richard quietly took the cup, laid out thedice, and stacked them perfectly on the firsttry. He didn’t say a word. He knew when toquit! Once more, his study of a somewhatobscure manuscript had paid off.

Hatch left Logan to attend CarletonCollege in Northfield, Minnesota (the lasttown robbed by the infamous Jesse James) inthe fall of 1973. The following year he went toFrance to learn to perfect his French. A smallpart of the summer was spent in Lourdes,where he worked on the construction of a reli-gious themed wax museum. The Virgin Marywas to appear to Bernadette in the grotto scene

of the museum, and thanks to the Pepper’sGhost principle, she eventually did. Hatchonly lasted two weeks at that job, quittingwhen the Fiberglas that he was fashioning intoclouds around the wax figure of the ascendingJesus permeated his clothes to such a degreethat it made sleeping difficult.

The short stay in Lourdes, however, didgarner at least one new joke for Hatch’s slow-ly growing repertoire. When his French land-lord learned he was from Utah, he askedRichard if he knew the definition of“polygamy.” Hatch asserted that he did, but thelandlord volunteered in French that it meant“more than two wives.” The landlord thenasked if he knew the word for “two wives.”“Bigamy,” said Hatch. “And the word describ-ing just one wife?” asked the landlord. BeforeHatch could answer, he shouted out,“Monotony!”

After hitchhiking around France, includinga memorable visit to Blois, the birthplace ofRobert-Houdin, Richard traveled to England to“patch” roses in Peterborough. “I only lasted aweek,” he says, recalling his work grafting

rosebuds onto other plants, but it gave him arespect for migrant farm laborers. Moving onto London, he hung out at Davenport’s magicshop across from the British Museum, wherethe counter was manned by Patrick Page.Richard asked Page if they had a copy of T.Nelson Downs’ Art of Magic (which had notyet been reprinted by Dover) and Page disap-peared into the famous Davenport crypt andresurfaced with a copy that is still a treasuredpart of Hatch’s collection. Richard also made apilgrimage to Ken Brooke’s Studio, where hetried to purchase Fred Kap’s Floating andDancing Cork. But, Ken, in his inimitablemanner, refused to sell it to him.

By 1977, Hatch had graduated fromCarleton (which is also Barrie Richardson’salma mater) with a B.A. in Physics. Travelingback to Europe, he spent a year living inMadrid, both to learn Spanish and to learn thediscipline of writing. “I felt that if, at the endof year, I decided I was not a good writer, thediscipline I would have developed by theattempt of writing daily would serve me wellin other endeavors. Unfortunately, I did notdevelop the necessary discipline, and the liter-ary result of my year in Spain was single shortstory and a poem, both published in the localnewspaper in Logan, Utah. The cost of having

their copyright registered (to prevent futureembarrassment through unauthorized republi-cation!) was more than I was paid for havingwritten them.”

To support himself while in Spain, Richardtaught English privately. He deeply regrets thatat that time his obsession with magic was inremission, so he was unaware of the greatmagicians, such as Tamariz and Ascanio, whowere creating a revolution in close-up magic inMadrid at the time.

In 1979, Hatch returned to the States toenroll in graduate school at Utah StateUniversity, again studying Physics, but his realmotivation was to generate letters of recom-mendation to someplace more interesting. Itworked and, by 1980, he was accepted at thegraduate school of Yale in New Haven,Connecticut.

In the interim, he hitchhiked from SaltLake City to San Diego (in one day), andspent most of that summer in Toluca, Mexico,where he became more intimately acquaintedwith the techniques used by pickpockets thanhe would have liked, by having his pocket

picked by a “whiz mob” ata train station. Richardpatiently waited in line fora ticket and just as his turncame, a man pushed infront of him to buy his. “Iwas so mad at his rudenessin butting in front of methat I did not feel hisaccomplices take my wal-

let out of the front pocket of my jeans!” Theabsent wallet was immediately apparentwhen he went to pay for his ticket, but bythen the team had scattered in three directionswith a healthy head start. The misdirection,though crude and temporary, was effective.

Not long after arriving in New Haven tobegin his studies at Yale, Richard metRosemary Kimura, a graduate student in vio-lin at the Yale School of Music. He bought aninexpensive used violin and began to take les-sons from her. He also began actively to pur-sue his interest in sleight of hand, which hehad largely abandoned during his undergrad-uate studies. Curtis Kam, then a senior atYale, showed Richard many things that he’dmissed out on, as did Peter London, JonathanTownsend, Tom Prete, and Slydini, fromwhom he took one lesson. He still recallsSlydini’s advice when he asked him how tocover the exchange of the torn pieces for therestoration pieces at a crucial moment in hisnewspaper tear. Richard was expecting a bitof technical finesse, a way of holding thepieces and moving the hands that wouldresolve an awkward moment. Instead, Slydiniresponded with a single word, “Personality.”

He saw Richard Osterlind lecture on men-talism for magicians, which opened his eyes

March 2007 MUM 53

The Virgin Mary was to appear to Bernadettein the grotto scene of the museum, and

thanks to the Pepper’s Ghost principle, sheeventually did.

to new possibilities and led to their closefriendship. Hatch began taking weekly les-sons in card manipulation from JimmyBrockett and had regular visits with collectorChet Karkut. Dr. John Henry Grossman wasalso very encouraging to Richard, especiallywhen it came to collecting.

After a year at Yale, Richard arranged tospend the summer doing research in heavyion experimental physics in Darmstadt,Germany. While there, he tracked down theaddress of the man whose magic books had soinspired him, as well as countless other bud-ding magicians. Most Americans know himas Henry Hay, the author of The AmateurMagician’s Handbook, The Cyclopedia ofMagic, and Learn Magic. His real name wasJune Barrows Mussey, and he had also trans-lated Ottokar Fischer’s Das Wunderbuch derZauberkunst, published in America asIllustrated Magic in 1931. Mussey hadmoved from America to Germany in the1950s and settled there, becoming a highlyregarded advertising consultant. When Hatchsent a fan letter to Mussey, he received aphone call and invitation in return. That sum-

mer, Hatch met Mussey and his wife (whohad written a book on clay pot cooking underthe pen name Henrietta Hay) while they werevacationing in Austria. They conversed andsessioned at length. A few years later Richardwas invited to perform at a private dinnerparty at the Musseys’ home in Düsseldorf.Mussey was flattered that Hatch’s perform-ance featured several effects from his books.Unfortunately, Barrows Mussey passed awayjust a few days after the performance. “I liketo think it was just a coincidence,” saysHatch.

On December 31, 1983, Richard marriedRosemary Kimura. He stopped taking violinlessons.

Hatch dropped out of graduate school in1984 to do magic full time. “I tell people thatI decided that I would rather violate the lawsof nature than discover them,” he says. “Thetruth is, I find it easier.” Not knowing any-thing about the business of show business, ittook him some time to begin to obtain book-ings and build a reputation. “Sometimes, youcan be ‘too clever’ when it comes to advertis-ing,” Hatch says. “An early advertisement of

mine boasted ‘Sleight of Hand and Sleight ofMind Deceptions.’ Only later did a friendpoint out that ‘sleight of mind’ might easilybe misinterpreted as ‘slight of mind,’ imply-ing feeble mindedness!”

Hatch was inspired by Raxon’s Germanneologism to bill himself as a “deceptionist”rather than a mere “magician.” It stoppedpeople from asking, “What instrument do youplay?” But he now found them asking why hebecame a “receptionist”?

To fill the time between engagements,Hatch began translating Ottokar Fischer’s J.N. Hofzinser Zauberkünste, which was pub-lished in Berlin in 1942. He had first seen acopy of the book in the collection ofMilbourne Christopher, who had pointed outthe Hofzinser correspondence in the appen-dix. After determining the work was nolonger protected by copyright, Yale Libraryallowed Hatch to photocopy a copy of thebook that was borrowed for him through theinterlibrary loan system.

Richard views his Hofzinser translation ashis “dissertation” on magic, a project under-taken in lieu of doctoral work in Physics.Researching it took him to the Library ofCongress, which housed original correspon-dence and manuscripts of Hofzinser, as wellas some of his original apparatus; to theKlosterman Collection, then in Cincinnati,where there are also some importantHofzinser pieces; to the MulhollandCollection, which was then housed at thePlayer’s Club in Manhattan; to the RaphaelEllenbogen Collection in Brooklyn; and to H.Adrian Smith’s fabulous library now housedat Brown University, but then at his home inNorth Attleboro, Massachusetts. Finding apublisher was no easier than obtainingengagements, and Richard remains grateful toWalter Graham of Omaha, whose ModernLitho Company published his translation asThe Magic of J.N. Hofzinser in 1985.

In April 1984, Richard entered the secondNew England Close-up Magic Competition,sponsored by Assembly 16 in Worcester,Massachusetts. He placed third, behind BobGreenburg and Dave Cresey.

He also went to the Magic Collectors’Association weekend convention in Chicagothat year, traveling from Connecticut withLife President Dr. John Henry Grossman toDetroit, where they visited the StoyanMirkovich Collection, then spending anafternoon en route at Bob Lund’s incredibleAmerican Museum of Magic in Marshall,Michigan. The MCA weekend that year wasattended by Ricky Jay, Debbie and DougHenning, and Harry and Gay Blackstone,among others. Richard gave a lecture onHofzinser, and roomed with H. AdrianSmith, who became Dean of the S.A.M.shortly thereafter.

An early promotional photo for Chamber Magic featured Rosemary’s 1728Joannes Florenus Guidantus Violin and Richard’s 1986 Finn Jon Silver Stick.

54 MUM March 2007

In May 1984 Hatch attended a lecture byMike Caveney in Old Greenwich,Connecticut. In addition to enriching his reper-toire (Mike’s “Powers of Darkness Comes outof the Closet” is still a favorite), it affordedRichard the opportunity to meet Neil See, wholived nearby. Neil had retired after a successfulcareer on Wall Street and had built a fantasticlibrary, which he invited Richard to visit afterthe lecture. Not only was Richard impressedwith Neil’s library, but with his performingability. Neil had studied privately with Vernon,Frank Garcia, Francis Carlyle, and CharlieMiller, among others, and he continued tohone his performing skills. Neil tutoredRichard in the performance of two of hisfavorite effects, the Cups and Balls, and theGypsy Thread, and both remain cornerstonesof Richard’s performances.

Hatch now belonged to the Society ofAmerican Magicians, the Magic Collectors’Association, and he had reinstated his mem-bership in the I.B.M. At the 1984 S.A.MNational Convention in Las Vegas, thanks tothe generosity of Dr. Charles A. Preuss (LifeMember #1), and at the recommendation ofDr. John Henry Grossman and Past NationalPresident Bill Andrews, Richard becameS.A.M. Life Member #49.

In September of 1984, Richard andRosemary, along with pianist Thomas Martin,offered a joint program of magic and music atthe small Puppet House Theater in StonyCreek, Connecticut. Richard had taken actinglessons at the theater that summer and thedirector suggested he put on a full-eveningperformance there. Not feeling he had enoughsolo material to sustain a concert-style show,he suggested an evening of magic and music,featuring Rosemary as well. The director likedthe idea and the only obstacle then becameconvincing Rosemary to participate! She ini-tially balked at the idea of an alternating pro-gram of magic and music, but agreed to give ita try if they could come up with some ensem-ble pieces that combined their talents.

Richard and Rosemary’s first program wassimply called An Enchanted Evening and fea-tured only four ensemble pieces: a card manip-ulation sequence Richard had worked on withJimmy Brockett, climaxed by the productionof a single dove, accompanied by FritzKreisler’s Schön Rosmarin; Punx’s Heart ofGlass penetration frame presentation accom-panied by Saint-Saëns The Swan; the GypsyThread trick, re-titled The Miracle of theJadoo-Wallah, and accompanied by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherezade, and Vernon’sSymphony of the Rings, accompanied byKreisler’s Tambourin Chinois, which closedthe show. Solo magic and music alternated tofill the rest of the program.

Their opening Friday night performancewas competing with a free concert by Arlo

Chamber Magicwith

Richard Hatch, MagicRosemary Kimura, Violin

Celice Clark, Piano

“Reality consists of a thousand illusions” — Josef von Sternberg

Suite Italienne (Introduzione) Stravinsky

Schön Rosmarin KreislerLa Cartomanie Brockett

The Power of Suggestion Anderson

Danse Espagnole de Falla/Kreisler

The Aerial Treasury Robert-Houdin

The Invisible Visible Malini

The Powers of Darkness Corinda/Caveney

Obertass Mazurka Wieniawski

Le Cygne Saint-SaënsDas Gläserne Herz Punx

Intermission

The Rag-Time Dance JoplinL ’Escamoteur arr. by See

Überall und Nirgends Hofzinser

Liebesleid Kreisler

Tempus Fugit Annemann/ Adrion

Scheherezade Rimsky-KorsakovThe Miracle of the Jadoo-Wallah arr. by See

Tambourin Chinois KreislerLes Anneaux Chinois Vernon

Rumanian Dances BartókThe Silver Wand JonThe Butterflies arr. by Hatch

Monday evening, September 17, 1990

March 2007 MUM 55

Guthrie in nearby Guilford, Connecticut and,in retrospect, Richard says he would ratherhave been there himself! But the performancewent sufficiently well that they were encour-aged to try again, expanding their ensemblefeatures and renaming the show ChamberMagic. Because the printed programs featuredthe names of the musical composers, Hatchcredited the magical creators as well, listingPunx, Hofzinser, Vernon, Downs, Robert-Houdin, Brockett, Caveney, See, and others, asthose who had inspired his repertoire.

In the Spring of 1985 Richard again enteredthe New England Close-up Magic Competitionand this time won first place. Richard Osterlind

placed second, but Hatch says, “The only rea-son I won was because I had slept with one ofthe judges!” H. Adrian Smith had been hisroommate at the aforementioned MagicCollectors’ Weekend.

Richard and Rosemary continued to performChamber Magic, and that summer they werebooked as part of a summer music festival inGrenoble, France. Hatch then attended his firstF.I.S.M. in Madrid, and it was here where heexperienced the performances of René Lavand,Ascanio, Pepe Carroll, and Juan Tamariz, andrealized how much he had missed by not havingbeen active in magic while living in Madrid!

In late summer 1985, Richard and Rosemarymoved to Houston, Texas,where Rosemary enrolled inthe Shepherd School of Musicat Rice University. She hadbeen offered a rare opportunityto study with renowned concertviolinist and pedagogue SergiuLuca. For a violinist, this isvery much like being grantedpermission to study for anextended period with a masterlike Dai Vernon.

The local press quicklypicked up Hatch’s academicapproach to the art of magic.Within weeks of his arrivalthere was an article in theHouston Chronicle about theyoung magician who had justtranslated Hofzinser’s work intoEnglish. And as Rosemarymade music, Richard became anintegral part of Houston’s magiccommunity, becoming friendswith Charles Greene, Paul Dris-coll, Steve Burton, Banachek,Bill Palmer, Scott Hollings-worth, Walter Blaney, FrankPrice, Curt Miller, Mike T. andother pros in town. He alsobegan working at Magic Islandas one of the house magicians.

“Becky Blaney was enter-tainment director at MagicIsland and was kind enough tobook me to work one week in aroom that featured stand-upcomedy magicians. Unfortun-ately, the week I was to begin,management decided to remod-el the room as a banquet facili-ty. Since I had a contract,Becky shifted me to perform-ing close-up, which led tosteady employment there forseveral years. It was a fantastictraining ground and gave methe nightly performing experi-ences that remain at the core of

my close-up repertoire.”The city’s social climate was well suited to

Hatch’s performing skills. “Houston has a veryactive and socially conscious party scene. Onlya couple of months after our move, I performedat a private birthday party that rented out theentire Astrodome. Then I was flown to WestTexas to perform at an oil baroness’s companyChristmas party. Both were heady experiencesfor me, having never before experienced thatlevel of conspicuous consumption!”

Subsequent performances transportedRichard to venues as distant and exotic asBudapest, Hungary; Tapei, Taiwan; and EddieMurphy’s mansion in New Jersey for a NewYear’s Eve party, which was attended by SugarRay Leonard, Arsenio Hall (himself a formermagician), and numerous other celebrities.

Although he and Rosemary performedChamber Magic at a private event attended byformer president George Bush, Richard wasmore impressed with the audience in Las Vegas,when the local arts council sponsored their pro-gram. In attendance were Mike Skinner, LarryJennings, and Gordon Bruce, all of whose tech-niques Richard used in his version ofHofzinser’s Everywhere and Nowhere in thatperformance. On another memorable occasion,Dr. Persi Diaconis attended a lecture Richardgave on Hofzinser for the Goethe Society inBoston. A Chamber Magic performance atHope College in Holland, Michigan was attend-ed by Bob and Elaine Lund, Dan Waldron, andDavid and Anita Meyer.

Rosemary, meanwhile, had begun perform-ing as a core member of Houston’s GrandOpera, and as a substitute member of theHouston Symphony. In August 1987, a daugh-ter, Catherine Elizabeth Hatch, was born. She iscurrently a sophomore at Smith College inMassachussetts (but spending this semester atthe University of Grenoble in France). And inOctober of 1989, son Jonathan David Hatchwas born. He is currently a junior at HumbleHigh School and is a talented pianist and jug-gling enthusiast.

Although Richard and Rosemary still giveoccasional performances of Chamber Magic,and even jointly attended Bob Fitch’s 2002Performance Workshop in Canada (“A fantas-tic experience that forced me to rethink thefundamentals of performing!” says Richard),they no longer tour and only give occasionalperformances together nowadays. Richardcontinues to give solo platform and close-upperformances and Rosemary teaches violinprivately in addition to her solo and chambermusic engagements. If they do decide to startperforming together more regularly, they’lllikely do so under a different name. “Myfriend Steve Cohen has had deservedly greatsuccess with his own wonderful performancesunder the name ‘Chamber Magic.’ So ratherthan risk marketplace confusion, we’d most

Cover photo of a promotional brochure printedin 1984, when Hatch made the decision to pur-sue the practice of prestidigitation rather thanstudy physics.

56 MUM March 2007

likely rename what we do.” In the late 1980s, thanks to referrals from

Walter Blaney, Richard purchased the librariesof deceased Houston magicians SigmarHofeller and Glenn Davison. He was also lend-ing books to close-up magician friend and com-puter expert Charlie Randall. With the commongoal of growing theirmagic libraries, at somepoint the two realizedthat if they purchasedbooks in quantity, theycould get them at whole-sale prices. In most cases,they could purchase justthree books, get them at asizeable discount, leav-ing one left over to sell.They soon found them-selves surrounded by asurplus and decided tomake up a list. At thenext Texas Association ofMagicians conventionthey showed up withboxes of books and letpeople come up to theirhotel room where theycould browse through thepriced books. A mailinglist was next, they tookout small ads in magicmagazines, and soonHatch and Randall had areputation as the guys togo to for hard-to-findmagic books.

When Charlie and Richard jointly purchasedthe library of Wayne Raeke in 1990, it was theformal beginning of H&R Magic Books asdealers of second hand books. One thing led toanother, and soon they were acquiring collec-tions from people who wanted to get rid of theirlibraries or widows who needed to dispose oftheir husband’s accumulations. Subsequently,they purchased the magic libraries of S.A.M.past national president Jim Zachary and notedauthors Bill Severn and Martin Gardner.

They also acquired the book co-op thatmagic dealer Bill Whittington established atGolden Gate Magic, which included his mailinglist and contacts with publishers. Then, in 1994,they purchased the massive book inventory ofMickey Hades’ shop in Seattle. Up until thatpoint, they had been working out of their hous-es. Now, with a huge truckload of books on itsway, they had to lease some warehouse spaceand officially set up shop.

In 1998, H&R Magic Books became pub-lishers, thanks to Charlie Buckner, who intro-duced Richard and Charlie to German mentalistSatori. His book on contact mind reading,Making Contact, became H&R’s first title. JerrySadowitz put them in touch with the popular

British magical performer Derren Brown, whoallowed them to publish his Pure Effect andAbsolute Magic in America. They would go onto publish books by Joseph Atmore, WalterPharr, Pit Hartling (who was raised in Nieder-Erlenbach, the German village where Richardlived for a year), Howard Adams, Robert Neale,

Arthur Moses, Christopher Taylor, BobCassidy, and Paul Potassy.

In the summer of 1999, prior to their pur-chase of his library, Martin Gardner sent H&Rhis first edition copy of S.W. Erdnase’sacclaimed Expert at the Card Table, unsolicitedand uninsured! They had never had a first edi-tion copy for sale, nor did they have personalcopies of the first edition, and the only price ref-erence they could find was the auction sale ofRichard’s friend Neil See’s copy by SwannGalleries in May 1990 for $1870. After consult-ing with Gardner, they decided to offer his copyon eBay. Martin suggested that it might attractmore interest if he included his source materialsrelating to his quest for the mysterious author.This included his correspondence with MarshallD. Smith, the illustrator of the book whomGardner had tracked down in Chicago in 1946,and Edgar Pratt, a magician and gambler whoultimately led Gardner to conclude that gamblerMilton Franklin Andrews (1872-1905) hadauthored the book.

In reading the correspondence betweenGardner and Smith, Hatch was struck by thediscrepancies between Smith’s consistentrecollection of the author as a short man inhis early 40s, and the fact that Milton

Franklin Andews was quite a tall man (wellover 6 feet) in his late 20s.

Magician and author David Alexander hadmentioned to Hatch that he had discovered thetrue identity of the author of Expert at the CardTable. Alexander claimed it was not anyone themagic community had heard of, though he

would not tell Hatch whoit was. But he had hintedthat whoever wrote thebook exhibited such skillin doing so that he musthave been an experiencedwriter, so Hatch resolvedto follow Alexander’slead and search out othercandidates. Hatch quicklyfound one James DewittAndrews, who seemed tofit the known facts, beingthe author of several“treatises” all publishedin Chicago during thetime Erdnase was rumor-ed to have been activethere. Hatch assumed hehad discovered Alexan-der’s candidate for theman who was Erdnase,but was to soon find outthat was not the case.

Both Hatch andAlexander presentedback-to-back lectures onthe Erdnase identity ques-tion at the November

1999 Conference on Magic History. Alexanderrevealed his candidate to be a mining engineernamed Wilbur Edgerton Sanders, and wrote afull report on his reasoning in the January 2000issue of Genii magazine.

Hatch, meanwhile, had stumbled on yetanother candidate, Edwin Sumner (E. S.)Andrews, who made an even better circumstan-tial candidate than James Dewitt Andrews had.While he believes that none of the current can-didates, including an intriguing new one pro-posed by Todd Karr, can conclusively be shownto have written the book, Hatch remains opti-mistic that the mystery will someday be solved.“In someone’s attic,” Richard says, “there is afirst edition copy signed by the author or someother clue waiting to be discovered.”

An article by Hatch entitled “Searching forErdnase” that appeared in the December 1999issue of MAGIC helped draw further attentionto the pending eBay sale of Gardner’s copy ofErdnase. In fact when the book sold for justover $10,000 that February, it was bought bysomeone who had learned of the auction fromthe article in MAGIC.

In addition to his interest in Erdnase, Hatchhas investigated the activities of German magi-cians during the Third Reich period, finding that

March 2007 MUM 57

A montage of mentors:Fredo Raxon [above] wasthe first in 1970, JimmyBrockett (shown with wifeLucy) tutored Hatch incard manipulation, andBarrows Mussey (a.k.a.Henry Hay) and Alex-ander Adrion, shown to-gether in a 1982 IrvingDesfor photo, were inspi-rational through their writ-ings and encouragement.

the magic community mirroredsociety as a whole, with politicsovershadowing even the worldof pleasant deceptions. His ar-ticle “Kalanag and the Vanish-ing Banknotes” in the July 1998issue of MAGIC summarizedsome of his research into thecareer of Helmut Schreiber, theGerman film producer who per-formed as Kalanag. Hatch’scurrent translation project —Günther Damman’s Die Judenin der Zauberkunst (Berlin1933), a collection of short bio-graphies of Jewish magicians bya Jewish scholar who perishedin the Holocaust — continuesthat research. Richard’s mostrecently published translation(again, from German) is TheMagic of Paul Potassy by UweSchenk and Michael Sonder-meyer, published in 2005 byH&R Magic Books.

Although he has writtenarticles for MAGIC, Genii,Magicol, Yankee Collector, andPerennial Mystics, and is acolumnist for the German periodical MagischeWelt that is published by Wittus Witt, Richardfeels that his most lasting contribution to theliterature of magic will likely be his translationof the first four volumes of Roberto Giobbi’sCard College, an encyclopedic course insleight-of-hand card magic. Giobbi praisedRichard’s translation, saying, “Collaboratingwith a man who has translated the works ofViennese genius Johann Nepomuk Hofzinsergave this task an almost mythical flavor forme.” Richard, however, feels that publisherStephen Minch deserves the lion’s share of anycredit for the work’s literary qualities inEnglish, having taken his translation and pol-ished it to its current form.

Over the past three or four years, some ofHatch’s most interesting pieces of writing haveappeared on the Internet. No, he doesn’t main-tain a blog site, where he spews forth in diary-like fashion his random thoughts on the past,present, and future of the art. Instead, Hatchoccasionally pops onto the Internet, most oftenon the Genii Forum, with some of the mostinformative posts imaginable. For the most part,his posts are insightful and incisive answers tosomeone’s request for the provenance of asleight, the inventor of an effect, or the birth ordeath date of a particular performer of yore.Sometimes his posts can be lengthy and filledwith minutia if, say, he’s identifying a Germanmagician performing during World War II orprofiling a possible acquaintance of Erdnase.And other times the posts are laconic and witty,like when he’s sharing a gossipy bit of behind-

the-scenes magic news. In May of 2005, when John Moehring made

the decision to accept the S.A.M.’s offer tobecome the new editor of M-U-M, one of thefirst people he called was Richard Hatch. And itwas not because he wanted the news of his newjob spread throughout magicdom. Instead, hewanted to talk Richard into becoming one ofwriters who would assist with the makeover ofM-U-M and help him take the magazine into thenew directions he was planning. Moehring hadworked with Hatch during the years he editedMAGIC, and having appointed him as both acontributing editor and a regular book reviewer,he was more than appreciative of Richard’scapabilities as a relentless researcher and awriter who could meet deadlines. JonRacherbaumer was already on board to writeand edit the tutorial material. Moehring neededHatch to be M-U-M’s associate editor.

That July, after John’s editorship wasannounced at the S.A.M. convention in Boston,he flew to Houston to meet with Richard. Sincethey had agreed in principle that Richard wouldserve as associate editor, it only took a hand-shake to make it official and they spent the restof the day developing game plans. “And whileI’m still not sure what the associate editordoes,” Richard says, “I figure if I do it longenough, someday I may know what it is that Ido. One of the primary benefits of being a LifeMember in the S.A.M. is a lifetime subscriptionto M-U-M, so from the start, I was excited bythe prospect of increasing the value of that ben-efit to all members. Other primary tangible ben-

efits of membership are the fellowship ofmonthly meetings and the annual convention.I feel the magazine should reflect those bene-fits as well. It should be like getting a conven-tion in your mailbox every month!”

From the time Richard was six years old andgiven that copy of The Golden Book of Magicby The Great Merlini, to the years in Germanywhen he sought the friendships of writers andteachers Alexander Adrion and BarrowsMussey, to his masterful translations of TheMagic of J.N. Hofzinser and the four volumes ofRoberto Giobbi’s Card College, it’s plain to seethat Richard’s interests in magic have beeninfluenced by the written word. He has experi-enced and continues to realize a performingcareer that remains inspired by his studies of theliterature. He has managed to amass one of thefiner collection of books on the art, craft, andhistory of magic — proving it is a fallacy thatthe biggest magic libraries are put together bypeople who can’t make it as performers. Andunlike those magical bibliophiles who spendtheir years buying, buying, and buying, Mr.Hatch stumbled onto a way to grow and sustainhis collection by actually selling some of thebooks he was purchasing.

Hatch is fond of quoting his favorite Beatle,the late John Lennon: “Life is what happenswhile you’re making other plans.” Lookingback, that decision to forego a career as a physi-cist and become a professional magician mayhave been calculated and by design, but it wasserendipity that prevailed the day RichardHatch became the accidental magic bookman.

58 MUM March 2007

Richard Hatch and his bookselling and publishing partner, Charlie Randall, bookend H&R Magic Books’ hardback publications to date.

PHO

TO: S

CO

TT W

ELLS