Mandrake the Magician

A lot of people know Mandrake the Magician as a comic book protagonist, but the real Mandrake grew up in New Westminster and raised his family in Surrey.

To celebrate Leon Mandrake’s 62-year career enthralling audiences with magic and mind-bending performances as a ventriloquist, stuntman, mentalist and illusionist, his son Lon Mandrake, also a magician, teamed up with Museum of Surrey, in February 2021, to display memorabilia about his father’s notable career including:

• Magical tools of the trade that belonged to Mandrake the Magician, including decks of cards, his magic wand and a crystal ball to name a few
• Posters from performances
• Comics, figurines and ephemera from that era
• Performance costumes belonging to Mandrake the Magician and his assistant, Lon’s mom Velvet.

The comic book character “Mandrake the Magician” was created by Leon Mandrake’s comic book artist friend ten years after he started performing. The comic book character mimics Mandrake’s top hat, pencil moustache and scarlet cape.

“Magicians were like rock stars in the 1930s and 1940s, filling stadiums with crowds of fans,” said Jessie McLean, assistant curator at the Museum of Surrey.

Mandrake began his own vaudeville career in 1922 at the Edison, at the age of 11. He retired in 1985. When he died in 1993 at the age of 82, his wake was held in the theatre, which had been renamed the Paramount.

Leon played the PNE 16 years in a row, but also travelled all over North America — all four of his and his wife Louise’s children were born on the road in the U.S. — as a magician, ventriloquist, stunt performer, mentalist and illusionist, appearing in night clubs, theatres, even stadiums.

And like today, a pandemic in the 1950s (poliovirus) forced live shows to be cancelled.